True faith in Islam

by Matt Slick

The pillars of the faith of Islam can be compared to the concept of a Statement of Faith, or Articles of faith.  These are Islamic concepts of essentials of the faith.

1. Allah
   1. Allah is the supreme being of all. He is uncreated, the creator of all, without beginning or end. He is completely sufficient to himself and needs no other. He does not have offspring nor a spouse. He knows all things, is everywhere, and is all powerful. He hears all prayers. Everything that occurs, does so by his permission.
2. His Angels
   1. Angels reside in the unseen world and carry out the commands of Allah. They cannot sin. Muhammad stated that it was the angel Gabriel that brought the message of the Koran to him.
3. His Messengers
   1. People who have been sent from Allah to a particular group of people for the purpose of giving to them the message revealed by Allah. Some of them are Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and, of course, Muhammad. Islam teaches that all messengers previous to Muhammad were sent to limited people groups where Muhammad was sent to all people.
4. His Books
   1. Islam recognizes many sacred scriptures that have been given by Allah throughout history. However, Muslims claim that only the Quran is trustworthy and that the other scriptures have been compromised because we do not posses their original manuscripts. They assert that the accounts of the Bible were written down hundreds of years later and cannot be considered inerrant, and they were written in ancient languages which have been lost. Therefore, exact translations are not possible. Nevertheless, the scriptures recognized in Islam are:
      1. The Koran - The Koran (Qur'an) is the inspired word of Allah given to people through the Prophet Muhammad and it supercedes all other scriptures before it. It alone is inerrant and trustworthy as a revelation for today. It is unchanged from the beginning.
      2. The Torah -the first five books of Moses.
      3. The Injil - the gospel message of Jesus in the New Testament
      4. The Psalms - the sacred writings given to David.
5. The Last Day
   1. There is a future day in which this world and its governments and systems will come to end and all people will face judgment based upon their deeds. Muslims go to paradise and non-Muslims go to hell.
6. Divine Preordainments good or bad
   1. In Islam, Allah is completely control of all things and ordains all things that occur.