ISLAM

The six articles of faith

Iman is generally outlined using the six articles of faith: 1. Belief in Allah. 2. Belief in the Angels 3. Belief in the Prophets(A.S) 4. Belief in Divine Books 5. Belief in the Day of Judgment 6. Qadar (Fate) Of these, the first five are mentioned together in the Qur'an [9] and Prophet Muhammad, while including a corollary of belief in Allah the good and evil of fate ordained by God has referred to all six together in the following manner in the Hadith of Gabriel: "Iman is that you believe in God and His Angels and His Books and His Messengers and the Hereafter and the good and evil fate [ordained by your God]." [10] Another similar narration ascribed to the Prophet is: Ibn Abbas narrates that the Angel Jibril once asked the Prophet: "Tell me what is Iman?" The Prophet replied: "Iman is to believe in Allah, the Day of Judgment, His (Allah's) Angels, Books and Prophets and to believe in life after death; and to believe in Paradise and the Fire, and the setting up of the Mizan (scales) to weigh the deeds; and to believe in the Divine Decree, the good and the bad of it (all). Jibril then asked him: "If I do all this will I be with Iman?" The Prophet said: "When you have done all of this, you will be having Iman." [11] It is also assumed that the essential Iman consists of the first 3 items (Belief in God, Prophets, and the Hereafter) Tawhid

Tawhid (Arabic: tawd; English: doctrine of Oneness [of God]; also transliterated Tawheed and Tauheed) is the concept of monotheism in Islam.[1] It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God (Arabic: Allah) is one (wid) and unique (ahad).[2] The Qu'ran asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world; a unique, independent and indivisible being, who is independent of the entire creation.[3] God, according to Islam, is a universal God, rather than a local, tribal, or parochial oneGod is an absolute, who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil.[4] Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession.[5] The first part of the Shahada is the declaration of belief in the oneness of God.[2] To attribute divinity to a created entity, known as shirk, is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in the Qur'an.[4] Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid.[6] There is an uncompromising monotheism at the heart of the Islamic beliefs which distinguishes Islam from othermajor religions.[7] Islamic intellectual history can be understood as a gradual unfolding of the manner in which successive generations of believers have understood the meaning and implications of professing God's Unity. Islamic scholars have different approaches toward understanding it. Islamic theology, jurisprudence,philosophy, Sufism, even to some degree the Islamic understanding of natural sciences, all seek to explain at some level the principle of tawhid Belief in angels Angels (malikah; singular: malk) are heavenly beings mentioned many times in the Quran and hadith. Unlike humans or jinn, they have no free will and therefore can do only what God orders them to do. An example of a task they carry out is testing individuals by granting them abundant wealth and curing their illness.[1] Believing in angels is one of the six Articles of Faith in Islam. Just as humans are made of clay, and jinn are made of smokeless fire, angels are made of light Angel hierarchy[edit] For other angelic hierarchies, see Hierarchy of angels.

There is no standard hierarchical organization in Islam that parallels the division into different "choirs" or spheres, as hypothesized and drafted by early medieval Christian theologians. Most[who?] Islamic scholars agree that this is an unimportant topic in Islam, simply because angels have a simple existence in obeying God already, especially since such a topic has never been directly addressed in the Quran. However, it is clear that there is a set order or hierarchy that exists between angels, defined by the assigned jobs and various tasks to which angels are commanded by God. Some scholars suggest that Islamic angels can be grouped into fourteen categories as follows, of which numbers two-five are considered archangels. Not all angels are known by Muslims however, the Quran and hadith only mentions a few by name. Due to varied methods of translation from Arabic and the fact that these angels also exist in Christian contexts and the Bible, several of their Christian and phonetic transliteral names are listed:

Jibrail/Jibril (Judeo-Christian, Gabriel), the angel of revelation, who is said to be the greatest of the angels. Jibril is the archangel responsible for revealing the Quran to Muhammad, verse by verse. Jibrail is widely known as the angel who communicates with (all of) the prophets and also for coming down with God's blessings during the night of Laylat alQadr ("The Night of Power").

Israfil or Israafiyl (Judeo-Christian, Raphael), is an archangel in Islam who will blow the trumpet twice at the end of time. According to the hadith, Israfil is the angel responsible for signaling the coming of Qiyamah (Judgment Day) by blowing a horn. The blowing of the trumpet is described in many places in the Quran. It is said that the first blow will bring all to attention, will end all life,[3] while the second blow will bring all human beings back to life again to meet their Lord for their final judgement.

Mikail (Judeo-Christian, Michael),[4] who provides nourishments for bodies and souls. Mikail is often depicted as the archangel of mercy who is responsible for bringing rain and thunder to Earth. He is also responsible for the rewards doled out to good people in this life. 'Azrael/'Azraaiyl also known as Malak al-maut (Judeo-Christian, Azrael), the angel of death. He is responsible for parting the soul from the body. He is only referred as malak al-maut, meaning angel of death, in the Quran.[5]

Belief in Revealed books Islamic holy books are the texts which Muslims believe were authored by God to various prophets throughout humanity's history. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws that God ordained for those people. Muslims believe the Quran to be the final revelation of God's word to man, and a completion and confirmation of previous scriptures.[1] Despite the primacy that Muslims place upon the Qur'an as God's final word, Islam speaks of respecting all the previous scriptures, and belief in all the revealed books is an article of faith in Islam. The four revealed books mentioned by name in the Qur'an are the Torah (revealed to Moses A.S), the Zabur (revealed to David A.S), the Injil (Gospel) (revealed to Jesus A.S), and the Qur'an itself. The Quran mentions at least three main Islamic scriptures which came before the Quran by name.

Tawrat (at-Tawrt): According to the Quran, the Tawrat was revealed to Moses,[2] but Muslims believe that the current Torah, although it retains the main message,[citation needed] has suffered corruption over the years, and is no longer reliable. Moses and his brother Aaron (Harun) used the Torah to preach the message to the Banu-Isra'il (Children of Israel). The Quran implies that the Torah is the longest-used scripture, with the Jewish people still using the Torah today, and that all the Hebrew prophets would warn the people of any corruptions that were in the scripture.[3] Zabur (az-Zabur): The Quran mentions the Zabur, often interpreted as being the Book of Psalms, as being the holy scripture revealed to King David. Scholars have often understood the Psalms to have been holy songs of praise.[4] The current Psalms are still praised by many Muslim scholars,[5][6] but Muslims generally assume that some of the current Psalms were written later and are not divinely revealed.[citation needed] Injil (al-Injil): The Injil was the holy book revealed to Jesus, according to the Quran. Although many lay Muslims believe the Injil refers to the entire New Testament, scholars have pointed out that it refers not to the New Testament but to an original Gospel, given to Jesus (Isa) as the word of God (Arabic Allah).[7] Therefore, according to Muslim belief, the Gospel was the message that Jesus, being divinely inspired, preached to the Children of Israel. The current canonical Gospels, in the

belief of Muslim scholars, are not divinely revealed but rather are documents of the life of Jesus, as written by various contemporaries, disciples and companions. These Gospels, in Muslim belief, contain portions of the teachings of Jesus, but neither represent nor contain the original Gospel, which has been corrupted and/or lost, which was a single book written not by a human but by God HinduIslamic relations Hindu Islamic relations began when Islamic influence first came to be found in the Indian subcontinent during the early 7th century. Hinduism andIslam are two of the worlds three largest religions. Hinduism is the socio-religious way of life of the Hindu people of the Indian subcontinent, their diaspora, and some other regions which had Hindu influence in the ancient and medieval times. Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion in which the supreme deity is Allah (Arabic: "the God": see God in Islam), the last Islamic prophet being Muhammad ibn Abdullah, whom Muslims believe delivered the Islamic scripture, the Qur'an. Hinduism mostly shares common terms with the dhrmic religions, including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Islam shares common terms with the Abrahamic religionsthose religions claiming descent from the prophet Abrahambeing, from oldest to youngest, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. The Qur'an is the primary Islamic scripture. Muslims believe it to be the verbatim, uncreated word of Allah. Second to this in religious authority, and whence many practices of Islam derive, especially for Sunnis, are the Sunni six major collections of hadth, which are traditional records of the sayings and acts of Muhammad. The scriptures of Hinduism are the Shrutis (the four Vedas, which comprise the original Vedic Hymns, or Samhitas, and three tiers of commentaries upon the Samhitas, namely the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads[1]); these are considered authentic, authoritative divine revelation. Furthermore, Hinduism is also based on the Smritis (including the Rmyana, the Bhagavad Gt [part of the Mahabharata cycle], and thePurnas), which are considered to be of secondary authority and of human creation. The below article briefly describes some of the many differences and some similarities between Hinduism and Islam.