The 6 pillars of faith — arkān al-īmān

When Jibrīl ʿalayhi as-salām appeared before the Prophet ﷺ in human form and publicly asked him "What is īmān?", he ﷺ replied:

"To believe in Allāh, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in divine decree — its good and its evil."
— Muslim 8 (the "Hadith of Jibrīl")

1 · Belief in Allāh ﷻ

The first and most fundamental pillar. Not merely "believing that a god exists" — that is something others do too. But believing in tawḥīd: that Allāh ﷻ is the Only One, without partner, without equal, without son, without any likeness. He has no beginning, no end, no body that we can imagine.

2 · Belief in the angels

Created beings of light (nūr — Muslim 2996), without free will. They obey Allāh ﷻ completely. Well-known angels: Jibrīl (the messenger of revelation), Mīkāʾīl (provision and rain), Isrāfīl (the trumpet on the Day of Judgement), Malak al-Mawt (the angel of death), Munkar & Nakīr (the grave questioners).

3 · Belief in the books

Allāh ﷻ sent revealed scriptures: the Tawrāh (to Mūsā ʿalayhi as-salām), the Zabūr (to Dāwūd), the Injīl (to ʿĪsā), and the Qurʾān as the last — for all of humanity until the Day of Judgement. The Qurʾān is the only one preserved in its original form (Qurʾān 15:9).

4 · Belief in the messengers

Around 25 are mentioned by name in the Qurʾān, beginning with Ādam and ending with Muḥammad ﷺ. All of them carried the same core message: tawḥīd. Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā were not followers of Christianity, Judaism or "another religion" — they were muslim in the essential meaning: submitted to Allāh ﷻ.

5 · Belief in the Last Day

Our time on earth is a test (Qurʾān 67:2). After it comes death, the grave (with questioning), the Day of Judgement, the weighing of deeds, the ṣirāṭ bridge, and ultimately Jannah or Jahannam — for eternity.

6 · Belief in divine decree — al-qadar

Allāh ﷻ knows all things (past, present, future). Nothing happens except by His will. This does not undermine our responsibility — we have real free will within His knowledge. Two extremes to avoid:

Jabriyyah ("everything is decreed, so I bear no responsibility"). Wrong — Qurʾān 18:29.
Qadariyyah ("Allāh has no prior knowledge, I determine everything"). Wrong — Qurʾān 6:59.

Tawḥīd in 3 categories — Ibn Taymiyyah's framework

Tawḥīd ar-Rubūbiyyah

Allāh's oneness in lordship — He is the sole Creator, Sustainer, Administrator. Even the Quraysh acknowledged this (Qurʾān 23:84-89). Affirming this alone does not make one a Muslim — it is a rational truth, not the totality of īmān.

Tawḥīd al-Ulūhiyyah / Tawḥīd al-ʿIbādah

Allāh's oneness in worship — all ʿibādah (prayer, duʿāʾ, sacrifice, hope, fear, trust) is directed to Him alone. This is the core of the message of all the prophets. Here is where the Quraysh failed — they believed in one Creator but worshipped others alongside Him.

Tawḥīd al-Asmāʾ wa-ṣ-Ṣifāt

Allāh's oneness in names and attributes — what He ascribes to Himself (such as "the Hand", "the Face", "He sees", "He hears"), we affirm without likening Him to creation, and without denying the meaning. The classical position: "We know that He hears, not how" (Imām Mālik).

Common misunderstandings

"But Muslims, Christians, Jews — do we not all believe in the same God?"

Answer: yes and no. Towards whom they direct their worship — the Creator — is the same reality. But how they describe Him differs fundamentally. Christian trinitarianism violates Tawḥīd al-Ulūhiyyah (worship of three persons). Jewish reduction of prophethood violates belief in the messengers. The core deficiency always falls within one of the three tawḥīd categories.

"Bidʿah is anything that came after the Prophet ﷺ"

Not quite. New technology (cars, microphones, the internet) is not bidʿah — that falls under the jurisprudence of permissibility. Bidʿah is specifically the addition of new doctrines or new forms of ʿibādah that the Prophet ﷺ did not teach. "Whoever introduces something into this affair of ours that is not part of it, it is rejected." (Bukhārī 2697)

"Ahl as-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah — what is that?"

A term for the mainstream Muslims who follow the ʿaqīdah of the Prophet ﷺ and his ṣaḥābah, without splitting off into extreme directions (such as the Khārijīs, extreme Shīʿah, Muʿtazilah, etc.). It encompasses ~85–90% of Muslims worldwide today, including the 4 Sunni madhāhib.

ʿAqīdah basics