Book excerpt: The Reason this Creed was WrittenIbn Taimiyah said:"A Shafi'ite judge from Wasit (in Iraq) whose name is Radiy ad-Din al-Wasiti, visited me on his wayto Hajj (pilgrimage). This Sheikh was a man of goodness and faith. He complained to me of thepeople's situation in that country (i.e., Iraq ) under the Tatars (Mongols) rule of ignorance, injustice,and loss of faith and knowledge.He asked me to write him an 'Aqidah (creed) as a reference to him and his family. But I declinedsaying: Many creeds have been written. Refer to the scholars of the Sunnah. However, he persistedin his request, saying: I do not want any creed but one you write. So I wrote this one for him while Iwas sitting one afternoon.Many copies of it are dispersed throughout Egypt, Iraq and other provinces. (Majmu' Fatawa IbnTaimiyah, VIII, p.164)