Articles of Faith

The Qur'an states some basic things all Muslims must believe in. They are to believe in God, his revelations, his angels, and in the "Day of Judgement." Along with these beliefs stated in the Qur'an, each sect of Islam has their own particular beliefs. These differences are discussed here.

Muslims believe that God revealed his final message to humanity through the Islamic prophet Muhammad via the archangel Gabriel. For Muslims, Muhammad was God's final prophet and the Qur'an is the revelations he received over more than 20 years. In Islam, prophets are men selected by God to be his messengers. The prophets are human and not considered divine, and they are considered to be the most perfect humans. The Qur'an mentions numerous prophetic figures, including Adam, Moses, Noah, Abraham and Jesus. Islamic theology says that all of God's messengers since Adam preached the message of Islam — submission to the will of God. Islam is described in the Qur'an as "the primordial nature upon which God created mankind", and the Qur'an states that the proper name Muslim was given by Abraham.

Islam originated in Arabia in the 7th century. The Islamic texts depict Christianity and Judaism as prophetic traditions to the teachings of Abraham. The Qur'an calls Jews and Christians "People of the Book", and distinguishes them from polytheists. Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, the Torah and the Gospels, had become distorted — either by interpretation, in text, or both.

God

Islam's fundamental theological concept is tawhīd, the belief that there is only one god. The Arabic term for God is Allāh. The first of the Five Pillars of Islam, tawhīd is expressed in the shahadah, which declares that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is God's messenger. In traditional Islamic theology, Muslims are not expected to visualize God but to worship and adore him as a protector. Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, they reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, comparing it to polytheism. They believe that Jesus was just a man and not the son of God. God is described in the Qur'an as God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."

Qur'an

The Qur'an is the main religious text of Islam, and Muslims believe it to be the literal work of God. It is believed that the versus of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God through the angel Gabriel, which were revealed on several occasions from 610 to his death on June 8, 632.

The Qur'an is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, which combined, contain 6,236 āyāt, or verses. The chronologically earlier suras, revealed at Mecca, are primarily concerned with ethical and spiritual topics. The later Medinan suras mostly discuss social and moral issues relevant to the Muslim community. The Qur'an is more concerned with moral guidance than legal instruction, and is considered the "sourcebook of Islamic principles and values". Muslim jurists consult the hadith, or the written record of Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Qur'an and assist with its interpretation. The science of Qur'anic commentary and exegesis is known as tafsir.

The word Qur'an means "recitation". When Muslims speak in the abstract about "the Qur'an", they usually mean the scripture as recited in Arabic rather than the printed work or any translation of it. To Muslims, the Qur'an is perfect only as revealed in the original Arabic; translations are necessarily deficient because of language differences, the fallibility of translators, and the impossibility of preserving the original's inspired style. Translations are therefore regarded only as commentaries on the Qur'an, or "interpretations of its meaning", not as the Qur'an itself.

Angels

The belief in angels is a crucial part of Islam. The Arabic word for angel, malak, means "messenger". According to the Qur'an, angel don't possess free will, and obey God with perfection. The duty of angels is to communicate the revelations of God, glorifying God, recording people's actions, and taking a person's soul when death has occured. It is also thought that they intercede on the man's behave.

Muhammad

Muhammad was an Arab who founded the religion of Islam. Muslims don't consider him as the creator of a new religion. He is considered the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham and others. Muslims view Muhammad as the greatest of the prophets, and a man that is the closest to perfection and the possessor of all virtues. Muhammad receives the revelation of God for the last 23 years of his life. The content is recorded in the Qur'an.

During this time, Muhammad preached to the people of Mecca, imploring them to abandon polytheism. Although some converted to Islam, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted by the leading Meccan authorities. After 13 years of preaching, Muhammad and the Muslims performed the Hijra ("emigration") to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622. There, with the Medinan converts (Ansar) and the Meccan migrants (Muhajirun), Muhammad established his political and religious authority. Within years, two battles had been fought against Meccan forces: the Battle of Badr in 624, which was a Muslim victory, and the Battle of Uhud in 625, which ended inconclusively. Conflict with Medinan Jewish clans who opposed the Muslims led to their exile, enslavement or death, and the Jewish enclave of Khaybar was subdued. At the same time, Meccan trade routes were cut off as Muhammad brought surrounding desert tribes under his control. By 629 Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless Conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 he ruled over the Arabian peninsula.

In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the Sunnah (literally "trodden path"). This example is preserved in traditions known as hadith ("reports"), which recount his words, his actions, and his personal characteristics. The classical Muslim jurist ash-Shafi'i (d. 820) emphasized the importance of the Sunnah in Islamic law, and Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's actions in their daily lives. The Sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of the Qur'an.

Resurrection and judgement

Belief in the "Day of Resurrection", yawm al-Qiyāmah (also known as yawm ad-dīn, "Day of Judgment" and as-sā`a, "the Last Hour") is also crucial for Muslims. They believe that the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God but unknown to man. The trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah are described in the Qur'an and the hadith, and also in the commentaries of Islamic scholars. The Qur'an emphasizes bodily resurrection, a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death. It states that resurrection will be followed by the gathering of mankind, culminating in their judgment by God.

The Qur'an lists several sins that can condemn a person to hell, such as disbelief, usury and dishonesty. Muslims view paradise (jannah) as a place of joy and bliss, with Qur'anic references describing its features and the physical pleasures to come. There are also references to a greater joy — acceptance by God (ridwān). traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God.

Predestination and free will

In accordance with the Sunni Islamic belief in predestination, or divine preordainment (al-qadā wa'l-qadar), God has full knowledge and control over all that occurs. This is explained in Qur'anic verses such as "Say: 'Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector'…" For Muslims, everything in the world that occurs, good or evil, has been preordained and nothing can happen unless permitted by God. In Islamic theology, divine preordainment does not suggest an absence of God's indignation against evil, because any evils that do occur are thought to result in future benefits men may not be able to see. According to Muslim theologians, although events are pre-ordained, man possesses free will in that he has the faculty to choose between right and wrong, and is thus responsible for his actions. According to Islamic tradition, all that has been decreed by God is written in al-Lawh al-Mahfūz, the "Preserved Tablet".

The Shi'a understanding of free will is called "divine justice" (Adalah). This doctrine, originally developed by the Mu'tazila, stresses the importance of man's responsibility for his own actions. In contrast, the Sunni deemphasize the role of individual free will in the context of God's creation and foreknowledge of all things.