The Faith in Islam. Iman-e-Mujmal and Iman-e-Mufassal:

The Faith in Islam is also spelled in the statements known as Iman-e-Mujmal and Iman-e-Mufassal:

 Iman-e-Mujmal

        The Roman transliteration of the Arabic statement is as follows:

“amantu billahi Kama Huwa Bi asmaihi wa sifatihi wa qubiltu jamia

Ahkamihi wa arkanihi .”

Meaning:I believe in Allah as he exists with His names and qualities. And thus accepted all of His commandments,rules and regulations.

In addition to the shahada there are seven other important believes which are essential for a Muslim to believe in. These are spelled out in detail in the formal declaration of Islamic faith known as Iman-e- Mufassal. Muslims pledge:

Iman-e-Mufassal: (The Detailed Declaration of Faith)

 Iman-e- Mufassal , includes the Six other important believes which Muslim should believe in. It is spelled as follows 

Transliteration of Arabic: 

“Aamantu bilLahi wa Malaikatihi wa Kutubihi wa Rusulihi wal Yawmul Akhirihi wal Qadri khairihi wa sharrihi minALlahi Ta’ala wal ba’sihi Ba’adal Mawt.”

Translation: I believe in ALlāh; and His Angels; and His Books; and His Messengers; and the Day of Judgment; and that of Fate, the good and the bad given by ALlāh Ta’ala; and the Life after Death.

Details Of Iman-e-Mufassal:

1) Faith in Allah : It best described by chapter 112 of holy Qur;an as: " Say, He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him" (112:1–4).

2) Faith in Angels:

In Islam, angels (Arabic: ملك malak; plural: ملاًئِكة malā'ikah) are believed to be celestial beings, created from a luminious origin by Allah. They have different functions, including praising God in the heavens,recording the deeds of the humans, interacting with humans' ordinary life and carrying laws of nature, delivering Allah;s message to the prophets.Belief in angels is one of the seven articles of faith.

The exact number of angels is not  mentioned anywhere in the Qur'an or in the hadith. Including  the famous "Four Archangels'', they are believed to be large in number. Each one or a group of them assigned a function.

 

a)   Jibril /Gabriel (PBUH): He duty is to convey revelations to the prophets by Allah. He is the one conved Allah's message to all the prophrts from Adam(pbuh) to Muhammad(pbuh).

 

b)  Israfel/The Angel of Soor (The Trumpet): 

Israfel is the one who blows the trumpet. Israfel will blow trumpet/soor, two times, on the first one trumpet the Doomsday will occur and in the second blowing, the resurrection of all the will occur. Because of this duty he is called the angel of Soor (the Trumpet).

 

c) Azrael (A.S) /Angel of Death: 

He is assigned the duty of grasping the soul, when the death time of a person comes, that is why he is called as “Malak-ul Mawt”, that is, the angel of death.

 

d) Mikail (A.S) (Michael) : 

The Angel that controls the events like  pouring of rain, the blowing of the wind, natural events such as the ordering of seasons etc.

 

e) Angels Kiraman Katibin:

 

These are a group of the angels who are assigned on the left and right of every human being.

Their duty is to make a record of human deeds. One of them will record good deeds and the other will record sins/ bad deeds and manners.

 

f) Angels Munkar - Nakir:

These are the angels who enter the grave of a  person after he is buried and ask the famous "four questions to the dead".

 

In addition to these there are angels mentioned in the'2d Qur'an " Those who sustain the Throne (of Allah) and those around it sing Glory and Praise to their Lord; believe in Him; and implore forgiveness for those who believe.” (Surah Ghafir, 7)

And many more......

3) Faith InThe Books:

Muslims believe in the existence of the books of which Allah is the author:

The Qur’an revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

The Gospel revealed to Prophet Esa (Jesus Christ)(pbuh)

The Torah revealed to Prophet Mosa (Moses) (pbuh)

The Psalms to Prophet Dawood (David)(pbuh).

 In addition to these the scriptures given to Prophet Ibrahim(Abraham)(pbuh). 

Muslims belive that Qur’an is the word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad and is its preserved unchanged tiil date and will be protected from any manupulation by the God till the domsday.

Muslims believe that all the previous scriptures revealed to other prophets are not preserved in the form they were revealed. These previous scriptures were  distorted, forgotten, modified and manipulated by followers of their prophets over a period of time once their prophets left this world.

4) Faith in Prophets (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) 

Muslims belive that Prophet Muhammad is the last and final Prophet of God.

A prophet is someone who receives a revelation to teach Islam, whereas a messenger is a Prophet that brings new rules that his followers must follow. Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is both prophet and messenger.

Muslims believe in all the prophets from Adam to Jesus. Muslim belive that all the prophets were Muslim and the religion they preached was Islam, as menntioned in the holy Qur’an. Infact, for a Muslims its an article of faith to love, respect and follow the teachings of all the prophets from Adam to Jesus. For this reason Muslims love and show aaatmost respect to Moses, Jesus and other prophets but Christians and Jews dont.

5) Faith In The Day of Resurrection/Day of Judgemaent/ Life after death.

Muslims believe that this world is only a bridge that man should pass over so as to join an eternal life.

We believe that all men and women will be raised up on a certain day after death. They all will be judged, and those who are good and virtuous shall live in Paradise (the garden of bliss), and the sinners will join the fire in Hell.

"Allah, there is no God but He. Of a surety He will gather you all together in the resurrection day about which there is no doubt, and whose word can be truer than Allah?" (Holy Qur’an, 4:87)

"As for he who transgressed and chose this present life, his abode will be Hellfire. And as for those who feared to stand before their LORD, and restrained their souls from lusts, (low desires) their abode will be Paradise." (Holy Qur’an, 79:37)

6) Belief in the existence of God's predestination, whether it involves good or bad.

Qadar is one of the aspects of aqidah. Muslims believe that the divine destiny is when God wrote down in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfooz) (several other spellings are used for this in English) all that has happened and will happen, which will come to pass as written. According to this belief, a person's action is not caused by what is written in the preserved tablet, but rather the action is written in the tablet because God already knows all occurrences without the restrictions of time.

“The requirements of faith are that you should believe in Allah and in His Angels and in His Books and in His Prophets and in the Last Day and that you should believe in Allah’s determination of good or of evil (Decree of Allah)”. (Muslim)

The Six Articles of Islamic Faith mentioned in the above tradition are as follows:

1. Belief in Allah (One God)

2. Belief in Angels of Allah

3. Belief in Books of Allah

4. Belief in Prophets of Allah

5. Belief in the Last Day

6. Belief in the Decree of Allah

The first five Articles of Faith are mentioned together in different chapters of the Holy Qur’an (2:178, 4:137), while the sixth article is mentioned separately in other chapters (57:23 We let you know this˺ so that you neither grieve over what you have missed nor boast over what He has granted you. For Allah does not like whoever is arrogant, boastful—).

The Shahādah of Islam Or The Article of Islamic faith

The Shahādah of Islam Or The Article Of Islamic faith              

    بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

     (Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm)

     In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

Praise be to Allah.

Shahādah is the first of five pillars of Islam. Anyone who wants to become a Muslim, he/she has to declare the Shahādah. It is the basic article of the Islamic faith. 

The word šahādah is derived from the root word šhahida meaning "to observe, witness, testify”. So the word šahādah is translated as "testimony",  the testimony of Islamic faith. It is as follows

لَآ اِلٰهَ اِلَّااللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللہِ         

 “ lā ilāha illā -llāh, muḥammadur rasūlu -llāh ”.

"There is no God but Allah and Muhammad(pbuh)  is His messenger."

When a person recites this Shahadah of Islam, he/she proclaims that :

Allah is the one and only God (there is no God beside Allah), and that Muhammad (pbuh) is His Messenger 

By declaring Shahadah of Islam a Muslim accept that he/she will obey all the commitments of Islam in their life.

Shahada of Islam or The article of the Islamic faith

Becoming a Muslim, how to become a Muslim, how to accept Islam, what should I do to become a Muslim, How do you say the Shahadah?, What Is The Islamic Testimony Of Faith ?, How To Take Shahadah ?:

Reciting the statement the article of Islamic faith  ( with sincerity, understanding) is all that anyone needs to do to become a Muslim. A person is expected to recite this statement, wholeheartedly, understand it, and abide by it till death. 

The Arabic statement of shahada can be transliterated into the Roman as follows :

Ashhadu-an la Ilaha Illa Allah Wa Ashhadu Anna Muhammad Rasulu Allah

Meaning :

"I bear witness that, there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that, Muhammad is his Messenger".

Traditionally the words “ Ashhadu-an” which means “I bear witness that” 0r “I testify that” are often included while proclaiming the Shahādah.

 Shahada Of Islamic has two parts

1) The first part of the shahada of Islam is that "There is no God but Allah" In this part of Shahādah, a person in order to become a Muslim first rejects all the previously believed deities as false deities and then accepts Allah as the one and only God. This is the first part of šahādah is called tawḥīd (oneness of God or monotheism). 

A person who gives the Islamic shahada is a “Muvahid”, that means, a monotheist believing Allah as the 0ne and only God. 

This principle of monotheism, “called tawḥīd (Arabic: توحيد‎)”, is the most fundamental concept in Islam. A Muslim has to observe rigorous monotheism. He /she has to believe that Allah is the one and only in his essence, in his right to be worshiped and in his attributes. A Muslim has to believe that God has no parents, no children, or there is nothing similar or equal to Him. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and thus Muslims are not expected to anthropomorphize him (attribute human characteristics or behavior to the god).

God is described in the Holy Qur’an chapter 112  as:

 " Say, He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him" (112:1–4).

[Definition of tawḥīd: Believing that Allaah is One with no partner or associate in His Lordship (ruboobiyyah), divinity (uloohiyyah) or names and attributes (al-asma’ wa-sifaat).

Attributes of Allah: God is described and referred to by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahmān, meaning "The Compassionate" and Al-Rahīm, meaning "The Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).There are 99 attributes of Allah mentioned in Islam.]

After understanding the concept of tawḥīd.  A Muslim should also understand the concept of “shirk”. Shirk is the exact opposite of tawḥīd. 

Islam rejects polytheism and idolatry, associating partners, attributing children or parents to Allah. Islam rejects the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, Hinduism's idol or nature worship. Associating partners with Allah or polytheism or idolatry is called Shirk. Shirk is the greatest of all sins in Islam. A Muslim always tries to protect himself from shirk. A true Muslim prefers to give his life but never likes to commit shirk.

Regarding Shirk the following verse of the Holy Qur’an asserts:

“Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be associated with him(shirk), and forgives what is besides that to whomsoever He pleases, and whoever associates anything with Allah, he devises indeed a great sin.” (Surah an-Nisā’ 4:48)

It means that whoever dies as a polytheist, there is no chance of his salvation. Although Allah (S.w.T.) may forgive any of those who have committed any other sin.

 Allah (S.w.T.) says:

“Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah(commits shirk), then Allah has forbidden to him the garden(paradise), and his abode is the fire(hell); and there shall be no helpers for the unjust.” (Surah al-Mā’ida 5:72)

Also, the Holy Qur’an states:

“Do not associate aught with Allah; most surely polytheism is a grievous iniquity.” 

(Surah Luqmān 31:13).

“And whoever associates anything with Allah, he devises indeed a great sin.” 

(Surah an-Nisā’ 4:48)

2) The second part of the shahada of Islam:

The second part of the shahada of Islam is“ Muhammad (pbuh) is His Messenger”,

Muslims believe that Muhammad(pbuh)  was God’s last and final Prophet and Messenger (pbuh). He is the seal of prophethood. He was sent as a mercy to all mankind.

Faith in Prophet Muhammad(pbuh)  entails believing in all his teachings and follow in our lives. A Muslim should believe that Qur’an is the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh). A Muslim should believe that whatever the Prophet speaks concerning the Deen (religion) is from Allah. A Muslim should love Prophet Muhammad(pbuh)  more than his own life. A Muslim should make Prophets Muhammad(pbuh) as the ideal of his life.

A true Muslim follows the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) in his teachings and doings. His doings and teachings are preserved by his companions and are called Sunnah or Hadith.

Conclusion: So shahadah of Islam is the declaration, which has to be made by a person who wants to enter Islam. 

Thanks For Reading.

please leave your comment