Islam Beliefs Flashcards
(33 cards)
List 6 Beliefs of Sunni Islam.
|SOFA
Allah (tawhid)
Angels (malaikah)
Holy books (kitub)
Messengers (risalah)
Judgement, Last Day, Afterlife (akhirah)
Predestination (al-Qadr)
SOFA “Whoever disbelieves in God and his angels and his scriptures and his messengers and the last day, truly he wondered far astray” Quaran
List 5 beliefs of Shia Islam.
These are often referred to as the five roots of Shi’a Islam or the Five Roots of Usul ad-Din. Using the image of roots shows that these principles are the foundations of the faith.
Tawhid (oneness of God)
Adalat (Justice of God)
Nubuwwah (Prophets)
Qiyamah OR Al Ma’ad? (Judgement/ Day of judgement and resurrection)
Imamah (Sucessor of prophets- according to Shia Muslims, God has appointed 12 leaders of the Islamic community from the descendants of the prophet. These chosen leaders are called Imams. The final Imam has gone into hiding and will come back during the Final Days. Sunnis reject all of this.
Why is there a Shia - Sunni split?
Sunni-Shia Split
Began when they disagreed as to who should lead Islamic community after prophet Muhammad died:
Sunnis wanted Muhammad’s close friend, loyal follower Abu Bakr to become to leader.
Shias wanted Ali, the cousin/son in law to become leader
Ali died and his son Husayn was killed, finalised the split
Shia Muslims believe God has appointed 12 leaders of Islam in history, all descendants of prophet, last one has gone into hiding and will come at the end.
What is the importance of the 6 beliefs?
It says so in the Qur’an!
Source of Authority (SofA): These six beliefs are based on the Quran: ‘Whoever disbelieves in God and his angels and his scriptures and his messengers and the Last Day, truly he wandered far astray.’ (Quran, 4:136)
What is Allah’s nature?
Give a SOFA plus details
Source of Authority: “And your Allah is One Allah. There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.” Qur’an 2:163
* Allah is the Arabic for God
* Has no plural form (ie. it’s impossible to say ‘Allahs’ in Arabic)
* We know about what Allah is like from the Qur’an, God’s final word, undistorted, God’s actual word.
* The 99 names of God in the Qur’an include things like Creator, Tremendous, All-Knowing, etc.
* Subha beads are used in prayer when Muslims are remembering the 99 names.
Give some qualities of Allah.
One
Omnipotent
Omnibenevolent
Just
Immanent (near)
Transient (beyond the earth)
Only God can have both imminence and transendence because he is powerful.
How is Allah shown to be Just?
- God is described as ‘all just’ in the Quran meaning he has created the world in a way that there are rules which govern how the universe works and maintains justice.
- God has given us the shari’ah the right part to live our lives by that will make adjust society.
- The day of judgment is the ultimate expression of Justice that we will all undergo at the end of our lives.
How is Allah shown to be Benevolent?
- The Bismillah repeatedly States God’s beneficence and mercy.
- Created the world and all life which was a loving act
- He has given guidance on how to live a good life through angels and prophets so people can live well and go to heaven.
- Muslims also believed that God is merciful so that if we fail to live perfect Muslim lives we will be forgiven. Acts such as fasting (sawm) giving to charity zakah and going on pilgrimage haij.
How is Allah shown to be Omnipotent?
- Two of the 99 names are ‘the absolute’ and ‘the all-powerful’
- Islam means submission and Muslim means one who submits. These words emphasize God’s power.
- God’s omnipotence it also implies omniscience.
Tawhid is important because…
Tawhid is important because…
Muslims must worship Allah alone and avoid the sin of shirk- to associate others with Allah. This means Muslims cannot use images or statues.
This means there is one law, the shariah, for Muslims to follow.
This means there is one ummah, the people of Allah.
Omnipotence is important because…
Omnipotence is important because…
It means that Allah is in control of everything that happens (Predestination, al-Qadr)
It means Allah is a being worthy of respect and worship
Benevolence is important because…
Benevolence is important because…
If Allah is loving and merciful to sinners, Muslims must be to others too
On the Day of Judgement, Muslims will be able to request Allah’s mercy for sins if they have been merciful to others
Justice is important because…
Justice is important because…
It affects how a Muslim will be judged on the Last Day- according to Allah’s principles of justice
That fact that Allah is just means Muslims must be just to others.
What are malaikah and what are their role?
give a SOFA
Source of Authority (SofA): ‘God created the angels from intellect without sensuality, the beasts from sensuality without intellect, and humanity from both intellect and sensuality.’ - Hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad).
Muslims believe that God’s greatness means he cannot communicate directly with humans. Instead, God passed messages to his prophets via malaikah, angels, who were God’s first creation and who always obey him.
What are the roles of the Malaikah?
Role of Angels:
* Deliver holy books to prophets (e.g. Angel Jibril delivering Qur’an)
* Recording deeds for day of judgement
* Angels ask humans questions on day of judgement
* Guard Jannah (heaven) Mikail is the guardian of heaven.
* Izrail is the angel that brings the souls of the dead to Allah.
Who is Iblis?
On angel - Iblis - refused to do God’s will. He did not bow down to Adam during the creation of mankind.
As a result God banished him. Iblis became Shaytan and was given the responsibility of tempting human beings by God.
Who are the Prophets?
3 examples
Allah is believed to have communicated with the prophets through the angels. Muslims believe the prophets should be respected but never worshipped.
Prophets help with Allah’s mission to deliver his word to humanity,
his message tells us what to believe and how to live- this is what prophets deliver to us.
Prophet Muhammad - final prophet (the Seal of the Prophets), he received the undistorted and undistortable word of Allah. Muhammad’s being a good man, great leader, commanding respect, and also being illiterate, made him an excellent candidate for prophet.
Musa (Moses) - received Tawrat, holy book- this became distorted and no longer trustworthy. He was called by God to lead the Jews out of slavery in Egypt.
Isa(Jesus) - prophet before Muhammad- received the injeel (gospel). This was distorted by Christians, who added material about Jesus being God.The Qur’an makes clear that Isa is an ordinary man, a prophet, not God/Son of God. Isas return will signal judgement day.
What does Islam teach about the prophets?
- Allah wants to help people live good lives and so he sends messages about how to do this through prophets, or nubuwwah.
- There are 25 named prophets in the Qur’an.
- The prophets performed miracles, which proved they really were prophets.
- All of the prophets are believed to have received the same message about the one God, which shows that Allah is unchanging and that Islam is the true religion.
- Muhammad was the final prophet (the Seal of the Prophets).
- Muslims usually use the phrase ‘Peace be Upon Him’ after saying the name of a prophet.
- Each prophet (e.g. Adam, Abraham, David, Moses, Jesus) brought Allah’s word but it was always distorted until Muhammad who is the final prophet.
What is Kitub?
The holy books of Islam should be respected. This is especially true of the Qur’an, which is the direct and unchanged word of God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
What does Islam teach about Kitub?
Purpose, story
The purpose of holy books is (i) to teach people what to believe and (ii) how to live.
The most important Holy Book for Muslims is the Qur’an.
Muslims believe that the same revelation was given to humanity at various points in their history. It was given to Ibrahim in the form of the Sahifa Ibrahim, it was given to Musa in the form of the Tawrat (Torah), and to David in the form of the Zabur (Psalms). It was also given to Isa (Jesus) in the form of the Injil (Gospel). But each time it was distorted - God saw that revealing his message to people who wrote it down led to its corruption
Why is the Qur’an the true holy book?
God sent the Qur’an to Muhammad because he was highly intelligent with an excellent memory but could not read or write so would simply recite the message as it was given to him.
He was also an excellent moral example. He was the ideal recipient of the final message.
Abu Bakr, first Caliph, began process to record first Qur’an
The third Caliph, Uthman, finalised authorised version
Akirah
Belief in the Day of Judgement and the afterlife (Akhirah) – All Muslims believe that this life is a test. When they die, they will be judged by God and sent to either Paradise or Hell.
Define Al Qadr
Belief in predestination (Al-Qadr) – This means that everything in the universe is following a divine masterplan, which shows the importance of God’s will. Muslims believe that Allah knows or decides everything that will happen: In all things the master-planning is God’s (Qur’an 13:42).
Al-Qadr generally is used to refer to Fate /predestination.
Muslims believe that because Allah is omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing) he has the power and knowledge to make sure that in the end things turn out the way he wants, according to his plan for all people.
How is Al Qadr shown?
SOFAs
- For this reason Muslims often use the phrase ‘insh-Allah’ meaning ‘it will happen if God wills it.’
- The idea of God’s plan appears in the Hadith: in one particular story Muhammad says that vowing to do something ‘does not bring about… anything Allah has not decreed.’ (SofA):
- In many stories of the prophets, things happened in their lives that they didn’t understand at the time, but which they later saw were part of Allah’s plan. As Yusuf (Joseph) said (SofA): ‘Truly my Lord understands best the mysteries of all he plans to do.’ (Surah 12:100)
