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True faith
in Islam
The
pillars of the faith of Islam can be compared to the concept of a
Statement of Faith, or Articles of faith. These are Islamic concepts
of essentials of the faith.
- Allah
- Allah is the supreme being of all. He is
uncreated, the creator of all, without beginning or end. He is
completely sufficient to himself and needs no other. He does not
have offspring nor a spouse. He knows all things, is everywhere,
and is all powerful. He hears all prayers. Everything that occurs
does so by his permission.
- His Angels
- Angels reside in the unseen world and
carry out the commands of Allah. They cannot sin. Muhammad stated
that it was the angel Gabriel that brought the message of the
Koran to him.
- His Messengers
- People who have been sent from Allah to a
particular group of people for the purpose of giving to them the
message revealed by Allah. Some of them are Noah, Abraham, Moses,
David, Jesus, and, of course, Muhammad. Islam teaches that all
messengers previous to Muhammad were sent to limited people groups
where Muhammad was sent to all people.
- His Books
- Islam recognizes many sacred scriptures
that have been given by Allah throughout history. However, Muslims
claim that only the Quran is trustworthy and that the other
scriptures have been compromised because we do not posses their
original manuscripts. They assert that the accounts of the Bible
were written down hundreds of years later and cannot be considered
inerrant, and they were written in ancient languages which have
been lost. Therefore, exact translations are not possible.
Nevertheless, the scriptures recognized in Islam are:
- The Koran - The Koran (Qur'an) is the inspired
word of Allah given to people through the Prophet Muhammad and
it supercedes all other scriptures before it including. It
alone is inerrant and trustworthy as a revelation for today.
It is unchanged from the beginning.
- The Torah -the first five books of Moses.
- The Injil - the gospel message of Jesus in the
New Testament
- The Psalms - the sacred writings given to David.
- The Last Day
- There is a future day in which this world
and its governments and systems will come to an end and all people
will face judgment based upon their deeds. Muslims go to paradise
and non-Muslims go to hell.
- Divine Preordainments good or bad
- In Islam,
Allah is completely in control of all things and ordains all things
that occur.
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