Written by The Pillars of Faith (Iman)
The pillars of faith are six:
- To believe in Allah
- His Angels
- His Books
- His Messengers
- And the Last Day
- And that the Decree of Good and Bad are from Allah
O you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He sent down upon His Messenger and the Scripture which He sent down before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah , His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day has certainly gone far astray.
Qur’an, 4:136
The doctrine around faith in Allah
In the matter of beliefs and its details the Sunnis are broadly divided into three major schools of thought: the Ash’ari, the Maturidi and the Athari. These doctrinal differences relate to the use of reason, greek logic, rational proofs and the literal following of narrations from the Qur’an and Hadith. The belief in Allah in its very basic sense has already been described above as part of the first pilar of Islam. In general, Muslims believe that Allah not only created creation but also actively sustains it. In philosophical terms, Muslims don’t believe in the clock maker God, who created a system and then left it to function by itself. However, to preserve the separateness of God from His creation while also acknowledging that God is closer to man than his jugular vein, Muslim scholars very early on established rules that are in effect necessarily impossible for God. Namely, that God does not assume the form of created beings, for God is indeed formless, and cannot be imbibed with the characteristics of creation. These considerations meant to keep the barrier between the personage of God as being wholly separate from created beings, led to a divergence in thought because God also described Himself in the Qur’an through seemingly human characteristics which cannot be understood in any other way rationally. Hence, the school of Ibn Hanbal and the Athari tradition, later adopted by the Salafi schools declared that God is as He describes Himself literally, and that there must be no other explanation beyond the apparent. The typical claim from the Salafi movements is the God has Hands because He God refers to His Hands in the Qur’an. Mainstream Sunni beliefs, however, hold that all human attributes for God are allegorical. For example, that the Hand of God refers to His Power, and that His Face refers to His Presence.
Belief in Angels
Angels are said to be creatures made of light who are subservient to Allah without freewill, unlike human beings and jinn. They serve Allah and carry out His Orders associated with running the affairs of nature and creation. The Angels are of various kinds, with various number of wings and various sizes. No one knows how many Angels there are, except that there are very many of them doing various tasks like: recording the deeds of people, bringing down the rain, providing food, helping people in need, taking the souls of people at death etc.. Muslims believe that it is impermissible to call on Angels for help, but that Allah sends Angels to help people as He wills.
Belief in His Books
According to the Qur’anic narrative, Allah revealed several books to several Messenger Prophets, the last of which are the Pages of Abraham, the Torah of Moses, the Bible of Jesus and the Qur’an of Muhammad (s). Muslims do not know if these were the only books revealed. However, the Qur’an affirms that all books prior to the Qur’an were corrupted through interpretation, erasure and additions. The Qur’an being the final testament from Allah both rectifies the misconceptions of previous believers in the other books and guides the people for whom no warner has come. On the one hand, the Qur’an is inclusive by declaring the people of the Abrahamic faith traditions as the people of the Book, and on the other hand it is exclusive when declaring this more recent book as being the truth from God declaring all previous generations, except for a few devout believers, as essentially having gone astray. If only they had followed what Allah revealed to them, they would not have gone astray. Regardless, Muslims are to accept that the books mentioned are in fact originally from Allah. Whatever in it that is consistent with the Qur’an is to be accepted as plausibly true.
Belief in His Messengers
According to the Qur’an, Allah had sent several Prophets and Messengers, though twenty-five are mentioned. In more recent years, with the onset of the Qadiyani movement, there was some controversy around what exactly a Prophet and Messenger is. Most scholars believe that a Prophet is sometimes a Messenger also in that he received a book. Whereas sometimes a Prophet is not a messenger also but only a Prophet. Regardless, every messenger is also a Prophet. Muslims are taught to believe in all the Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an which includes the five major Prophets: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (may peace be on them all) Scholars in modern times generally hold Prophets to be without sin and that anything they did that was seemingly wrong was not deliberate but rather by way of God demonstrating to people how to deal with an issue of that nature, through the example of a Prophet. In early Islam, the question of sinlessness or infallibility was not discussed.
Belief in the Last Day
The Abrahamic religions in general share the belief in the Last Day- the day of Judgement. In addition to the standard beliefs regarding this day, Muslims believe that everyone will be raised up from the graves bodily and stand before Allah to be judged for their deeds. Those who have an excess of good deeds will go to Paradise and those who have an excess of bad deeds will go to Hell. The Qur’an does not definitively tell us about whether people will go to Hell permanently or temporarily. Although, it appears to allude to the permanence of Hell. Most Sunni scholars hold that people who believe will burn in hell temporarily as an expiation for their sins whereupon they will be entered into Paradise. However, many scholars from the Mu’taziia tradition and consequently from the Shia tradition, believe that hell is eternal.
There are also many traditions that speak of the intercession of the Prophet Muhammad (s) on the day of Judgement. Sunni scholars disagree on who the intercession will be for specifically or how it works. However, generally it is accepted that there will be intercession. Whether it will be intercession because of a position of honour granted to the Prophet (s), and thus his judgement will be the Judgement of Allah; in a sense nullifying the idea of intercession to begin with, or if it will be the Prophet advocating on behalf of someone who is destined to Hell are issues scholars continue to grapple with.
Belief in the Decree of Allah
The belief in the Decree of Allah as being predetermined or divine determinism or predestination is considered a fundamental belief in Islam. However, throughout the ages scholars have grappled with how belief in predestination plays off against the simultaneous belief in free will. After all, most of the other Islamic beliefs, such as being held accountable for one’s deeds, is contingent on free will. In other words, Allah cannot punish a person for something he didn’t himself decide to do out of his own free will. If everything was predetermined, then punishment and reward cannot exist. Various schools of thought have existed around this issue, some as far afield as believing there was no real accountability and others on the opposite extreme where determinism was completely denied. In more recent times scholars have added the statement to the last pillar of faith as follows:
And that the Decree of Good and Bad are from Allah…but Allah has ordered the good and forbidden the bad.
In brief, Islamic scholars didn’t believe in a superpower devil who is omnipresent and omnipotent, but instead believed in a host or party of devils who serve a purpose as part of Allah’s plan. When they perpetrate evil or inspire and encourage evil, it is still within the Decree of Allah as nothing can be outside the Decree of Allah without also admitting a limit to Allah’s Power. However, what is Decreed as part of existence and what is specifically ordered for a portion of creation- namely the believers; are two entirely separate issues. In other words, Allah ordered the believers to worship non but Him and not to associate partners with Him, and to do good deeds while at the same time making it possible to associate partners with Allah and to do bad deeds. This play of possibilities, thus decreed, is what results in rewards and punishment without detracting from the power of Allah. In another sense, scholars understood that acting was only possible through the power of Allah and hence acting wrongly was not just a wrong, but it was an abuse of Allah’s power through which all must act.
On a psychological level, when bad things befall the believers, they put their trust in Allah knowing that everything is in Allah’s Hands, despite their own active role in events. Whereas if good things befall the believers they turn to Allah and offer thanks, thus not becoming arrogant. The belief in predestination is part of acknowledging that everything is in Allah’s Power, and it begets the very idea of prayer, thanksgiving and seeking for forgiveness.