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(b)
All the Angels who are the spiritual beings of God,
(c)
All the Prophets and Messengers of God,
(d)
All the Scriptures revealed by God for the guidance of mankind,
(e)
The Hereafter: The Day of Resurrection and Judgement.
Also
the Islamic doctrine: that God is all wise, all-powerful.
And all human beings are accountable for their own actions.
Qur’an states:
“The
Prophet believes in what has been revealed to him from his
Lord, and so do the men of faith. They all believe in God,
His angels, His scriptures and His messengers, making no
distinction among His messengers…” (2: 285)
Prophet
Muhammad was asked: “What is Iman” He replied:
“To
believe in God, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers and
the Last Day.”
(a) The belief in God and Muhammad as His Messenger:
Muslims
should know how to declare the Shahadah, the Declaration of
Faith, which is the first article of Iman. It is the testimony
that there is no deity except God and that Muhammad is His
Messenger. This first act of worship is to believe with the
heart and declare with the tongue that there is nothing worthy
of worship but Allah, the source of all creation, and Muhammad
is His Messenger.
Without
the declaration of the Shahadah, none of the other pillars
of the Islamic Faith are counted. People cannot call themselves
Muslims unless they make this Declaration of Faith.
(b) The belief in all the Angels who are the spiritual beings
of God:
God,
who created the human beings, is able to create any kinds
of creatures. Human beings are not the only intelligent beings
God created. Another kind of beings is angels, who serve God
in many ways. Unlike human beings, angels were not created
with free will. They are absolutely obedient to God’s
commands, carrying out their duties of obeying, serving and
worshipping Him.
There
are many angels but we know only a few of them:
(1)
The Archangel Gabriel is the angel of revelations. He dictated
the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad in a period of twenty-
three years. When Muhammad was forty years of age, the revelation
came down to him. The Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and
said: ‘Read’, but as Muhammad was an illiterate
man, he said to the Angel: ‘I cannot read, I am not
a reader.’ The Angel then repeated his request and Muhammad
repeated the same answer: ‘I cannot read’. The
Angel said: ‘read, in the name of your God, who created,
created man from…. Read….’
(2)
The Angel Israfil, the Angel who will announce the event of
Resurrection.
(3)
The Angel Azra’il, the Angel of death.
(4)
The Angel Michael and some others.
There
are angels before and behind us, who act as guardians and
watch over us.
“But
verily, over you are protectors (angels), kind and honorable,
writing down (your deeds), they know all that you do.”
(82: 10-12)
“He
sends down His angels with inspiration of His command to
such of His servants as He pleased, (saying): ‘Warn
(man) that there is no god but I, so do your duty to Me’.’’
(16: 2)
(c) The belief in all Prophets and Messengers of God:
The
third article of Iman is the belief in God’s Prophets
and Messengers. There are many prophets and Qur’an mentioned
a few of them e.g. from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isma’il,
Isaac, Moses, Elias…. to Jesus and Muhammad. Qur’an
says:
“Say:
‘We believe in God and in what has been revealed to
us and what was revealed to Abraham and Isma’il and
Isaac and Jacob and the tribes (of Israel), and in what
was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the prophets
from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and
another among them, and to Him do we submit ourselves’.”
(2:136, also 3: 84-85)
So,
submission to God means Islam, therefore Islam is not a new
religion. It is the original religion that goes back to Adam,
Noah and Abraham and their descendants. Its teachings brought
by the many different Messengers of God in different times.
Muslims
believe that all prophets were truthful and faithful men.
They have the same human needs and feelings but they were
only of special qualities, whom God had chosen to carry out
His commands. They committed themselves to convey His mission,
with which they were entrusted. Each one of them conveyed
the message that suited the people they addressed at that
particular time. Prophet Muhammad was the last Messenger of
God. His message was the final one of God’s instructions
and guidance to mankind for all time to come.
(d) The belief in all the Scriptures revealed by God for the
guidance of mankind:
Muslims
believe in all previous revelations of God, which He gave
in Books to several prophets from Adam to Abraham, who each
received ten Books. Many other Devine Books were delivered
to different prophets in between. All these Books are believed
to be lost. Other Sacred Books were revealed to other prophets
and messengers of God. Moses was given the Torah, Jesus was
given the Injeel and Muhammad was given the Qur’an.
Because
all these Books were sent from one God, and because it is
believed that, apart from the Qur’an, many alterations
have undergone to the present copies of these Books, Muslims
believe that any passage, which is not in harmony with or
is contradicting the teachings of the Qur’an is not
a true revelation.
“It
is He Who revealed to you (Muhammad) the Scripture (the
Qur’an) in truth, confirming what went before it.
And He revealed the Torah and the Injeel before this as
guidance to mankind…” (3: 3)
The
final Sacred Book is the Qur’an. It means in the Arabic
language ‘The Reading’. It was revealed to Prophet
Muhammad through Archangel Gabriel over a period of twenty-three
years, started when Prophet Muhammad was at the age of forty
until his death, when he was sixty-three years old.
Qur’an is the only Devine Book, which has been preserved
to the present time in its original form. It is kept and recited
in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed. Even those
Muslims, who do not know Arabic, never recite the Qur’an
in the Islamic prayers or any religious occasion, in translation.
As
people believe that the Revelations did come from God, they
should follow this up with the real understanding of what
is revealed by putting it to good practical use.
“And
give good news to the believers who work deeds of righteousness.”(17:
9)
“If
any do deeds of righteousness, be they male or female and
have faith, they will enter paradise, and not the least
injustice will be done to them.” (4: 124)
(e) The belief in the Hereafter: The Day of Resurrection and
Judgement.
The
fifth article of Iman is the belief in the Last Day, the Day
of Resurrection. Human beings are responsible for their own
actions and will be asked about their right and wrong doings
in the course of their life on earth.
“Then
how can you reject faith in God, seeing that you were without
life and He gave you life? Then He will cause you to die
and will bring you to life again, and again to Him will
you return.” (2: 28)
Muslims
believe that body and soul will be raised and assembled together
on the day of Resurrection, which its time is secret to all
of us.
“Does
not man see that it is We Who created him from sperm? …and
forgets his own creation. He says: ‘Who can give life
to bones when they are decomposed?’ Say:
‘He
will give them life Who created them the first time, for
He knows about every kind of creating’.” (36:
77-79)
In
the end, Iman starts with Shahadah, Declaration of Faith and
include the responsibility to family, contributions to the
society and practicing the codes of morality by observing
social behaviour, justice and good character. Prophet Muhammad
said:
“The
most perfect of the believers in faith are the best of them
in morals.”
“There
is a reward for kindness to every living animal or human.”
So,
a true Muslim must have a good understanding of the articles
of Iman and perform the acts of the Islamic Faith which form
the five pillars of Islam and which come from Qur’an
and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims also have to
recognize and appreciate the blessings of the Creator and
be thankful to Him for His blessings.
| Authors
Details: Fathy Fares - C/o spiritual.com.au |
(The
five pillars of Islam) |
