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by L. Bevan Jones.  The
central dogmas of Islam are two, viz., the ' Unity of God and the Prophetic Mission of Muhammad. These are enshrined in
the brief and familiar creed :
“There is no god but God ; Muhammad is the
Apostle of God.”
The whole of Muslim theology has been built up around, these two beliefs, and
though there have been varying expositions of Islamic doctrine, and in consequence a great variety of sects, yet all
Muslims agree to accept these two fundamental dogmas of the faith, and to repeat their belief in this brief form.
The words of this creed are whispered into the ear of the new - born babe ;
they form one of the first sentences taught to the growing child ; pious Muslims love to recite them on all possible
occasions, and desire that they shall be the last to fall from their lips when they die.
 It is
from the Qur'an that this short creed is formulated. But its two parts nowhere occur there together ; they are taken
from separate chapters (47 : 21 and 48 : 29), a fact which serves to illustrate that the teaching of the book is in no
way systematized. The task of drawing up the articles of faith, and arranging the doctrines of Islam scattered through
its pages, was left to succeeding generations, we shall here be studying the results of their labours.
Islam demands of believers (1) imam, “faith” and (2) din “religion" in the
sense of works or practical duties.
Muslim theologians define imam as confession with the tongue and belief with
the heart. This confession may be made in two forms :
(1) “I believe in God, His Name and Attributes and I accept all His
commandments“ : and more fully,
(2) “I believe in God, His angels, His books, His prophets ; in the last day,
the predestination by the Most High God of good and evil, and in the resurrection after death."
1 . BELIEF
IN ALLAH
 The
first article of faith Is belief in Allah,
viz., “I believe in God," though by far the
more familiar form in which this is expressed is the first part of the short creed : as though the Muslim were to say,
“I believe there is no god but God.”
The greatest possible stress is laid by the Muslim on this aspect of his
belief in God, viz., His Unity. This is the doctrine known as tawhid. God “is singular, without anything like Him ;
separate, having no equal.” The Qur'an is never weary of reiterating the formula which expresses this Unity, and the
short four - verse chapter (112) which has this for its theme is significantly apprised as equal to one - third of the
whole book :
"Say ; He, Allah, is one. Allah is eternal.
He begets not, nor is He begotten : And none is like Him."
The attributes
of Allah
A large part of Islamic theology is concerned with the problem of the
relation between the essence of God’s nature and His attributes, which number seven, sifatu’s - sab’a. The following is
a brief summary of these attributes :
(a) LIFE (Hayat).
Allah ' s existence has neither beginning nor end. If He so wills, He can annihilate the world in a moment or recreate
it in an instant. If all the infidels became believers, He would gain no advantage ; if all believe became infidels He
would suffer no loss.
(b) KNOWLEDGE (’Ilm).
Allah is omniscient. He has knowledge of all things, hidden or manifest, in heaven or on earth. Events past and future
are known to Him, He is free from all forgetfulness, negligence or error, His knowledge is eternal : it is not posterior
to His essence.
(c) POWER (qudrat).
Allah is omnipotent. If He wills, He can raise the dead, make stones talk and trees walk, annihilate the heavens and
earth and recreate them.
(d) WILL (Irada).
Allah can do what He wills, and whatever He wills comes to pass. Everything, good or evil, in this world exists by His
will. He wills the faith of the believer, and the piety of the righteous ; the unbelief of the unbeliever, and the
irreligion of the wicked. All we do we do by His will. The will of God is eternal, not posterior to His essence.
(e) HEARING (Sama’).
Allah hears all sounds. He hears without an ear, for His attributes are not like those of men.
(f) SEEING (Basr).
Allah sees all things, even the steps of a black ant on a black stone on a dark night ; yet He has no eyes as men have.
(g) SPEECH (Kalam)
Allah speaks, but not with a tongue as men do. He speaks to some of His servants without the
intervention of another, even as He spoke to Moses. He speaks to others by means of Gabriel and this is the usual way in
which He communicates His will to the prophets.
But about the exact nature of these attributes and the extent of the
knowledge of them to which men can attain, there was and is great argument. The ultra - orthodox strictly prohibit too
close an enquiry. It is, indeed, said to be impiety to enquire into the nature of God.
Nevertheless, on the basis of various interpretations of a certain verse in
the Qur'an (3 : 5), involving a question of punctuation, opposing schools of theology arose in Islam.
The more orthodox, sometimes spoken of as the Sifatians, held that the attributes of God are eternally inherent in His
essence, without separation or change. Concerning certain terms applied to God in the Qur'an which were causing
technical difficulties - such as “hands," “eyes”, “face” - this school attempted no explanation, but just accepted them
as they stood,
The Mu’tazilas, or “separatists," on the other hand, rejected the idea that
the Divine attributes are eternal. They also rejected the attributes of hearing, seeing, and speech as being accidents
proper only to corporeal existence.
They interpreted the attributes as mental abstractions, with no real
existence in the Divine essence ; thus the “hand” of God was to be understood as an expression of His power and favour.
For a time these rationalists flourished at Baghdad under Khalifas of like
mind, until a shrewd reformer, named Al - Ashari, arose and brought about their downfall. This he
did by enlisting on the side of orthodox Islam all the dialectical skill of the Mu’tazilas. Ever since then the
principles and methods of Al - Ashari have dominated the greater part of the Muslim World.
It really comes to this conclusion that as the first half of the short creed
itself unceasingly proclaims, the fundamental conception of Allah among orthodox Muslim theologians is negative. He is
unique, as well as a unit, and He has no relation with any creature that partakes of resemblance.
He is defined, though not entirely, by a series of negations ; a point of
view that has crystallised into a popular refrain :
“Whatsoever your mind can conceive that Allah is not,
you may believe."
The
significance of
the Ninety-nine
names
We may arrive at some understanding of the Muslim conception of Allah by a
consideration of the significance or the ninety - nine" beautiful names" Islam gives to Him.
These are very commonly classified in two groups of attributes :
The “terrible” attributes - asmau’l - jalaliya.
The “glorious“ attributes - asmau‘l - jamaliya
The "terrible" attributes receive the greater emphasis
not only in the Qur'an and in the Traditions, but in the daily life of orthodox Muslims.
An analysis of most of these names indicates that :
Seven of them describe Allah’s Unity and absolute Being ;
Five speak of Him as the Creator, or originator of all Nature ;
Twenty - four characterize Him as merciful and gracious (to believers).
These are indeed" beautiful" names and are used often in the Qur'an ; e. g.,
the names, Rahman and Rahim, “Merciful” and" Compassionate," occur in the well - known formula called Bismillah, at the
head of every chapter save one. Others are, Ghaffar, Forgiver ; Razzuq, Provider ; Latif, Gracious ; Wadud, Loving ;
Halim, Forbearing ; Jamil, Beneficent ; Karim, Bountiful, Wali, Nearest Friend ; Mujib, Hearer of prayer, Wakil,
Guardian.
Thirty - six emphasize Allah ' s power and pride and absolute sovereignty
- these are the "terrible" attributes ;
Five reveal Him as hurting and avenging, He is a God who
leads astray, avenges, withholds His mercies and works harm (c. p. 6 : 39 ; 32 : 22 ; 13 : 33 ; 45 : 22).
Four refer, in a special sense, to the moral qualities in Allah.
Such a classification of these names shows that while Muhammad had a
pronounced view of the “physical” attributes of God, his ideas concerning God’s “moral” qualities were defective. For
instance, the Quran says that “God is the best plotter," 3 : 47 ; 8 : 30.
Allah and
sin
 The
treatment of the subject of sin by Muslim theologians throws further light on the conception of God in Islam. What Allah
forbids is sin. In consequence, the Qur’an repeatedly lays stress on things that are halal,
"permitted" and those that are haram," forbidden."
Theologians divide sins into two main groups :
a) Kabira, or "great sins": murder, adultery,
disobedience to God or parents, shirking jihad, drunkenness, usury, neglecting Friday prayers and the fast of Ramadan,
forgetting the Qur’an after reading it, swearing falsely or by any other name than that of God, magic, gambling,
dancing, shaving the beard, etc. Such sins can only be forgiven after repentance.
b ) saghira, or “little sins” : lying,
deception, anger, lust, etc. Sins of this class are easily forgiven if the greater sins are avoided and if some good
actions are performed. As the Qur‘an says :
”Observe prayer at the early morning, at the close of the day, and at the
approach of night, for the good deeds drive away evil deeds," Surah 11 : 116.
But the sin of sins is a heresy, shirk, i. e. the sin of “associating a
partner” with God. This in Islam is the unpardonable offence.
2 . BELIEF
IN ANGELS
God has angels whose great desire and business it is to carry out His
behests. They are sexless, and neither eat nor drink. Some are in heaven, some on earth, and of these some have charge
of men and record their deeds. There are four archangels : Jibra’il (Gabriel), the medium of inspiration ; Mikhail
(Michael), who sees that all created things are provided with sustenance ; ‘Izra’ il,
who receives the souls of men when they die ; Israfil, who will blow the trumpet on the last day. All these angels are
sinless, though Iblis, the Devil, was expelled from Paradise for refusing to do homage to Adam. (15 : 30 - 32).
These angels intercede for men. It is commonly believed that on the right
side of every man is an angel who records his good deeds, and on his left one who records his evil deeds (cp. 82 : 11,
12). Two fierce black angels, by name Munkar and Nakir, visit the corpse in the grave and
interrogate it, demanding answers to the question :" Who is thy Lord?", "What is thy religion?",
"Who is thy Prophet?“
3 .
BELIEF IN
THE BOOKS
OF GOD
 A
Muslim is required to believe that various books of revelation have been sent by God through the instrumentality of
Gabriel to the various prophets upon earth. The following are said to have received such books, though there is a
difference of opinion as to how many each received ;
-
Adam (2 : 35) and his son Seth ;
-
Idris, i. e., Enoch (19 : 57); Abraham (87
: 19);
-
The Tawrat (Pentateuch.) to Moses (32 :
23);
-
The Zabur (Psalms) to David (17 : 57);
-
The Injil (Evangel) to Jesus (5 : 50).
The Quran, the last of all and "revealed" to the last
of the prophets, Muhammad, is to be followed to the day of judgment.
There are four views current among Muslims concerning the earlier books ;
(a) tarfi’ lit "taking up"; that they were taken up
again to heaven ; e. g., Jesus is supposed, by some, to have taken away the" Gospel" with Him at His Ascension.
(b) tahrif, "act of corrupting"; by which it is
understood that the Old Testament and the New Testament have been tampered with.
(c) tansikh, "abrogating"; that the previous books
have been abrogated by the advent of the Qur'an.
(d) That the Qur'an is itself a sort of compendium of all necessary teaching
in the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians.
This, in effect, reduces the professed" belief in the books of God" to belief
in one book only.
4 . BELIEF
IN THE
PROPHETS OF
GOD
God has sent many prophets into the world. Adam was the first, Muhammad the
last. If we were to believe the Traditions, some 2,400,000 prophets and 315 apostles appeared, but the names of only 25
of these are mentioned in the Qur'an (cp. 6 : 84 - 86). Six of these. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad,
being the heads of their respective dispensations, are given special titles, and by these titles they are commonly
referred, to by Muslims. These are the greatest and most exalted of the prophets. Notwithstanding the statement of the
Qur'an,
" We make no difference between them,"
i. e., the prophets, Surah 3 : 78,
Muslim theologians observe a distinction between one who is a nabi and a
rasul.
A nabi, prophet, receives the highest form of inspiration, wahi, but has not
necessarily to deliver the message he receives.
A rasul, apostle, having received this form of inspiration, is commanded by
God to deliver the message to men. Thus every rasul is a nabi, but not every nabi is a rasul.
There are degrees of rank among the prophets (17 : 57), Muhammad’s being the
highest of all. He in the words of the Qur’an is Khatimu’n - nabiyin, “the seal of the prophets” (33 : 40); the last and
the best.
Each prophet is said to have been sent down to his own tribe, whereas
Muhammad was sent to all men. There is a tradition to the effect that Muhammad said,
“I was raised up for all men, whether white or black."
It Is the orthodox belief that all prophets were free from sin. The view of
the Ash ' arians was that the power of sinning is not created in them, but the Mu‘tazilas deny this and say that they
possess some inherent quality which keeps them from sinning.
 The
most that any Muslim will admit is that some prophets, before their call, may have committed some
of the “little” sins. They refuse to admit that any one of them ever committed one of the" great" sins, and,
consequently, are caused a certain amount of perplexity by the testimony of the Qur’an, not to speak of that of the
Bible. Even in the former it is clearly stated that five of the six outstanding prophets were
guilty of actions that required the forgiveness of God cp, 7 : 18 - 24 ; 11 : 47 - 49 ; 26 : 82 ; 28 ; 15).
The one exception is Jesus, a distinction supported also by the Traditions ;
e. g., Bukhari and Muslim quote Muhammad as saying :
“There is no child born, but Satan touches it at its birth and therefore it
cries at the touch, except Mary and her son.“
(Sahihu’l Bukhari 3 : 194 ; Muslim 15 : 120. Baidawi on 3 : 31, also quotes
this tradition).
5 . BELIEF
IN THE
RESURRECTION AND
THE DAY
OF JUDGEMENT
We shall consider these two articles of the creed together under the last
things.
a) The Sounding of the Trumpets.
It is recorded that Muhammad said, "The last hour will
not be till no one is found who calls on God." Israfil will give
“a blast on the trumpet, and all who are
in the heavens and all who are in the earth shall expire, save those whom God shall vouchsafe to live. Then shall there
be another blast on it, and lo ! Arising they shall gaze around them,"
(Surah 39 : 68)
But some say that Israfil will give three blasts : the first to terrify, the
second to slay and the third to quicken the dead. The resurrection of the body is mentioned or
suggested in several passages in the Qur'an (17 : 52 ; 36 : 79); but Muhammad did not know just when all this would take
place.
According to the ijma’ of the learned, anyone who doubts this article of the
creed is an infidel. They are not agreed however, as to the state of the soul during the time when the body is dead, nor
concerning its revival. Muhammad will come first in order at the resurrection, and will be the first also to enter
Paradise.
( b) The Descent of the Records.
After the resurrection men will wander about for forty years, during which
time the books, which contain records kept by the recording angels, will be given up. Men will rise up naked and
confused. Some stand for forty years looking up towards the heavens awaiting the books. They will perspire profusely
through excess of sorrow. Each book will be given to its owner, into the right hand of those who are good and into the
left hand of those who are wicked. As the Qur’an says :
“Every man’s fate have we fastened about his neck : and on the day of
resurrection will we bring forth to him a book which shall be proffered to him wide open : ’Read thy book : there
needeth none but thyself to make out an account against thee this day,"
Surah 17 : 14 and 73 ; also 84 : 10 - 14.
c) The Scales.
 The
Scales contain the good and bad deeds of men. The good deeds are “heavy," the bad deeds “light”. The fate of the doers,
both good and evil, is expressly stated in the Qur’an.
(23 : 106 - 106 ; cp. 7 : 7 - 8)
No Muslim can doubt this article of the creed since it is based on the Qur’an,
the sunna, and ijima’.
Prophets and angels and according to some authorities, believers also, will
be exempt from this trial. The Qur’an makes frequent reference to the fire of hell, and popular books on the subject
dilate on the awful torments of the doomed. Hell has seven divisions, each with a distinctive name, purpose and terrors
:
(1) Jahannam, the Muslims purgatory ; (2) Laza is the fire for Christians ;
(3) Al Hutama, for the Jews ; (4) Sa'ir, for the Sabeans ; (5) Saqar, for the Magi : (6) Hawia is the bottomless pit for
the munafiqin, hypocrites. (7) Al - Jahim is the huge hot fire for idolaters.
( d) The Bridge.
When the foregoing tests are concluded, a very narrow bridge, sirat, lit.
"road," has to be crossed (36 : 66 ; 37 : 22 - 23). Concerning this the Prophet is reported to have said :
"There will be a bridge sharper than the edge of a sword, finer than a hair,
suspended over hell, Some will pass over it in the twinkling of an eye, some like a flash of lightning, others with the
speed of a swift horse. The angels will call out," 0 Lord, save and protect !"
Some Muslims will be saved, some will fall headlong into hell, and afterwards
be released. The infidels will all fall into hell and remain there for ever.
There is a wall, Al A'raf, situated between heaven and hell. Persons whose
fate is doubtful will sit thereon. They will look to heaven but will not be admitted ; to hell, and beg not to be sent
thither. This subject gives the name to the seventh chapter of the Qur'an (cp, 7 ; 44 - 45).
The mushrik, or one who ascribes plurality to God (shirk), will remain in
hell for ever, because the offence is one that cannot be forgiven (98 : 5).
Muslims who commit the "great" sins, though they die
unrepentant, will not remain in hell for ever, on the basis of a verse in the Qur’an which says :
“Whoever shall have wrought an atom’s weight of good shall behold it,"
(Surah 99 : 7).
Or as Al Ghazali puts it : "There will not remain in
hell an attester of God ' s Unity... there shall not abide eternally in the fire a single believer." (Ihya ‘ulumu’d -
din, Book 2, section 1).
On the other hand, the Mu'tazilas teach that the Muslim who enters hell will
remain there for ever ; that the person who, having committed the "great" sins, dies unrepentant
though not an infidel, ceases to be a believer, and hence will suffer as infidels do, but more lightly. Al - Ash'ari,
however, says :
”The sinner who dies unrepentant is at the mercy God but the Prophet will
intercede for him,“ as he said
“My intercession Is for those among my people who commit great sins."
(Shahrastani, Al Milal wa’n - Nihal, p73. (Cureton’s text).
Accordingly, it is the belief of the orthodox that Muhammad is now an
intercessor on their behalf and that he will be on the last day,
The signs of the last day are several, e. g.; (a) The appearance of
Dajjal, or Anti - Christ. (b) The decay of faith on the earth. (c) Tumults and seditions : war with
the Greeks and Romans. (d) The rising of the sun from the west. (e) The second advent of Christ.
As the Qur'an has it : “Jesus….. shall be a sign of the last hour, “ 43 : 61.
It is believed that he will return to destroy Dajjal, and will descend near the mosque at Damascus at the time of the
afternoon prayer. He will re - establish Islam, live for forty years, and be buried at Madina in a space reserved for
him.
Popular treatises have vivid descriptions of Jannat, heaven, which is
described by at least eight names. Its sensual delights are portrayed in detail in these books. According to Timidhi,
the Prophet is supposed to have stated that there are one hundred degrees of felicity in heaven.
6 BELIEF IN THE PREDESTINATION OF GOOD AND EVIL.
 The
believer is required to confess that good and evil take place by the predetermination of God ; that all that has been
and all that will be was decreed from eternity. Should any ask why God wills and produces evil one can only reply that
He may have wise ends in view which man cannot comprehend.
This whole subject has been hotly debated in Islam, giving rise to three well
- defined schools of thought ;
(a) The Jabarians (from jabr, compulsion), who deny all free agency to man.
God is responsible for all man ' s actions, both good and evil.
(b) The Qadarians, who deny al - qadr or God’s absolute decree. These say
that evil and injustice ought not to be attributed to God, but to man, who is altogether a free agent.
(c) The Asharians hold that God has one eternal will, which is applied to
whatsoever He wills, both of His own actions and those of men, and that He wills both good and evil. So far they agree
with the Jabarians. Nevertheless, they allow some power to man. This they call kasb, or acquisition because when God
wills a thing the man acquires (by a creative act of God) the power to do it. The orthodox Muslim is thus inevitably a
fatalist. |