How To Know The Religion of Truth (9/9)

Faith

The Muslim is ordained to believe not only in Allah, His messengers and fundamentals of Islam, but he should also believe in His angels,[1] and the Books which He had revealed to His messengers.

The Qur’an is the last divine Book. It abrogates, substitutes, and stands to preserve the truth of the old scriptures from corruption.

A Muslim should not only believe in Muhammad but he should also believe in all former prophets whose names have been given in the Qur’an. The Muslim's faith is that Muhammad is the last of the messengers of Allah and that he is sent to all nations including Jews, Christians and other sects. Thus, all people should believe in Muhammad and follow him, who does not believe in him and in Islam, is disbelieving not only in Muhammad, but also in all other Messengers of Allah, even though he may claim to be a follower of one of them. Moses, Jesus, and other Messengers of Allah exculpate themselves from those who do not believe in Islam and in Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “By Him who has my soul in His hands, anyone of this community that comes to know about me and dies without believing in my message will dwell in Hell-Fire, even if he is a Jew or a Christian.”

A Muslim believes also in Resurrection, Reckoning, Requital, Paradise, Hell-Fire and Divine Decree

What does it mean to believe in Divine Decree? It means that Allah knows everything that ever existed in the past, that is existing now, and all that will exist in the future, before He created the heavens and earth. This divine knowledge is registered in a guarded Tablet. Therefore, the Muslim believes strongly that nothing can ever exist except by the will of Allah.

Allah has created people to worship Him and obey Him. He made His commandments and prohibitions very clear and endowed people with the ability and will to carry out what He enjoined them to do, in order that they may obtain His reward, but those who disobey Him will suffer His punishment.

The volition of man is dependent on the will of Allah. However, there are certain forms of fate in which man's will has absolutely no role, i.e. misfortunes of life, poverty, sickness... etc. These forms of fate are imposed on people by the will of Allah Alone, and man will neither be rewarded nor punished for them, because they are beyond his understanding and will, but if man endures and keeps contented with what Allah had foreordained for him, Allah will reward him bountifully.

The pious Muslims achieve the highest rank of faith, dwell in the best positions of the paradise and are the nearest to the consent of Allah, because they worship Allah, glorify Him, and are always submissive to Him as if they are seeing Him. They never disobey Allah secretly or openly. They believe strongly that Allah watches them wherever they may be, and that any of their deeds, sayings or intentions can never be concealed from Allah. If one of them commits a sin, he repents sincerely to Allah, asks Him forgiveness and never recommits it. The Qur’an states: -

“Truly, Allah is with those who fear Him (keep their duty unto Him), and those who are Muhsinun (good doers).” (Surah Al-An’am, 6:128)

Islam, The Perfect Religion

Allah states in the glorious Qur’an:

“This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” (Surah Al-Ma’idah, 5:3)

Allah also states in the Qur’an:

“Verily this Qur’an guides to that which is most just and right and gives glad tidings to the believers (in the Oneness of Allah and His Messenger, Muhammad [may Allah's Pace be upon him]), who work deeds of righteousness, that they shall have a great reward (paradise).” (Surah Al-Isra’, 17:9)

Allah said also: 

“And We have sent down to you the Book (Qur’an) as an exposition of everything, a guidance, a mercy, and glad tidings for those who have submitted themselves (to Allah as Muslims)…” (Surah An-Nahl, 16:89)

The Prophet, Pace be upon him, said: “I have guided you to the right path which is as bright as daylight is thus, whoever deviates from this path is doomed to perdition.”

He also said: “I have left to you the Book of Allah and my Traditions, if you hold fast to them, you will never be misled.”

In the first of the above-mentioned Qur’anic verses, Allah stated that He had perfected the religion of Islam to be suitable and corresponding to the needs of mankind in every place, time and nation. Islam is not only free from all defects, but, it also corresponds to the needs of mankind and does not impose any unnecessary burden on people. Allah stated also that He had completed His blessings for the Muslim nation by bestowing upon them this perfect, magnanimous and great religion which forms the message of Muhammad, the last Prophet of Allah. Allah promised to give help and victory to Islam over all enemies, and stated that He had chosen it to be the religion of mankind, and that any other religion, whatever it may be, will not gain His acceptance.

The second verse indicates that the Holy Qur’an is an illuminative perfect method of life which guides people to true solutions for both mundane and religious problems.

Whatever a deed may be, the Qur’an has explained to us whether it may be good or evil. The Qur’an not only guides us to solutions for all kinds of problems in all times, but the Qur’anic solutions for these problems are also characterized by being just and right, whereas, all other solutions contrary to it are short and defective as they are based on human feebleness, ignorance and injustice. The Qur’an is a comprehensive Divine Book which contains the basis of knowledge, faith, politics, system of governing, justice, psychology, sociology, economics, penal law and all sciences that mankind may need. Basics of these fields of knowledge are explained clearly in the Qur’an and prophetic traditions. The next chapter will be consecrated to discuss briefly the perfectness of Islam and its comprehensive method.