Today we will talk about believing in God. The first order of the Quran, as revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), was to read! (Iqra). As we all know Prophet responded o the Archangel Gabriel’s request was, ”I don’t know how to read. Finally, the Archangel Gabriel replied with, “Read in the name of Thy Lord.”
Reading the universe with the beautiful names of God, is the first commandment of the Holy Quran. What does this really mean for us? Iman(faith) starts ike a seed, a small seed that will expand and grow. Yes, we all become Muslim or we are all born as Muslim, but as an intellectual, a Muslim and intellectual believer, must understand what he or she believes. Scholars shave described two types of belief.
The first belief is “Ijmali iman (belief)” This is described as man, belief in God, a and His system, And the second one is “Tafseeli iman”. Tafseeli iman (detailed faith) is to know God and believing in Him in a detailed manner. As a Muslim, as believers, we must reach the second step of faith, to know God in all his Glory through the details.
Born Muslims or Muslims that come to faith later in life are also faced with two types of belief; belief by imitations and belief by searching. Belief by imitation is believing because it was told to us to believe. My mother or my father told me this; therefore I believe it is so. This is belief my imitation. Finding belief through searching for it, is what the Qur’an commands us to do. We need to understand and grow our own personal faith because the Qur’an orders us to “read.” Read your universe to learn, understand, and grow in your faith.
The Islamic belief system has six articles of faith. These articles are belief in God, God’s Angels, God’s Prophets, God’s Divine Books, Divine Decree, and life after death. These articles are interrelated. When you believe in just one of them, but not the others, your belief is incomplete.
You believe in God, He is the Owner. You understand this, but then think if there were no hereafter. What would be your point here then? Think as if you are dying and thrown into nothingness. Why were we created? Why are we here? Without an understanding and belief in the Hereafter, how can we understand life after death?
Belief in God can only be complete when you also believe in the hereafter. Now, let’s talk about belief in the Prophets and Divine Books. If God never sent us revelation or reveal His Purpose, how could we find the ultimate purpose of life in this universe? How would we think about Him?
He doesn’t speak.But, He is Perfect in all His Attributes. So definitely He speaks. Definitely He speaks to us through the best of humanity, best of humanity through the prophets. Those speeches should and were written down to convey this message from generation to generation. These are the Divine Books. God sent revelation, which was written down. He spoke to His Prophets, to His Messengers. Through the prophets, God revealed the Divine Books which told us His Purpose and His Intentions.
We can’t even build a one-room cottage without a plan. This plan for our universe is Qadar (Divine Decree). God created everything, and everything created has a plan. This plan is God’s Divine Decree.
Lastly, we come to belief in the angels. The six articles of faith in Islam are only complete through the belief in angels. God certainly did not only create humans. Aside from humanity, God created animals, which are certainly different than us. In addition to this, is it so beyond the scope of God to create other creations besides our physical beings, like the angels, from other elements? He has, and these creations are called angels.