Regarding The Dawaa’ir Al-Aqaa’id of Shaykh Uthman Dan fodio
The Dawā’ir al-‘Aqā’id fī Mukhtaṣar Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid (The Domains of Doctrines of Belief Regarding A Summary of the Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid) of Shehu ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī (1754–1817), as the name suggest, is an abridgment of the famous and very extensive Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid Mimmā Bihī Tuḥaṣṣalu al-‘Aqā’id of the mujaddid Shaykh Abū al-‘Abbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Zakarī al-Manawī al-Maghrawī al-Tilimsānī [d. 900 A.H.]; a widely studied work throughout north and west Africa.
The fame and acceptance of the Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid was so widespread in Muslim Africa, that Shehu ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī studied it repeatedly along with its famous commentary the Mukhtaṣar Niẓām al-Farā’id wa Mabdi al-Fawā’id Li Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid by Imam Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Abdurahman al-Manjūr [d. 995 A.H.].
Shehu Uthman made repetitive penetrating, deep and exhaustive studies of the Muhaṣṣal, with its commentary; reading them with four of his teachers: [1] his maternal uncle Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Hamm ibn Aal; [2] his maternal uncle Muhammad Sanbu ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullahi ibn Ahmad ibn Hamm ibnAal; [3] his maternal cousin Muhammad al-Farabri ibn Muhammad ibn Hamal ibn Ahmad ibn Hamm ibn `Aal; and [4] with Shaykh Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ghari.
After studying the Muhaṣṣal extensively with the above scholars, Shehu ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī then composed this abridgement called Dawā’ir al-‘Aqā’id fī Mukhtaṣar Muhaṣṣal al-Maqāṣid (The Domains of Doctrines of Belief Regarding the Summary of the Attained Objectives) which he arranged in three domains (dawā’ir) in thirty-one stanzas.
This Dawā’ir al-‘Aqā’id is a poem (urjūza) by Shehu ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī, the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate that he composed during the mid period of his Islamic revival (tajdīd) and reform in the central Bilad al-Sudan. The poem is a defense of orthodox Ash’arī/Māturīdi theology; reflecting Sunni kalām positions, especially on belief (īmān), reason and revelation, and the status of the ordinary believer.
This was part of his larger project to standardize Islamic learning across the central Bilad al-Sudan prior to and after the consolidation of the Sokoto Caliphate. This poem played a major role in the social-religious reform, the Shehu initiated in 1774 in the realm of `aqīda; and constitutes one of more than fifty books he composed on the subject.
Throughout the forty-three years from the Shehu’s humble preaching and writing to his establishment of one of the most advanced Islamic polities in the history of Africa, he continued to instruct the common people, the students and the scholars on the intricacies of Divine unity (tawḥīd), doctrines of belief (aqā’id) and speculative theology (kalām). During the course of his tajdīd movement, he sought to purify Islam from syncretism, theological ignorance and out right paganism in West Africa.
This poem reflects his effort to systematize belief for both scholars and commoners, balancing intellectual rigor with accessibility.
The poem is structured in the form of domains (dawā’ir); an instructional method typical of scholarly works in the Sokoto tradition; and deals with the core questions of the science of scholastic theology or theological dialectics (‘ilm al-kalām), particularly concerning faith, reason, and the obligations of different classes of Muslims regarding this science.
The Shehu’s use of the “domain” (dā’irat) structure made complex theology teachable in a memorable, poetic form, suitable for dissemination in madrasas and among the public.
The Dawā’ir al-`Aqā’id is an example of the Shehu’s capacity as mujaddid to socially stratify the sciences of Islam to meet the needs of a diverse population. One of the key themes of the poem is to differentiate between the obligations of the learned elite and the mostly illiterate masses. This allowed the Shehu to promote scholarly depth without excluding the illiterate from the salvation of knowledge. This was a pragmatic approach in the largely non-literate society of the pre-jihad Hausa states.
In the quest to transform the central Bilad al-Sudan, the Shehu had to tackle the vast ignorance which infected Hausaland in the field of theology, as well as confront the extremism and fanaticism in doctrines of belief from hardline Ash’arites from Agadez, and the neo-Kharijites influence from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Dawā’ir al-`Aqā’id was one of many prose and poems the Shehu composed to discourage unnecessary theological debates among amateur students and commoners, which could lead to the kind of social division he was attempting to eradicate.
The simplicity of the Dawā’ir al-`Aqā’id proves that the science of ‘ilm al-kalām is not just academic; it is a tool for strengthening collective communal belief against paganism, syncretism and heresy, thereby undergirding the political and spiritual legitimacy of the social transformation of the central Bilad al-Sudan. The poem is a theological manual in verse, designed to fortify correct belief (‘ʿaqīdah) across the pre-jihad and post-jihad Sokoto Caliphate.
The poem reflects Shehu ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī’s reformist vision: merging rigorous Islamic scholarship with broad-based religious inclusion, structured education, and social harmony; all essential to his tajdīd and social transformation of the central Bilad al-Sudan.
Shaykh Muhammad Shareef bin Farid
Sunday 24th Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1447
[12-14-2025]
Bamako, Mali
