Manuscript > ‘Aqā'id al-nasafī

Detail Information

Title: ‘Aqā'id al-nasafī
Full Title: ‘Aqā'id al-nasafī
Author: Najm al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ‘Umar ibn Muḥammad al-Nasafī
Place, Date of Birth: None, 1068
Place, Date of Dead: None, 1142
Place of Activity: None
Language: Arabic
Script: Arabic
Subject Matter: Theology
Genre: Prose
Date of Autograph (century): 16
Found in : Cureton, 1843; Macdonald, 1903; Schacht, 1931; Elder, 1950; Al-Attas 1988.
Notes:

This ‘Aqā'id deals with philosophical statements on the real essences of things, on the possibility of knowledge, on the objectivity of knowledge, on the cause of knowledge, on the atomistic metaphysics of substance and accident and the continuous creation in the explanation of the theory of the universe, and on the nature of God and on man's self (al-Attas 1988: 47).

This work is written by al-al-Nasafī, one of the greatest Sunnī and Ḥanafī jurisconsult and theologian belonging to the School of al-Māturidī (d. 333/944). The text became popular throughout the Muslim world and many copies of it were written and commented upon (GAL I, 427; SI, 758), and the most famous commentary of the work is the one by Sa ‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī (830-907/1427-1501) completed at Khwārizm in 768/1364 (Al-Attas 1988: 7, Parmaksizoglu 1984 II:71, Shelfmark 34 Dev. Mer 353-19020). 

In the context of the Malay word, this work has been anonymously translated into Malay, whose the date corresponds to Saturday, February 10th, 1590. According to al-Attas (1988), the Malay translation of this ‘Aqā'id of al-Nasafī could be regarded as the oldest known Malay manuscript so far. In addition, a Malay translation of al-Taftāzānī's commentary was done by Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī (d. 1068/1658) some time before 1637 perhaps in Pahang, entitled Durrat al-Farā'id bi Sharḥ al-‘Aqā'id.