Faith
Frequently Asked Questions about Islam

What does a Muslim believe?

That's a pretty broad question, but since I'm doing the asking and the answering, I reckon its my fault. To keep things simple, let's start with the Articles of Faith.

There are six generally-agreed upon Articles of Faith for a Muslim. In other words, if you don't believe in these, you aren't a Muslim in the strictest definition. These beliefs that a Muslim must accept as a matter of faith are:

• Belief that there is only one Supreme Being (Allah in Arabic; God in English; Díos in Spanish; Y--weh in Hebrew). This is by far the single most important element of being a Muslim, and is stressed throughout the Qur'an.
• Belief in all of the Messengers and Prophets of God without exception. The Qur'an mentions twenty-five messengers and prophets and states that there are others. Among those mentioned by name are: Noah, Abraham, David, Ishmael, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
• Belief in all the original revelations and scriptures of God. I use the term "original" here to mean the original revelations and scriptures given to Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and Muhammad. Muslims believe that the originals of most of these have been lost or corrupted over time.
• Belief in the Angels, the spiritual, unseen servants of God.
• Belief in the Day of the Judgement, when all people from Adam to the last person will be resurrected from the state of death for judgement. Every action in our earthly lives is recorded and we must answer for them on the Day of Judgement.
• Belief that God is in control of everything in this world and He alone controls, and knows, our destiny. A Muslim believes that man has free-will, but that God also has foreknowledge of what we will do.

What else does a Muslim believe?

• Islam says that Jesus:
  • was born of the virgin Mary and had no human father
  • performed miracles with the permission and aid of God Almighty
  • has not suffered a human death, but dwells in Heaven
  • will return to Earth and conquer the anti-Christ