The 32 Lines That Describe The Creed Of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamā’ah

A Mirror For Your Life (Ibn Taymiyyah’s Poem Of Creed) – A Call To Honest Self-accounting InSha’Allah.

On the Qur’an (lines 9–18)

“Disgrace for the one who threw the Qur’ān behind his back — and when asked to provide evidence, says, ‘al-Akhtal said!'”

You recite the Qur’an, or perhaps from your heart — but are you reading it like a parrot, or letting it penetrate and change you?

On Hajj & ‘Umrah (lines 21–26)

“I affirm the Scales and the Pool… the Bridge extended over Hellfire — one made safe, another forsaken.”

Visiting the House of Allāh is a blessing. But the visit does not lift your obligations — ribā, neglected prayers, or broken duties do not dissolve at the Mīqāt.

On the grave (lines 27–28)

“Every mentally sound living person will have in his grave his deeds to accompany him — and for which he will be questioned.”

Not your labels. Not your lineage. Not your followers. Not your Peers, Mawlaanas and the TikTokers, social media public personas. Your deeds alone will be your companion in that narrow place.

A special note on travel for women/free-mixing face-to-face applies equally to online and digital spaces.

The poem reminds us to transmit the deen “just as the first and best of generations have transmitted” (lines 13–14) — without explaining it away. On the question of travel, the women of the Pious Predecessors did not depart on journeys, tourism, or ‘Umrah without a mahram. This was not a cultural tradition or a regional custom — it was a practice rooted in explicit prophetic instruction.

“A woman must not travel except with a mahram, and a man must not enter upon her unless a mahram is with her.”

Sahīh al-Bukhāri 1862 · Sahīh Muslim 1341 — narrated by Ibn ‘Abbās (رضي الله عنهما)

The scholars of all four madhabs — whose creed this poem enshrines — held this ruling. Travelling for leisure, tourism, or even ‘Umrah without a mahram is not a matter of modern necessity or personal freedom; it is a departure from the way of the Salaf that this poem calls us to. If you claim their path, their example for women is part of it.

THE POEM IN FULL — Ibn Taymiyyah (رحمه الله)

• 01–02: Oh, one who asks about my doctrine and creed — certainly, bestowed with guidance is he who asks for guidance.
• 03–04: Listen to the speech of one who has ascertained the truth of his statement — without departing from it nor replacing it with something else.
• 05–06: Loving the Companions, all of them, is for me a doctrine — and love of the nearest ones, the Ahl al-Bayt, do I seek as a means of nearness to Allāh.
• 07–08: And every one of them has a station and a shining excellence — however, amongst them Abū Bakr al-Siddeeq is the most excellent.
• 09–10: And I say regarding the Qur’ān only that which has come in its verses — for it is the Noble Revelation.
• 11–12: And I say, “Allāh the Mighty and Majestic said” — and likewise “the Chosen One said” — and I do not explain away their speech.
• 13–14: And all the verses of the attributes, I pass them on in truth — just as the first and best of generations have transmitted, without explaining them away.
• 15–16: And I return the obligatory responsibility towards them to those who transmitted them intact — and I protect them from all that is imagined with respect to their realities.
• 17–18: Disgrace for the one who threw the Qur’ān behind his back — and when asked to provide evidence, says, “al-Akhtal the Christian said!”
• 19–20: And the Believers will see their Lord in Truth in the Hereafter — and to the heaven does He descend without designating a how.
• 21–22: And I affirm the Scales and the Pool — which I hope to be amongst those whose thirst will be quenched by it.
• 23–24: And likewise the Bridge extended over Hellfire, over which all will pass — so either one made safe and delivered, or another forsaken who will fall.
• 25–26: And the wretched one will be burned in the Fire by Divine wisdom — and likewise by Divine wisdom the pious one will enter Gardens.
• 27–28: And every mentally sound living person will have in his grave his deeds to accompany him — and for which he will be questioned.
• 29–30: This is the creed of al-Shāfi’ee and Mālik — and Abū Hanīfah and then Ahmad, which has been transmitted.
• 31–32: So if you follow their path, then success has been granted to you — and if you innovate, then no support whatsoever do you have.

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