The Mutakallimūn (speculative theologians) spoke on the first obligation and under the influence of their kalām theology asserted that the first obligation is to prove Allāh’s existence, whereas what is known to the Salaf is that the first obligation upon Allāḥ’s servants is the testification that none has the right to be worshipped but Allāh alone.
Ibn Taymiyyah (رحمه الله) said:[1]
The Salaf and the leading scholars are agreed that the first of which the servants are commanded with are the Shahādatān, and that whoever does that before maturity is not commanded to renew them following maturity.
Tawḥīd is the first of that by which Islām is entered into and the last of that by which the world is departed from.
The first obligation upon the servants is to know that there is none worthy of worship but Allāh alone, without any partners.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz al-Ḥanafī (رحمه الله) said in his explanation of al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah:[4]
That which is correct is that the first obligation upon the servant is the testification that none has the right to be worshipped but Allāh alone, not investigation, or the intent to investigate, nor doubt which are the statements of the heads of the blameworthy kalām. Rather, the Imāms of the Salaf are all agreed that the first of what a servant has been commanded with is the two testifications.
The first obligation upon the servants is the worship of Allāh. As for knowing him, then they know him through the fiṭrah, the intellects, creational evidences and Qurʾānic evidences.
The people of kalām operated on the basis that the only way the truthfulness of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and the Qurʾān can be proven is by rationally proving the origination of the universe.
Hence, they claim that the first obligation is “investigation” (into Allāh’s existence by proving the origin of the universe), and some of them even say it is “doubt” (الشك) which is then to be removed through rational evidencesو through which faith is attained.
This is false because Allāh’s existence is fiṭriyy (innate, intuitive) and ḍarūriyy (necessary). Further, proving the origin of the universe is not a condition for proving the existence of a Creator, since His existence can be established through other ways.
Footnotes
1. Darʾ al-Taʿāruḍ (8/11)2. Zād al-Maʿād (2/22).
3. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Aẓīm (5/277).
4. Sharḥ al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, taḥqīq al-Albānī (pp. 77-78).
5. Sharḥ al-Durrah al-Maḍiyyah (p. 73).