Islam's Original Texts 2: The Six Articles of Faith Explained

Thank you for visiting. This article is the second installment in a series explaining the original texts of Islam.

Last time (Article 1), I explained the making and structure of the scripture the Qur’an itself. This time, I look one by one at the foundation of faith that the Qur’an teaches — the “Six Articles of Faith” that Muslims should believe from the heart.

For an overview map of Islam’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.

The Original Texts of Islam — The Qur'an and Hadith: Full Article Indexen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-islam/

What Are the Six Articles of Faith — the Six Pillars of Belief

To be a Muslim is not merely to perform rituals; it begins with truly believing six things in one’s heart. These are called the “Six Articles of Faith (iman).”

Now let us look at the six pillars one by one in detail.

The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon → World Mythology for Beginners (illustrated)View on Amazon →

1. God (Allah) — the One and Absolute Creator

The center of the Six Articles, and the starting point of all, is faith in the one God Allah.

“Allah” is the Arabic word meaning “God.” It is not a particular proper noun, but is held to refer to the same one God whom Judaism and Christianity believe in. Arabic-speaking Christians, too, call God “Allah.”

The core of the Islamic view of God is “tawhid (the oneness of God).” God is one alone, like nothing else, with neither child nor parent, a perfect being dependent on nothing. Chapter 112, “Sincerity,” introduced last time, expresses this faith most concisely.

Say: He is God, the One. God, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.

Because of this strict monotheism, setting anything alongside God (polytheism, idol worship) is called “shirk” and is held to be the gravest sin in Islam. Representing God in the form of a person or thing, and worshipping anything besides God, are firmly forbidden, and this is why a mosque has no statue or picture of God or the prophets at all.

On the other hand, God is not a cold being. Almost every chapter of the Qur’an begins with the phrase “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” God is held to have “99 beautiful names,” praising His rich qualities — “the Merciful,” “the Forgiving,” “the All-Knowing,” “Peace,” and more. God is believed to be at once a strict judge and an infinitely merciful One.

2. Angels — Messengers of God Made from Light

The second pillar is to believe in the existence of “angels (mala’ika).”

In Islam, angels are held to be beings made from light who obey God absolutely. Unlike humans, they do not sin by free will, but faithfully carry out God’s commands. They are invisible, but mediate between God and humans and bear the running of the world.

In the Qur’an and the Hadith (traditions), angels with roles appear.

Of these, the ones the Qur’an names explicitly are Jibril and Mika’il and a few others; the names and roles of many other angels are supplied by tradition. Note that, apart from angels, beings called “jinn (spirits),” held to be made by God from fire, are also believed in. Unlike angels, jinn have free will and can be either good or evil, and the devil Shaytan is one kind of this jinn.

3. Scriptures — the Various Books God Sent Down

The third pillar is to believe in the “scriptures (sacred books)” that God has sent down to humanity. Here both Islam’s tolerance and its distinctiveness appear.

Islam does not think that the Qur’an alone is God’s scripture. God, throughout history, is held to have sent down scriptures again and again to the prophets of each age.

That is, Islam acknowledges Judaism’s Law and Christianity’s Gospel too as originally genuine scriptures sent down by the same God. However, those are held to have been altered by human hands over the long years, and the complete scripture that God sent down last is the Qur’an — that is the Islamic stance. This is precisely why Jews and Christians are paid special respect as the “People of the Book.”

4. Prophets — from Adam to Muhammad

The fourth pillar is to believe in the “prophets” whom God sent to guide humanity.

In Islam, God made the first human, Adam, the first prophet, and is held to have sent countless prophets to every age and every people. One tradition says their number reaches 124,000. Of these, the Qur’an names 25. Many of them are figures familiar from the Bible.

There are two terms for a prophet. One who is entrusted with the word of God in general is called a “nabi (prophet),” and among them, one especially entrusted with a new scripture or mission is called a “rasul (messenger).” Further, the five — Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa, and Muhammad — are held to be especially important messengers, the “Ulu al-Azm (those of firm resolve).”

Decisively important here is that Muhammad is held to be “the final prophet (the seal of the prophets).” The long history of prophets beginning with Adam is completed in Muhammad, and after him no prophet will appear. And it is repeatedly stressed that a prophet is, to the last, a human being and is never deified. Both Jesus and Muhammad are not objects of worship, but messengers who conveyed the word of God (the concrete stories of the prophets are explained in detail in Article 4).

5. The Afterlife — a World That Does Not End with Death

The fifth pillar is to believe in the “afterlife (akhira).”

In Islam, the present world is not eternal, and one day the Last Day will come. At that time, all the dead are believed to come back to life (be resurrected), stand before God, and be judged for the deeds of their lives. This is the “Last Judgment.”

By the result of the judgment, those who believed in God and lived rightly are led to the paradise “Janna (heaven),” and those who rejected God and did evil to the fire of “Jahannam (hell).”

This strong faith in the afterlife — that “one’s deeds in this world decide one’s eternal fate in the next” — is a great motive for Muslims to strive at daily good works and prayer. Because of its importance, the afterlife and the Last Judgment are explained again in detail in Article 5.

6. Divine Decree (Qadar) — All Is Within God’s Decree

The last, sixth pillar is to believe in “divine decree (qadar)” — that is, that everything in this world is within God’s decree.

Good and bad alike, every event that occurs is under God’s omniscience and will — this is the teaching of qadar. God knows all of the past, present, and future completely, and nothing occurs without His knowledge.

However, this does not mean “humans have no responsibility.” Humans are given the freedom to choose good and evil, and it is held that each bears responsibility for that choice. How to reconcile “God’s decree” and “human responsibility” is a theme deeply debated even in Islamic theology. In actual religious life, the teaching of qadar serves as a peaceful support for accepting fate — “entrust the result to God, and exhaust the effort one ought to make.” Adding “insha’Allah (if God wills)” when promising something is also an expression of this faith.

The Three Layers of Faith — Iman, Islam, Ihsan

There is a famous hadith that beautifully shows where these “Six Articles of Faith” are positioned within the whole religion of Islam. It is the “Hadith of Jibril (Gabriel).”

One day, an unknown traveler visited the Prophet Muhammad and put questions to him in rapid succession. In fact, it was the angel Jibril, appearing in human form, holding a dialogue to teach people about faith. There, religion is shown as three layers.

That is, this hadith teaches that Islam consists of three layers — the outer “action (Islam),” the inner “faith (iman),” and the “sincerity (ihsan)” that runs through both. The Six Articles seen in this article are the inner pillar of “believing in the heart,” and together with the outer practice, the “Five Pillars” seen in the next Article 3, they form faith as one.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon → An Illustrated Introduction to the World’s 5 Great MythologiesView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained one by one the pillars of faith that Muslims should believe, the “Six Articles of Faith.” How was it?

The Six Articles were the Islamic worldview itself, spreading from the one God Allah at the center to angels, scriptures, prophets, the afterlife, and divine decree. In particular, I think you can see how well Islam’s making is expressed in the pillars of “scriptures” and “prophets,” which acknowledge even the scriptures and prophets of Judaism and Christianity.

In the next Article 3, I will explain in detail the pillars of practice that put this faith (the Six Articles) into concrete action — the “Five Pillars” — and the religious life of a Muslim.

The Original Texts of Islam — The Qur'an and Hadith: Full Article Indexen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-islam/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.