The Muslim's Belief

Translator's Foreword

I gave the book the title The Muslim's Belief instead of the author's Aqidatu Ahl As Sunnah wa al Jama'ah, which may be translated as The Creed of the People of the Sunnah and Majority. I think my preference is justified by: a) The title I preferred is shorter; b) The two titles have almost the same meaning; c) The original title contains some technical terms that are not only difficult to translate, but also difficult to understand by many readers; and d) The original title may antagonise some readers who are misinformed about the true designations of the words in the original title.I found this treatise of the Muslim's creed a concise and useful presentation of a very important topic. The need for this treatise, especially among non-Arabic speaking readers, cannot be overestimated. Therefore, I decided to translate it and make it accessible to English readers. I would like to draw the attention of the readers to the following points:

1. I provided, in parentheses after every Qur'anic verse, the numbers of chapters and verses quoted by the author without giving their proper reference. This I deemed useful for readers who do not know the Qur'an by heart and who would like to check these verses.
2. Because the author, in most cases, quotes or paraphrases some of the prophetic traditions without indicating them to the readers, I tried, whenever I could recognise these traditions, to put them in quotations and to cite in parentheses the prophetic collections in which they are reported. In most cases, I limited myself to the collections of Bukhari and Muslim whenever the saying is quoted from them. If it is not in these two collections, I mention one or two of the other collections that contain the quoted saying.
3. I provided the arrangement of the text into chapters and headlines for ease of reading and understanding. I also provided a table of contents for ease of reference.
4. In translating the Qur'anic verses quoted in this treatise, I did not follow any specific translation of the Qur'an. I benefited from more than one, but followed my own preference.

It is my sincere desire and hope that this book would be of great help to those who consult it. Please include in your prayer all those who contributed to its present shape.

Dr. Maneh Hammad al-Johani