The Six Pillars of Faith in Islam

Belief in Allah

You must believe in His Lordship; that He is the Lord, the Creator, the ‎Possessor and the Controller of all matters. You must also believe in His right ‎to be worshipped, that He is the only True Deity, that all deities besides Him ‎are false. You must believe in His Names and Attributes, that He has Beautiful ‎Names and perfect Sublime Attributes.‎

You must also believe in His Oneness in all that, that He has no partner in His ‎Lordship, nor in His right to be worshipped or in His Names and Attributes. You must also believe that neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him; that He ‎knows all that is hidden and evident; and that to him belongs the sovereignty ‎of the heavens and the earth. You must also believe that He rose high over His Throne ‎above His creation, and that He is with them by His knowledge and He knows ‎their conditions, hears their utterances, sees their places and controls their ‎affairs. He provides for the poor, gives relief to the dejected, gives authority to ‎whom He wills, withdraws it from whom He wills and that He is Able to do all ‎things.‎

Belief in His angels

A Muslim must believe in the angels; that is to say, it is Allah Who has created them and ‎describes them as, “honoured slaves”, they does not speak until He has spoken and ‎they act on His Command. Allah conceals them from our eyes so that we do not see them. But Allah ‎sometimes shows some of them to some of His Prophets and Messengers.‎

Angels have functions assigned to them. Gabriel is assigned to Revelations ‎which he brings from Allah to whosoever He wishes of His Messengers. Among ‎them are: an angel assigned to taking the souls, another to the ‎protection of mankind, another to recording of their ‎deeds…etc.

Belief in His Books

To believe that Allah revealed Books to his Prophets and Messengers, in order ‎to explain the truth and call to it.

These Books are many. Among them are the Scripture of the Prophet Abraham, ‎the Torah of the Prophet Moses, the Psalms given to the Prophet David and the ‎Gospel which was brought by the Prophet Jesus Christ, may peace be upon all of ‎them.‎

Belief in the Previous Books lies in believing that it is Allah Who revealed them ‎to His Messengers and that they contained the Law that Allah wanted to be ‎conveyed to people at that time.‎

All these Books that Allah informs us about have all become extinct. The ‎scripture of Abraham does no longer exist in the world. As for the Torah, the ‎Gospel and the Psalms, even though they do exist by name in the hands of ‎Jews and Christians, they have become altered, interpolated and adulterated ‎and many of their original contents are missing. The lines which are not part of ‎them have been included in them, and they are attributed to those who are not ‎their authors. The Old Testament for instance, has more than forty books, and ‎only five of them were attributed to Moses. As for the existing gospels of ‎today, nothing of them is attributed to Jesus. On the Other hand, the last Book, which is revealed by Allah, ‎is the Qur’an which was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. It has always been ‎and is still protected and preserved by Allah. No change or alteration has ‎crept into any of its letters, words, vowels or meanings.‎

Belief in His Messengers

To believe that Allah sent Messengers to His creation in order to give them ‎glad tidings of Paradise if they believe in Allah and His Messengers, ‎and to warn them of punishment if they disobey. There are many messengers. The first of them was Noah and the last of them ‎is Muhammad {P.B.U.H}. Allah has told us stories ‎about them in the Holy Qur’an like Abraham, Moses, Jesus, David, John Zakariah and Saleh. There are ‎also some prophets whom we know nothing for, Allah tells us nothing.

All these Messengers were humans since they are created by Allah. They possessed nothing ‎of the qualities of Lordship or Godship. Therefore, no act of worship should be ‎directed to them for they could not avail themselves of any harm or benefit. The Prophets are honoured slaves, whom Allah chose. They are honoured ‎with the Message and described as His slaves. Their religion is Islam (Submission to God’s orders), and ‎Allah will not accept any other religion besides it.

The basic messages of the Prophets were one but their Laws differ.

The final of all these Laws is that of Muhammad. It abrogates all other previous ‎laws. His Message is the last of all Divine Messages and he is the last of all ‎Messengers. Whoever believes in a Prophet among them should believe in all of ‎them and whoever denies anyone of them, it means he/she has denied all of them.

Belief in the Last Day

Believe that the present life is only a trial preparation for the next perennial realm of existence. This life is a test for each individual for the everlasting life that comes after death. A day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and the dead will be resurrected for judgment by God. This day will be the beginning of a life that will never end. This day is the Day of Judgment. On that day, all people will be rewarded by God according to their beliefs and deeds.

After having sent the Prophet Muhammad to call people to Islam, God does not accept adherence to any religion other than Islam, when someone rejects belief in God, His Prophet Muhammad, or His religion of Islam, it is just that he or she will be punished in the Hereafter. The truth is completely enlightened and does not need more explanation for it simply does not contain conflicts in the Holy Qur’an, the Sayings of the prophet Muhammad, and the Islamic creed.

Those who die while believing that “There is no true god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of Allah” and are Muslim will be rewarded on that day and will be admitted to Paradise forever, as Allah Almighty has said:

{{But they who believe and do righteous deeds – those are the companions of Paradise; they will abide therein eternally.}} (Holy Qur’an 2:82)

But those who die at the time they do not believe that “There is no true god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of Allah”, in other words, they are not Muslim and they will lose Paradise forever to be sent to Hellfire, as God has said:

{{And whoever seeks a religion other than Islâm, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.}}

(Holy Qur’an 3: 85)

Those who die before Prophet Muhammad {P.B.U.H}, and were following the real message of Allah which is sent through previous messengers (Jesus, Moses…) are considered to be believers. It’s quite clear to further that all the messengers of Allah are brothers and they love each other. It occurs that some people, who have followed them, try to interpolate the Holy message and to alter it to their personal gluttony and whims.

Belief in pre-decree

You must believe that Allah knows what happened and what shall happen; that ‎He knows the conditions, deeds, life spans and provisions of His slaves.

Yasser Gabr & Houda Karkour, Islamic Propagation Office in Rabwah, Riyadh