Islamic Aqeedah Series: The Six Articles of Faith Presented by Mona Salem Date 9.5.13

Islamic Terms – Basic Definitions Aqeedah – The System of Beliefs in Islam Islam – Religion that consists of submission to Allah, a decision of peace Iman – Belief or faith Shahada – Attesting of faith that there is only One God and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His Messenger

6 Articles of Faith or “Iman” Belief in Allah Belief in the Angels Belief in the Books Belief in the Prophets Belief in Day of Judgment Belief in Allah’s Divine Knowledge

What is Islam? Islam = a religion, an outward practice What exactly is religion? The word “religio” means to bind things together. Binding a person to God or binding groups of people together. The people are bound by similarity in belief, understanding, practices, and world view. Even a hypocrite can be a “Muslim” someone who outwardly shows a certain lifestyle. The inward part is related to Iman.

What is Iman? Or Belief? It is the faith in the heart It is the “why” not the “what” It is the connection or relationship between a person and his/her Creator The root of the Arabic word “Iman” is “Amn” which means safety or security How does faith make us safe and secure? It provides mental and spiritual peace for us “salam” Lack of faith creates fear, insecurity, and turmoil in the human psyche; faith is a securing factor in the human condition. Mention rat study.

Belief in Allah – 1st A Negation of All Else to be Worthy of Worship The first part of the shahada : La ilaha ila Allah = there is no god, except Allah The first part is a negative, the second part is an affirmation, or a positive Why must we do a negative before a positive? Without this negation, we will have confusion of our faith Our minds will add confusing elements – like duplicity or trinity of Allah, or even multiplicity of other gods We must empty our minds and hearts of all else deserving of worship in order to truly devote ourselves to a pure, single and Absolute God The word “ilah” comes from “Alihah” which means to bewilder or amaze the senses. To be beyond something that we can conceive or describe.

Belief in Allah: 2nd Declaring Who Is Worthy of Worship Affirming God as the One True God. He is Allah. He is has 99 beautiful names in the Quran. We do not believe that Allah is just the greatest of all beings. We believe in His ultimate uniqueness that there is none comparable to him in any way whatsoever. He (SWT) utterly transcends anything else we know of or can imagine or can conceive. He does not resemble His creation or anything created in any way… that is why we have difficulty conceiving Him. The word for “reality” in English and Latin languages derives from the Latin word “RES” which means “thing” – this shows an inherent materialism to the Western concept of God. Instead in Arabic “Al-Haqiqa” derives from the word “Haq” which means the “Real” or the “True”. Our understanding of Allah is that He is the Ultimate Reality or Truth – not just the Owner and Possessor of all things. Reality is above a “thing” God is not a “thing”. A “Thing” is something that is willed into existence by the Creator.

Belief in His Books How does Allah, the One, The Absolute now communicate with us? Our nature or “fitra” drives us to belief in something Greater than Ourselves But then how do we then know Him? How do we Worship? How do we obey? Allah (SWT) sent instruction to us. He revealed books. There are numerous books – we do not know about all of them, but Allah communicated to mankind through them. Many were lost. The Quran mentions 4 books that we are certain of: The Tawrah (Torah) – the 1st 5 books of the Bible including: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Numbers, revealed to Musa (AS) The Injeel (The Gospel) – We believe in a SINGLE accurate gospel revealed to Isa (AS) The Zabur (The Psalms) – We believe in this book as revealed to Dawud (AS) The Quran (Also known as the Furqan or the Criterion) which means it ultimately determines what is now correctly remaining of the previous books.