islam

• Six Articles of Sunni Islam

  1. Tawhid
  2. Angels
  3. Holy books
  4. Prophets
  5. Day of Judgement
  6. Predestination
• Five Roots of Shi'a Islam

  1. Tawhid
  2. Prophets
  3. Day of Judgement
  4. Adalat
  5. Imamate
• Angels - spiritual beings who gave Allah's messages to prophets but who have many other duties
• Day of Judgement - belief in a final day when Allah will judge people and send them to heaven or hell
• Nubuwwah - belief in prophets
• Predestination - the belief that Allah knows everything that will happen
• Tawhid - the belief that Allah is the one and only God
• The first pillar of Islam is the Shahadah - 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger'
• Islam absolutely forbids saying that Allah is not one , this is a sin called shirk which includes any practice of idolatry (worshipping false gods) and polytheism (worshipping more than one god) , this is the one sin in Islam that is not forgivable if someone does not seek forgiveness for it
• Tawhid in Qur'an - Surah 112:

  ' Say: He is Allah, the One and Only'
• The concept of Tawhid - oneness - does not mean that Allah does not have different aspects to his nature , in Islam , Allah has 99 names ,which come from the Qur'an and Hadith , and are sometimes called the 'Most Beautiful Names' - these names express Allah's attributes making him easier to understand
• Muslims express Tawhid by believing he is transcendent - which means that his nature goes beyond limits of human understanding, furthermore Sunni muslims absolutely forbid any visual representations of Allah and Shi'a muslims it is more likely that you will find images of Muhammad and other prophets, and possibly angels but these will always be respectful
• Hadith - collections of the words and deeds of Muhammad that muslims use for guidance
• Transcendence - the belief that Allah's nature goes beyond human understanding
• This forbidding of visual representation of Allah means that muslims have developed other ways of expressing Allah's oneness, or the idea of Tawhid
• Muslims instead focus on what Allah is like and try to understand his spiritual nature and qualities , through calligraphy or geometric patterns these art forms convey ideas about Allah and his complexity
• In mosques , they are decorated with calligraphy and geometric tiling or mosaics to help focus a worshipper's attention on Allah, but no pictures or images of Allah this means that they can focus on the deeper meaning of Islam
• Adalat - the belief that Allah is just and fair and treats people equally
• Beneficence - 'doing good' : this refers to the generosity that Allah shows to humanity
• Fairness - part of Allah's nature : he treats humans equally and as they deserve
• Immanence - the belief that Allah is close to humanity and involved in the world
• justice - part of Allah's nature: bringing about what is right or fair according to the law, or making up for wrongs
• Iblis - the Devil in Islam , he is also called Shaytan
• Jibril - Gabriel in Christianity and Judaism , the most important angel, who delivered Allah's message - his revelation - to prophets and revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad
• Jahannam - Hell in Islam
• Jannah - Heaven in Islam, can be also refered to as paradise
• Jinn - Evil spirits created from fire
• Makkah - the city where the Prophet Muhammad was born
• Mala'kah - belief in angels in Islam
• Mika'il - one of the most important angels , he gives spiritual and material help to humans
• Revelation - the act of making something that was a secret known
• two of the most important angels in Islam are Jibril an Mika'il who:

  Jibril:

  • acts as an intermediary , like a bridge , between Allah and humans
  • conveys Allah's message to people through the prophets

  Mika'il:

  • responsible for rewarding those who live a good life
  • responsible for humankinds' needs such as ensuring they have enough water and that crops grow
• Day of Judgement - the day when Allah will weigh up people's deeds, good and bad, and decide on a reward or punishment
• Free will - human's ability or freedom to choose for themselves how to act
• Human freedom - Humans' control over their thoughts, feelings and actions
• Predestination - the idea that everything that happens has been decided already by Allah
• Qadar - the Arabic term for predestination
• Sunni Muslims have a belief that Allah writes down their destinies on what is called the 'preserve tablet' - this record of everything that has and will happen
• However, predestination does not mean that Muslims do not have free will , or human freedom and the difference is that Allah is not bound by time in the same person's life, but that person, while he or she is alive, still has the ability to choose or act and behave
• Shi'a Muslims usually reject predestination and they do not believe that Allah has predetermined history or the course that people's lives will take