Core beliefs

Muslim teachers usually set out belief as six items. They are not a membership form to be signed once; they are meant to be held, thought about and lived alongside. Together they are called the articles of faith, or iman in Arabic.

God. One God, who was not born and did not give birth, who has no partner, no equal and no rival in knowledge or power. He creates, sustains, gives life, takes it, provides, judges and forgives. Worship goes to Him and to nothing else, and directing worship elsewhere undoes the whole thing. Everything in the list below depends on this first item.

Angels. Muslims believe in a created order they cannot see, and angels are part of it. They are servants made from light with specific tasks: Gabriel carries revelation, others record what people do, others attend to death and to the natural world. They have no independent will and no divine share of any kind. They are not to be prayed to.

Prophets and messengers. God has sent human beings to every nation with the same instruction: worship God alone. The Quran names many of them, and the list will look familiar to Jewish and Christian readers: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus. Muslims are told to believe in all of them without setting one against another. Muhammad, peace be upon him, closes the line, and Muslims expect no prophet after him.

Revealed books. Along with the prophets came scripture. Muslims name the scrolls of Abraham, the Torah given to Moses, the Psalms given to David, the Gospel given to Jesus, and the Quran given to Muhammad ﷺ. All of them, in Muslim understanding, came from the same source with the same message. Muslims hold that the earlier texts were not preserved in their original form over the centuries, and that the Quran was, which is why it carries the final authority for them.

Life after death. There will be a day when creation ends and everyone who has lived is raised and questioned about how they spent that life. Muslims believe deeds are weighed, that God forgives whom He wills, and that Paradise and Hell follow. Belief in this day is what gives Muslim ethics its urgency: a private act nobody sees is still on the record.

Divine decree. Called qadar in Arabic. Nothing happens outside God’s knowledge and will, and He knew what would happen before it did. Muslim theologians are careful to say this does not cancel human choice. God does not force anyone to obey or disobey; He knows in advance what they will freely pick. In everyday practice the doctrine works as a kind of composure. What has already happened to you was known and permitted, so there is little point in tormenting yourself over it, and there is a wisdom in it you may not be able to see.

Where this leaves a person

Islam does not teach that people are born guilty. The starting position is innocence with a built-in inclination toward God, called fitrah, which time, habit and upbringing can obscure. Nobody inherits another person’s sin, and nobody needs a priest to reach God. A person prays directly, repents directly, and answers for themselves.

Muslims also learn these six as a set with the five pillars, which are the practices rather than the beliefs. The two lists are meant to work on each other, so that what a person holds shapes what they do all week.