Uṣūl al-Dīn (The Fundamentals of the Faith)

This study presents, in Arabic original and in a close English translation, one of the earliest statements of the fundamentals of the faith of the Ibāḍiyya movement of Islam. Although in continuous existence since the earliest decades following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, adherents to this belief system have generally not played major political or military roles in the history of the Arab world. Their faith has, as a consequence, received remarkably little attention from scholars both Muslim and Western. The work entitled Kitāb Uṣūl al-dīn is an important Ibāḍi theological treatise. Its author, Tibghūrīn b. Dāwūd b. ʿĪsā al-Malshūṭī; native of the Djabal Nafūsa (Libya), lived in the second half of the fifth century (12th century BCE). This author enjoys a very high reputation among the Ibāḍi community of the Maghrib. Indeed, the Kitāb Uṣūl al-dīn has been the subject of many commentaries and glosses, and the main questions of Muslim theology are addressed. The book aims to highlight the foundations (uṣūl) of religion from which, according to the author, the community has divided into rival “paths” and divergent sects. The order followed is that of the great questions of Muslim theology and, for the first ten questions, the five theses: tawḥīd; ʿadl; waʿd and waʿīd; manzila, amr and nahy. The Quran is the basis of Tibghūrīn’s argument. There is no chapter where it is not quoted abundantly (in total 247 citations). The unity of Tibghūrīn’s book is based on the fundamental principle of tawḥīd (divine oneness) from which all articles of faith flow and tanzīh (dissimilarity of God and the creature), as well as on original fidelity to ijmāʿ. The credo of Tibghūrīn offers, in continuity with that of his predecessors, through a structured and balanced treaty, a global view of Ibāḍi theology of his time, on the basis of solid scriptural and rational argumentation.