Basic Beliefs of Islam

ALLAH IS ONE

1 year ago

ALLAH IS ONE

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00:00Hello, we have with us Dr. Mosharraf Hussain, who is the Chief Executive of the Karimiyya

00:18Institute here in Nottingham, and he's with us to talk about the basic beliefs of Islam.

00:25And Mosharraf, can you tell us what the basic beliefs are?

00:28Well, first of all, beliefs in Arabic is Iman, and it simply means to accept as truth whatever

00:38the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, taught. So it's having this unwavering belief and acceptance

00:48of first and foremost, of course, is belief in God, in an Almighty God, and really that is it,

00:57to be honest. The rest of the two major beliefs, that is the Prophethood and the Hereafter,

01:07all revolve around this. And of course, we'll be talking about the six

01:12beliefs, angels, the books, the Hereafter, the predestination, but really it is all about

01:20one God. And all these other elements and tenets of the faith really reinforce the belief in one

01:29supreme, almighty, all-powerful God, really. So these, it's really all about God, and the six

01:38basic beliefs, so if we count them, let's see, there's God, it's angels, it's messengers,

01:43it's books, it's the last day, and it's predestination, they're all about God.

01:48Absolutely. I mean, if each, as we will, you know, explore them later on, you will see that

01:54really they all come back to God, the angels, the books, it's all about God communicating,

01:59God talking to his people, and of course, you know, that is the only way that we can know God.

02:07So where does one look to find what these beliefs are? Are there creeds? Are there books? I mean...

02:14Well, of course, the first and foremost source is the glorious Qur'an itself, you know, that is

02:19the source, but Muslim scholars over the centuries have been trying to distill and to put it

02:26succinctly and package it nicely into a creed similar to the Christian creed, and we have

02:32many popular ones, and the one which the Hanfis in particular, world over, and the Ash'aris use

02:39is called Aqaid An-Nasafi, the beliefs of the great teacher of the 11th century, Nasafi.

02:46Okay, what are some of the other, is the An-Nasafi, and you mentioned Hanafi and Ash'ari,

02:52can you just briefly say where this fits into the wider tradition of Islam?

02:56The beliefs are really, there are three ways of looking at the Islamic creed,

03:02slightly different from one another. There is the humbly way, and then there is the Ash'ari way,

03:09and then there is the Ma'turidi way. The contents are the same, it's just the style,

03:17and it is just the tone and the tenor in which they are, and sometimes details actually,

03:21that's the only difference, but otherwise, I mean, they are actually the same in many respects.

03:27What is this word, belief, what's it mean? I think you used the word Iman, did you not?

03:32Yes, that's right.

03:33What do we mean by this?

03:35Well, it's in a way, it's accepting God as the creator of the universe, it is accepting that

03:47this is the reality really, and it's actually in many ways we can compare it to a spectacle,

03:54how we, it gives us a world view, how we view the world, how we view ourselves and how we

04:01view the world in relation to this creator really, so it builds an attitude, it builds a mindset,

04:09it builds a particular world view, that is what beliefs are really, and by looking through this

04:17belief system, you begin to see the world differently from people who might not have

04:24that belief really, so it is a very fundamental way of understanding the world and seeing the

04:30world and understanding what's around you. How does belief then relate to works, because that's

04:36an issue in many religious traditions, how does that fit together?

04:40Well, there is this notion that belief gives you this basis of relating with your creator

04:52and therefore trying to please and to really live his will really, and so the works are really

05:02putting into action what your faith teaches you, so it's really that the relationship is very

05:08close, that the beliefs really have to be expressed physically, and that's what we're

05:17about really, and the works are really, the deeds are really expression of our love and relationship

05:25with God. Good. One last quick question, can belief increase and decrease, because I know

05:32that's a question. That's a fascinating debate amongst the Muslim scholars and there is one

05:36view which is very simply that faith doesn't actually increase, it's like all or none in

05:42physiology, you need to reach a certain threshold, once you reach that threshold and you've crossed

05:49it, that's it, it doesn't really matter after that, so it's actually meaning you've entered

05:54the pale of Islam, you've entered the boundaries of Islam and that's it, but of course there is

06:00the other view that faith keeps on increasing as your deeds and as your relationship and as

06:07your connection develops with the Almighty. Thank you Musharraf for helping us understand

06:13about faith or belief, we use these two terms to translate the Arabic word Iman and now we

06:19move on to our additional videos. Thank you very much for being with us.

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