Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Usul al-Din (fundamentals of the religion)

أصول الدين

Usul al-din is the term for what Muslims believe and hold as religion before their Lord; commentators on the Tahawiyya explain the text's purpose as 'setting out what they believe in the fundamentals of the religion and hold before the Lord of the worlds' 1.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

Creed

Overview

Usul al-din is the term for what Muslims believe and hold as religion before their Lord, and the conventional title of creedal works. Commentators on the Tahawiyya explain the text's purpose as 'setting out what they believe in the fundamentals of the religion and hold before the Lord of the worlds' 1.

Opposite it stand the furu' al-din, the practical rulings; on this terminology creedal texts such as al-Baghdadi's Usul al-Din are named.

People and things also explored

The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin· The hereafter: the grave, resurrection and reckoning· Islamic eschatology· Reason and heart· The Throne (al-Arsh)· Al-din al-qayyim (the upright religion)· Absolute unseen (al-ghayb al-mutlaq)· «Be, and it is» (kun fa-yakun): creation by command, not by a mould

Sources

  1. Sharh al-Tahawiyya, Ibn Abi al-Izz al-Hanafi (Dar al-Hadith, Cairo)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Usul al-Din (fundamentals of the religion)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/usul-al-din/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin

al-Tahawi's principle of calling the people of the qibla Muslims and believers so long as they accept what the Prophet brought, and of not declaring any of them an unbeliever for a sin unless he declares it lawful.