Moslem should know and memorize the six pillars of faith in Islam moreover to those who is new one. Because it is very essential after five pillars of Islam. While pillars of Islam teach us about the religious action should Moslems perform, in the six pillars of faith (Iman) teach us to believe everything that taught in Islam by our Messenger. As in the five pillars of Islam, the faith must place in order.
Iman in Arabic means faith or to strongly believe in something. To a person, faith is the confidence of themselves to rely on something not only to confess the truth but implement in their daily life sincerely. According to our Prophet Mohammed in the hadith that told Iman is a knowledge in the heart, a voiced tongue, and limbs activity. So that when the person has a faith (of Islam), then he not only acknowledges his heart but also by saying and daily activities.
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As quoted in Quran 4:136 (An Nisaa) about faith then it is known by six pillars of Iman as quoted below:
“O you who believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He revealed upon His Messenger (the Qur’an) and the book He revealed before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels, His books, and His messengers, and the Day of the Last (judgement day) then surely he has lost the way straying far away”
Here the information about six pillar of Iman in Islam, as follows:
1. Believe in Allah, the only God
The first pillar of Iman as the foundation is believing in Allah as the only God. Allah in Arabic means God for Abrahamic Religion, and commonly Allah is referring to God in Islam. The name is derived from Al-Ilahi which is the same meaning as God. The name is similar used by Hebrew Elohim. In Islam, believing in Allah is called tawhid as quoted in Quran 112:1-4 (Al-Ikhlaas):
“Say: He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Eternally Besought. He neither begets nor He was born; and there is none comparable unto Him.”
It is clear that the one and only God is Allah. Allah is the only one eternally. He does not have a descendant or even being born. Those who consider God into a thing beside Him then it considers as shirk and accused to be the unforgiven sin. Meanwhile, in Quran, there are 99 names dedicated to Allah as define the character namely Asma-ul-Husna. It has the meaning of beautiful name, as quoted in Quran 7:180 (Al-A’raf)
“And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them. And leave [the company of] those who practice deviation concerning His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.”
Some of the name describing Allah are Ar-Rahman (The Beneficent) and Arrahim (The Merciful) as we recite basmallah in the beginning of all dua as well begin with the activities:
“Bismillahi rahmani raheem”
“In the names of Allah which is The Beneficent and The Merciful”
It means that when we start to do some activities including prayer, as well when we begin the recitation of a surah, we remember Allah which is the Beneficent and the Merciful. It is clearly said that God of Islam is very Merciful, very Compassionate loving with all of the creatures. As mentioned in Asma-al-Husna that Allah is the Great Forgiver (Al-Ghaffar), the Guardian (Al-Hafiz), the Protector (Al-Muhaymin), so that Islam teaches for loving, kind, gentle, humble and forgiving to all of the human being, for pleasing their God with all of the characters.
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2. Believe in Angels
Allah creates angels from pure light before the creation of Adam. They do not eat as well sleep, they are free from weakness, and don’t get aillness. They are created for obeying Allah’s command and worshipping Him.
As quoted in Quran 21:20 (An-Anbiya)
“ They glorify Him night and day and they are not slacken (weak)”
The angels as well quoted in Quran 6:66:
“Angels are stern severe, they do not disobey Allah what He commands them, but they do what they are commanded”
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The following is the names of the angels including their task:
- Jibreel (Gabriel) – the Supreme Angel which in charge communication between Allah’s to His prophets, as well to send the revelation to the messenger.
- Israfeel (Raphael) – in charge of blowing the trumpet starting the Day of Judgment
- Mikail (Michael) – in charge of giving sustenance to the human being.
- Munkar and Nakeer – they in charge for questioning the human soul after death in the grave about their deeds during life.
- Malak Am-Maut / Izraeel (Angel of Death) – in charge of taking the souls from the body in the time of death.
- Malik – in charge for guardian of hell
- Ridwan – in charge of guardian of heaven
- Ateed- the angel who write all the bad deeds of a human during world’s life.
- Raqeeb – the angel who write all good deeds of a human during the world’s life.
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3. Believe in the Holy Quran
Allah guided to people in particular area who had almost lost the piety and moral. He revealed several divine revelations via His messengers which blessed by knowledge, wisdom, and faith to One God. The books guided people to understand that Allah is the One and there is no God but Allah, command to worship only Allah without exception. It also explains about life after death and obeys the Messenger, and if they do not do that, God will give any punishment no matter what.
The holy books given by Allah are mentioned:
- Suhuf (Scrolls) which is given to Prophet Ibrahim Alaihissalam (Abraham).
- Zaboor (Psalms) s given to Prophet Dawood Alayhissalam (David).
- Tawrah (Torah) is given to Prophet Musa Alayhissalam (Moses).
- Injeel (Gospel) is given to Prophet Isa Alayhissalam (Jesus).
- Holy Quran is given to Prophet Mohammed Sallallahu Alahi Wa Salam.
It is as well quoted in Al Quran 3:3 (Ali Imran):
“He revealed to you (Mohammed) the Book in the truth (Quran), confirming that which was before it. And He revealed the Tauraat and the Injeel”
Moslem believe all of the revelation from God gave to Prophets. They believe for all Holy Books is existed, but in nowadays it is hardly finding the original one since the Books has a lot of change. However, Moslem must follow the last revelation from God which is given to Mohammed, the Quran. Quran was given by revelation to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by God not only to certain tribe or nation but also all of human kind in the world.
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Quran is revealed by Mohammed firstly in Hira Cave brought by Angel Gabriel (Jibril) when he was 40 years old. At times he secluded from the outside world which at that time there were many people worshipping the idol. It was the last ramadhan then it is known by Layla-ul-Qadr (the night of power). During his meditation, The Angel Gabriel appeared and asked him to read. Since Mohammed was illiterate, he rejected. The angel push him and squeeze him until surrendered, then finally obey what the angel asked. It is the first time Prophet Mohammed had revelation as quote in Quran 96:1-5 (Al Alaq):
“Recite in the name of your Lord the One who created. He Created man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord must be generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man that which he not knew”
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Quran is the last message of the God revealed to the last Prophet as the Messenger of Allah. All moslems believe that it is the truest word of Allah brought by Gabriel to the Messenger. In fact, the Prophet Mohammed was illiterate which he could not write in but to send to his companions and recorded by write it down. The companions then recited back to the Prophet to ensure that the content of revelation given by God was correctly scripted.
Al Quran consisting of 114 chapters (surah), the lenght has more than 200 verses to come chapter which only 3 chapters, and divided into 30 parts (Jooz). The prophet had revealed the Quran for about 23 years. The Quran revealed in Arabic language, transcripted in Arabic and spreaded all over the world and recited by the Moslems also in Arabic and has been translated in various language in every country. Moslem should recite Quran in the Arabic for it refer the original language, for gaining the greater sense of the true meaning, since the translation has various intepretation in the different language.
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4. Believe in Prophets of Allah
All moslem believe the Prophet and Messenger of Allah. They are the gifted human that received a revelation from God, which is guiding the mankind into the morality and goodness and the main point is believing that God is the one and only the Creator of this universe. Human must worship Him and follow His order and leave the restrictions. The former messengers of Mohammed were ordered to send the God’s revelation to each nations, for worshipping the only one God (Allah). However, Mohammed as the last Messenger was appointed for all of the mankind because the Quran is designed to fit for all human being to believe in Allah.
There are many prophets sent by Allah but quoted in Quran is only 25 prophets (as well mentioned in Bible):
- Adam ( Adam ).
- Idris ( Enoch ).
- Nuh ( Noah ).
- Hud ( Eber ).
- Saleh (Shaloh).
- Ibrahim ( Abraham ).
- Lut ( Lot ).
- Isma’il ( Ishmael ).
- Ishaq ( Isaac ).
- Yaqub ( Jacob ).
- Yusuf ( Joseph ).
- Ayoub ( Job ).
- Shu‘aib ( Jethro ).
- Musa ( Moses ).
- Harun ( Aaron ).
- Dhul-Kifl ( Ezekiel ).
- Daud ( David ).
- Sulayman ( Solomon ).
- Ilyas ( Elijah ).
- Al-Yasa ( Elisha ).
- Yunus ( Jonah ).
- Zakariya ( Zechariah ).
- Yahya ( John ).
- Isa ( Jesus ).
- Muhammad SAW.
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5. Believe in the Judgement Day
Moslem must believe to the judgement day when Allah terminate creating all creature and human being. After all destroy and finally dead, He will raise all of mankind and lead them back to Him. All of the good and bad deeds will valued by Allah. Moslem believe the doomsday and the sign of it as predicted in the Quran and Hadith.
The signs of doomsday is told that the appearing of Dajjal, the Appearing of Imam Mahdi, Isa (Jesus) went down to the world (as he directly went to the heaven and never die), and the appearance of Ya’juj and Ma’juj.
Allah will count our deeds during the world life and scale them. As quoted in Quran 21:47 (An-Anbiya).
“And we set the scale of the justice, for the day of the ressurection, so any soul were not be wrong any soul in anything. And if there would be weight of a seed of the mustard. We will bring it which sufficient we are as the reckoners. “
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The weight of the deed will followed by a revelation of the person’s deed of the note during in the life. The person who has a good deed in the right hand, he will be promised of heaven, while in the contrary, the bad deed one will be thrown into hell. The heaven and hell is described in Quran recitation, as quoted in Quran 13:23 Ar- Raad)
“Heaven of Eden; they will enter them with whoever were righteous among their fathers, their spouses and their offspring. And the angels will enter upon them from every gate,”
Heaven is describes the beautiful garden which we cannot only imagine because it is beyond that. So whoever obey and worship the God a lot, then the Angels will open them in every gate.
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In Quran 92:14 Al-Lail:
“So I have warned you of a Fire which is blazing.”
At contrary, those who don’t believe and rejected to believe Allah, and for sinner, for the bad deed is more than good ones will punish to enjoy the fire of the hell. God warned it through the Quran.
For when will the day of the doomsday is only ones He knows. People still have a lot of chance before the death to believe Him and obey His command, with a lot of worship and remembrance of Allah.
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6. Belief in God’s predestination (Qada and Qadar)
Allah has recorded all that happened in the very begining of life until the final day of the world and keep into the Al Lawh Al-Mahfuz. Asmentioned in Quran 22:70:
“Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heaven and earth? Indeed, that is in a Record. Indeed that, for Allah, is easy”
We must believe for the predestination of Allah about the event (Qadaa) and the fate (Qadar) according to His will. If God wish to occurs than it will be, but He don’t than it does not occurs at all. Allah knows what people do not, nothing occurs except His will.
The Messenger said about the predestionation from Allah:
“Allah, the Exalted and the Glorious, has ordained to the mankind five things amongst His creation: the death, the action, the abode, the place of living, and the sustenance.”
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However, Allah give the human free will and the destiny does not caused the influence in human choices. Allah does not judge for the action and event of human made beyond the control. Human has free to decide what the best of the life but Allah define.
Thus the six pillar of Iman in Islam. Hopefully the article will give the benefit and knowledge of Islam.