Islam- core beliefs Flashcards
List the 6 articles of faith- Sunni islam
- tawhid
- belief about angels
- belief about books
- belief about the messengers of Allah
- Akhirah and day of judgement
- Al’Qadr (predestination)
List 5 principles of Usul Ad-Din-Shia islam
- tawhid
- divine justice (Al-Adl)
- prophethood (Al-Nubuwah)
- imams (Al-Imamah)
- day of resurrection (Al-Ma’ad)
Tawhid + beliefs about Allah…
- most important belief (there is one God)
- he is infinite
- omnipotent and omniscient
- merciful and benevolent
- transcendent + immanent
- fair and just
Effects of Tawhid on believers…
- give their whole lives to the will of Allah
- they understand everything they have is from the will of Allah
- no reason to be boastful
- content with their lives
- have nothing to fear as death is set by Allah
- placing anything above Allah=sin of shirk
What is a prophet?
- a messenger chosen by Allah to teach, guide and train people to follow him
- they are human and cant be worshipped
What do prophets do?
-give guidance on how to follow Allah and live in a way that pleases him
Role + importance of Adam.
- first prophet
- sent out of Al-jannah as he was disobediant
Role + importance of Ibrahim..
- father of the Arab people
- Muslims honour Ibrahim’s life and commitment to the faith
- recognised as the father of monotheism
Role + importance of Isma’il.
- son of Ibrahim
- built the Kaaba with Ibrahim
Role + importance of Musa.
- became leader of the Israelites under the guidance of Allah
- freed the Israelites
- revealed the Tawrat to Musa and gave him the 10 commandments
Role + importance of Dawud.
- king of israelites=people lived in respect for Allah
- revealed Zabur to Dawud
Role + importance of Isa
- performed many miracles
- sunni muslims believe that he is the messiah and will return on the day of judgement
- According to the hadith, Isa will make war until all religions except Islam are destroyed
- believed he did not die but was taken into Allahs presence
Role + importance of Muhammed
- ‘seal of the prophets’, provided the final revelation of Allah in the for of the Qur’an
- Qur’an=direct words of Allah
What is the importance of the night of power?
- Muhammed recited the first revealed verses of the Qur’an
- angel Jibra’il declared Muhammed as the messenger of Allah
- occured during the last of the 10 nights of Ramadan, Muslims devote themselves to prayer and the reading of the Qur’an
What happened in the night journey?
- an angel woke Muhammed and hus heart was purified from doubt, idolatry and error +he was filled with wisdom
- he ascended through 7heavens + was shown paradise and hell
- he spoke with other prophets
What is the importance of the night journey?
- Musa and Muhammed talked about how many times a muslim should pray-they agreed on 5
- he entered the presence of Allah + was aware of peace, light and blessings
- some Muslims believe it wasn’t a journey but a spiritual experience
What did Muhammed do after the Hijrah?
- ruled the community of Yathrib + viewed Allah as the only king so he lived a simple life + taught self-discipline and obedience to Allah
- Muhammed gave instructions on pilgrimage, charity, fasting and prayer
What was the farewell speech?
- He gave 140,000 Muslims guidance and reminded them to live in peace, respect each others rights and remain true to Qur’an
- crowd responded with ‘you have fulfilled it, messenger of Allah’
What is divine justice for Shia muslims?
- there is a framework of right and wrong
- Allah is perfect and always acts in a way that is right
- humans should use their free will to act in a way that is right
- no such thing as predestination as humans have free will
Quotes on Muhammed..
- ‘seal of the prophets’
- ‘He neither begets nor is begotten’
- ‘you have in the messenger of Allah a perfect exempler’
- ‘template of perfection’
Jabariyyah school views on predestination
-believe all human actions are determined by Allah + that humans have no free will
Mu’taraliah beliefs on predestination
- human free will means no predestination
- believe on the day of judgement, each person will be judged on the actions they did- fate of each person is determined by Allah divine justice
Ash’ari beliefs on predestination
- try to find a middle way- arguing that while God created everything, he also could ‘require’ the act and make a choice between the right course of action + wrong one
- believed that Allah used divine intercession
Sunni beliefs on predestination
- baby recieves soul 120 days after conception-angel records everything + it is read out on the day of judgement
- decisions humans make with their free will will affect rewards and punishments Allah will make- He already knows these decisions
Shia beliefs on predestination + quote
- Allah’s always in possession of full + complete knowledge of all things and can change anything he wills
- ‘there is no compulsion in the religion. The right direction is distinctly clear from error’
Sunni views on free will
- God’s will is supreme + he controls everything
- however, free will is still possible as humans dont know what Allah wants from them=humans find free will in finding out what Allah wants from them
Shia beliefs on free will
- Allahs knowledge does not impact human free will
- Allah will judge on the choices humans have made
Barzakh…
-the ‘inbetween life’ where muslims are questoned by 2 angels + are rewarded or punished
Significance of Muhammed
- all previous prophets prepared the way for Muhammed
- in islamic tradition, Muhammed is the greatest and final prophet
- provided the final revelation
- Muslims devote themselves to praying on the night of power
- has 2 books written on him and is the only one regarded as perfect- ‘template of perfection’
Key similarities on sunni + shia beliefs
- both believe in unity of Allah
- Muhammed in Allahs prophet
- believe in day of resurrection
Key differences on sunni and shia beliefs
- sunni believe that Muhammed alone was given knowledge from Allah
- shia believe Allah gave knowledge to first imam, Ali and the knowledge had been passed down through each imam
Paragraph against Muhammed being unique amongst other prophets in 16 marker
- pbuh said after every prophet
- He is ‘no more than a messanger’
- not the only one to have a holy text
- he forbade others from saying he is better than other prophets
- was not the first to establish monotheism or the faith
- did not build the ka’aba
- Isa was said to be messiah + performed many miracles
