The basic articles of belief in Islam are six. Unlike the five pillars of Islam, that are basically about practical rituals, the six articles of faith are spiritual and require firm belief in the heart.
They are:
1- Belief in the Oneness of God
2- Belief in the angels of God
3- In the Divine Books
4- Belief in all God’s Prophets
5- Belief in the Day of Judgment
6- And belief in Qadar (predestination)
The one who believes in these six articles is called “mu’min” (a believer).
Belief in One God
This is the first, and the foundation of the whole of Islam.
The one God is called Allah in Arabic. Actually, Allah has ninety-nine names. We are going to start off by looking at a couple of Allah’s names, which actually reflect His attributes.
Is Allah Different from God?
Very often, we have the understanding that Allah is different from God. I was being brought up as a Christian, when I was doing religious education at school, I was told that Allah was the name of the Muslim God, and God was the name of the Christian God.
But actually, when we look at it in its entirety, this isn’t correct.
If you look at Arab Christians, they call God “Allah”. So, it’s really a translation rather than a different God.
Allah – The Unique Name
The reason why Muslims call God “Allah” rather than God and prefer to do this even though it’s fine to translate it to God, the word “Allah” in Arabic can not be made plural; it also can’t be made masculine or feminine.
This makes the word and the attribute of God completely unique, which reflects what God is.
We believe that God is above His creation that actually He has no need for any procreation to be married or have children; He is completely unique, there is nothing like God.
This is why we use the word Allah.
What About the Attributes of God?
God gets negative publicity, but if you look at His names, you’ll find nothing but positivity and love.
One of the names that I want to leave you with is Ar Rahman.
At the beginning of each chapter of the Quran, the name Ar Rahman is mentioned, which means the Most Merciful.
We believe that God is the Most Merciful and the Most Gracious; He has Mercy on all His creation.
In fact we believe this so much to the fact that we can see this mercy around us.
When we look at the creatures, who are ferocious hunters, such as the crocodile that actually keeps its young in its mouth and doesn’t destroy them or eat them.
Look at the mercy of God on these tiny birds that are able to migrate from the UK and from other European and northern hemisphere countries right across to the southern hemisphere, where do they learn all this amazing stuff?
Ponder on Allah’s creation and feel His mercy.
If you try to learn about the names of God, you will certainly know Him and love Him.
(From Discovering Islam archive)
The post Only One God – The Core Belief in Islam appeared first on About Islam.
source https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/living-islam/only-one-god-the-core-belief-in-islam/
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