Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
Islamic law has made it obligatory for those who are legally accountable to know Allah The Almighty, as He says {what means}: "So know that there is no deity but Allah." (Muhammad, 19), and as Allah The Almighty says {what means}: "Know that Allah gives life to the earth after its death. We have made the signs clear to you so that you may understand." [Al-Hadid, 17].
For the Mukallaf, knowing Allah is fulfilled by affirming His necessary attributes of perfection, and negating from Him what is impossible, which are the attributes of deficiency. It also involves accepting the permissibility of His actions, such as creating and annihilating, giving life and death, and bringing about creation and resurrection. Allah The Almighty says {what means}: “And that to your Lord is the finality; and that it is He who makes [one] laugh and weep; and that it is He who causes death and gives life” [Al-Najm, 42-44].
The author of Jawharat al-Tawhid (The Jewel of Divine Unity) states:
"For everyone who is Islamically accountable, it is obligatory
To know what is necessary for Allah,
What is permissible and what is impossible,
And likewise for His messengers, so listen attentively."
The essential knowledge that is required of a Mukallaf is achieved by reflecting and contemplating on the signs of Allah and the magnificence of His creation. Through this reflection, one attains correct understanding of the Creator. This process of contemplation is obligatory, as the means to achieving a required duty itself becomes obligatory. Allah commands this kind of reflection in the Quran, as He says {what means}: “Do they not look at the camels, how they are created?” [Al-Ghashiyah, 17]. Imam Al-Taftazani explained that reflection and contemplation (nazar) are obligatory because acquiring knowledge is mandatory by Islamic law. He stated: “The absolute obligation is knowledge, and every achievable action that is necessary to fulfill the absolute obligation becomes obligatory by Islamic law.”
The term Mukallaf (accountable person) refers to any individual who is both mentally sound (‘aqil) and has reached the age of maturity (baligh), regardless of their specific characteristics. This means that both men and women are equally obligated to know Allah and to engage in the reasoning that leads to this knowledge. Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni explains in Nihayat al-Matlab: "People in Islam are divided into two categories: those who are accountable and those who are not. The accountable is the one who is both mentally sound and has reached maturity, whether they are free or enslaved, male or female. Their Islam is valid by their own acceptance, and it is inconceivable that they would follow someone else in their Islam"
Sheikh al-Bayjuri stated: "Every mukallaf (accountable person): meaning, every individual who is accountable, whether male or female"
It should be noted that the scholars did not require the believer to engage in detailed contemplation or logical arrangement of proofs and issues. Rather, they only obligated general reflection, which the common people among the accountable individuals naturally possess. All of them, in their own way and according to their capacity, infer the existence of Allah within themselves, even if they do not verbalize it. If we hypothetically imagine an accountable person who has never reflected at all but was purely following others (taqlid), scholars consider such a person to be negligent in some of the secondary obligations. However, they still consider them a sinful believer. Al-‘Adud al-Iji indicated the sufficiency of general reflection by stating: "Whoever truly believes is considered to have knowledge of all these matters, even if they do not refine or articulate the proofs. This refinement is not a condition for knowledge or avoiding imitation."
Based on this, every accountable individual, whether male or female, must know Allah by understanding the necessary attributes that are due to Him. These include His existence, eternality, permanence, oneness, and His transcendence above the attributes of creation. It also includes His being characterized by knowledge, will, power, hearing, seeing, speech, and life, as well as being free from the attributes of bodies and contingent qualities such as limits, ends, directions, change, movement, and similar characteristics. Additionally, they must know the prophets with the necessary attributes that belong to them, such as truthfulness, trustworthiness, conveying the message, and intelligence. They must also believe in what has been authentically transmitted from Allah and His Messenger, peace be upon him, regarding matters of the unseen, which cannot be understood through reason alone but only through revelation. And Allah The Almighty knows best.
