THE SIX PILLARS OF IMAN

THE SIX PILLARS OF IMAN

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Just as Islam has five pillars (please recall the definitions of Islam and Pillar), so Iman (please recall the definition of Iman in

all of its three necessary components) also has six pillars, taught to us by the Prophet (sas). These pillars are:

Belief in Allah;
Belief in the angels;
Belief in the revealed books;
Belief in the commissioned Messengers (peace be upon them).
Belief in the resurrection and the events of Qiyama.
Belief in the predestination by Allah of all things, both the (seemingly) good and the (seemingly) bad.

THE FIRST PILLAR

Belief in Allah Most High.

It is the foundation of the Islamic personality.

It is a basic human need, more basic than the need for his provision and sustenance.

Acts of worship only become real and valid with the feeling and awareness of their Object.

supplication

love

humility

fear

hope/reliance

adoration

Differences between the Creator and His creation.

He is free of any need for others.

He is the sole Creator of all that which pleases Him (and that which doesn't).

Allah has ordered His creation and forbidden them only in ways which are in their best interest.

He sent the Messengers and the books with the truth Ilm-ul-Ghaib.

He alone can guide to Iman. This is why the people of paradise will say:

[All praise be to Allah who guided us to this, for we never would have been

e best worship is insufficient as gratitude for his bounties and mercies - they always fall short and we are need of His

forgiveness.
No one's works will merit paradise. There is no contradiction between the Hadith:
"None shall enter Paradise by his actions." and the verse which says:
[These are the people of paradise, therein forever, a reward for that which they used to do.]
Every human needs Allah's forgiveness of his sins.

THE SECOND PILLAR

Belief in the Angels.

Belief that
Belief that among Allah's creation are angels

Real beings, not illusions or figments of human imagination.
Created from light.
A Muslim must believe specifically in all the angels named

and/or described in the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Jibreel: in charge of delivering

revelation.

Mika'il: in charge of bringing the

rain.

Israfil: the blower of the horn on

Qiyama.

Malik-ul-Maut: the Angel of Death

who takes people's souls at death.

The Noble Recorders: those who

record people's actions.

The Protectors (Al-Mu'aqqibat):

who keep people from death until

its decreed time.
Ridhwan: in charge of Paradise.
Malik: in charge of Hell.
Munkar and Nakir: the questioners

in the grave.

The Carriers of the Throne.

Those who record the future of the

foetus.

Those who enter the Haram: 70,000

every day.

Those who move about, descending
upon gatherings at which Allah and
His Book are mentioned and
studied.

Belief in the angels is an integral part of Iman.

[See 2/285 Al-Baqarah]

Kufr with respect to the angels is kufr.

[See 4/136 An-Nisaa]

They are not some metaphysical force or aspect of the human
psyche or self. Deviants have said such things for many centuries,and it was not a new deviation when it was being propagated in America during this century.

THE THIRD PILLAR

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Belief in the Books of Allah.

General belief in the phenomenon of the sending of books.

S               Six specific books mentioned in the Qur'an:
As-Suhuf of Ibrahim and Musa.
Az-Zaboor given to Daud.
At-Taurat revealed to Musa.
Al-Injeel revealed to Isa.
Al-Qur'an - the final revelation.

Attributes of the Qur'an:

Flawless and untampered with:

[See 41/42 Fusilat]

The final authority over any

remnants of the previous books.

[See 5/48 Al-Maidah]

A guidance and a mercy.

[See 10/37 Yunus]

The Qur'an must be followed and applied.

[See 6/155 Al-An'aam]

Hadith narrated by Ali:

The Prophet (sas) said: "Verily, there will be fitan." I said: "What is the way out of them, Messenger of Allah?" He said: "The Book of Allah; in it is news of those who came before you; news of what is to come after you; the ruling on that which is
between you; it is the decisive criterion, and is not jest.

Whoever leaves it among the arrogant ones will be made small by Allah; whoever seeks guidance from other than it will be sent astray by Allah. It is the mighty rope of Allah, the Wise
Reminder, and the Straight Path. With it, inclinations do not deviate nor tongues become confused.

Scholars are neversatiated with it; it never becomes tiresome with repetition; its wonders never diminish. ... Whoever speaks by it is truthful;

whoever applies it is rewarded; whoever judges by it is just; and whoever calls to it is guided to a straight path.

- Narrated by At-Tirmidhi [Its chain is not strong because of two unknown narrators.]

THE FOURTH PILLAR

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Belief in the prophets, prayers and salutations of Allah be upon them.

Belief in the process of prophethood.

Allah in His wisdom did not neglect His creation.

Prophets sent to guide us in this life and the next.

Specific belief in the 25 prophets named in the Qur'an: (1) Adam,

(2) Nuh, (3) Idris, (4) Saleh, (5) Ibrahim, (6) Hud, (7) Lut,
(8) Yunus, (9) Isma'il, (10) Is-haq, (11) Ya'qub, (12) Yusuf,
(13) Ayub, (14) Shu'aib, (15) Musa, (16) Harun, (17) Alyas',
(18) Dhu Al-Kifl, (19) Daud, (20) Zakariya, (21) Sulaiman,
(22) Ilyas, (23) Yahya, (24) Isa, and (25) Muhammad, prayers
and salutations of Allah be upon him and upon all the messengers of Allah.

General belief that there are many other prophets and
messengers, but never assuming anything without knowledge
from Allah.

The subject matter of the prophethood.

Warnings and glad tidings.

So the disobedient will have no
excuse before Allah. (Prophets sent
to every nation.)

Enjoining the worship of Allah and
the avoidance of At-Taghoot
(Shaitaan, etc.)

[Study: 4/165, An-Nisaa; 16/36, An-Nahl]

P  Prophets are the best of the Awliyaa (Allies) of Allah.
What is wilaya; what it isn't.
Wilaya, Iman, Kufr and Nifaaq are

all variable attributes which can all

be present to varying degrees.

The best of Allah allies are the

prophets (a.s.).

The best among the prophets are

the messengers.

The best among the messengers are
the five firmly intentioned
mentioned in the Qur'an.

[See: 42/13, Ash-Shuraa]

The best of the firmly intentioned is

Muhammad (sas).

Attributes of the Prophet Muhammad:

Seal of the prophets; Imam of the
pious; Foremost among the sons of
Adam; Imam and Khatib of the
prophets when they assembled;
Possessor of the Praiseworthy
Position which all of mankind will
wish they had attained (and which
is mentioned in the Du'a of hearing
the adhan); Owner of the pool in
paradise; Intercessor for all
mankind on the day of Qiyama.

Allah sent him with the best of the
books and the best of His law.
Allah made his nation "the best
nation brought forth for mankind."
Allah gave him (and us) all of the
good that was given only partially

to the previous nations. His nation
is the last in creation, the first in
resurrection.

From the moment of his
prophethood, Allah made him the
criterion (Al-Farooq) for
distinguishing Allah's allies and
their actions from His enemies and
their actions: None can have any
relationship to Allah except
through belief in the Prophet (sas)
and following what he brought in
public and in secret. Whoever
claims love or closeness to Allah
while disobeying the message is
actually drawing closer to Shaitaan,
farther from Allah.

THE FIFTH PILLAR

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Belief in the resurrection (Al-Ba'th). Reconstruction of the body and return of the soul to it.

People will come forth out of their graves like locusts. Faces bent down. Rushing to the Caller.

[See 53/76 Al-Qamar; 70/43 Al-
Ma'arij; 17/49 Al-Israa; 36/78
Yasin; 20/108 Taha]

The resurrection is of the body and the soul, not some

metaphysical resurrection of the latter.

Twelve verses from the Qur'an which prove that.

Hadith: "The sun will come down
toward the people on the day of
Qiyama until it is only about a mile
up. The people will be in their own
perspiration according to their acts:
some of them will be in it up to
their ankles, some up to their groin
and others up to their chins, and he
pointed to his mouth." Narrated by
Muslim.

A disbeliever once came to the
Prophet (sas) with an old bone,
crumbled it with his hand and said:
"O Muhammad, will Allah bring
this back to life after it has rotted?!
The Prophet said: "Yes, Allah will
resurrect this and he will cause you
to die, bring you back to life, and
put you into the fire of Jahannam!"

THE SIXTH PILLAR

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Belief In Predestination and Decree

A Muslim believes in Allah's predestination of all things and events (Qadhaa), His decree (Qadar), His wisdom in His

actions, and His will. Nothing in the universe can occur, even the voluntary actions of His slaves, except after Allah's

knowledge, and His decree of that event. A Muslim further believes that Allah is Just in His predestination and His decree,

Wise in all of His actions. His wisdom follows His will: Whatever He wills is, and whatever He does not will is not. There is no power nor any movement except by Allah. This is substantiated by the textual and logical proofs which follow:

TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

1) Allah informed us of this in the Qur'an:

[Verily, we have created everything in (predetermined) measure.]

Qur'an 54/49

[And there is nothing whatsoever but that its reserves are with us,
and we do not send it down except in known measure.] Qur'an
15/21

[No calamity strikes in the earth nor in your selves but that was in a book since before We created it (i.e. the event). That is easy for Allah.] Qur'an 57/22

[No calamity strikes except with the permission of Allah.] Qur'an

64/11

[Say: Nothing will befall us except what Allah had decreed for us, He is our protecting Ally, and upon Allah let the believers depend.] Qur'an 9/51

[And with Him are the keys of the unseen, no one knows them
except Him. He knows all that is in the ocean and on the land. No
leaf falls without His knowledge, nor any particle in the dark
recesses of the earth, nor anything green and fresh or dry and
withered but that it is in a clear book.] Qur'an 6/59

This is nothing less than a reminder to all the worlds. * For
whoever among you has an intention to go straight. * But you
will never have this intention unless Allah so wills, Lord of the

worlds.] Qur'an 81/27-29

[Those for whom good has already been decreed by us will be far removed from it (i.e. hell).] Qur'an 21/101

[If only, when you entered your garden, you had said: (This is

only) by the will of Allah. There is no power except from Allah.]

Qur'an 18/39

[Praise be to Allah who guided us to this, and we would never

have attained guidance if Allah had not guided us.] Qur'an 7/43

2) The Prophet (sas), too, has informed us about the reality of Allah's predestination and decree in many hadith:

"Verily, each one of you is formed in his mother's womb forty
days as a drop, then he is something suspended for a similar
period, then he is a piece of flesh like a chewed piece of meat for another period of forty days, then the angel is sent to insert the soul. This angel is ordered to record four things: the sustenance which he will receive during his lifetime, the length of his life, all actions that he will do, and whether he will end up miserable (in hell) or joyous (in paradise). I swear by the One other than whom there is no deity, one of you may do the works of the people of paradise right up until there is only an arm's length between him and paradise, but his destiny overtakes him, so he does the actions of the poeple of the fire and enters it. And, verily, one of you may do the works of the people of hell until there is nothing between them and hell except for one arm's length, but his destiny overtakes him, and so he does the works of the people of paradise, and enters it." (Muslim)

"Young man, I will teach you some words: Preserve (your
obligations toward) Allah and He will preserve you. Guard (your
obligations toward) Allah, and you will find Him on your side.
When you ask, ask Allah. When you seek aid and succour, seek it
from Allah. And know, that if the entire nation got together to
benefit you in some way, they could never benefit you at all
except for that which Allah had already decreed for you. And, if
they all got together to harm you in some way, they could do you no harm except for that which Allah had already decreed for you.
The pens have been lifted, and the tablets have dried." (At-
Tirmidhi, and he rated it Sahih.)

"The first thing which Allah created was the pen. Then, He said
to it: Write. It asked: My Lord, what should I write? He said:
Write the proportions of all things up until the Hour." (Ahmad,
At-Tirmidhi, and it is hassan.)

"Adam disputed with Musa. Musa said to Adam: "O, Adam, you
are the father of the human race, Allah created you with His
hand, and blew into you of His spirit, and made His angels
prostrate to you, why did you expel yourself and us from the
garden?" Adam said to him: "You are Musa whom Allah favored
with His speech, and wrote for you the Taurah with His hand, so
(tell me) by how many years before my creation did you find it
written about me: [... then Adam disobeyed his Lord and got
lost.] (Qur'an 20:121)? Musa said: "By forty years." Then, Adam
said: "So how do you blame me for something which Allah had
decreed for me before my creation by forty years?" The Prophet
said: "And so, Adam defeated Musa in the dispute."

"Iman (faith) is to believe in Allah, His angels, His revealed
books, His messengers, the last day, and the predestination of all
things both (those which appear) good and (those which appear)
bad." (Muslim)

"Act, for each of you will find easy that for which he was created." (Muslim)
"Verily, oaths do not change destiny." (Sahih)

"O, Abdullah ibn Qais, should I not teach you a word which is

one of the treasures of paradise? (It is to say): There is no

movement nor any power except from Allah."

"Someone said: That which Allah wants and you want. To which the Prophet (sas) replied: That which Allah alone wants." (An-Nasaa'i, and he rated it sahih)

3) Millions of people from the nation of Muhammad (sas) have believed in Allah's predestination and decree of all things and

events including its scholars, righteous ones and others. They all believed too in His wisdom and His will and that everything

is known to Allah in advance of its occurrence, and only takes place by His decree. Nothing can take place anywhere in His kingdom except for that which He wills. What He wills is, and what He does not will is not. The pen has already recorded the destinies of all things up to the establishment of the hour.

EVIDENCE OF REASON

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1) Reason does not reject the idea of predestination and decree and of Allah's wisdom and His will. Just the opposite, reason

demands that this is the case without doubt because of the clear evidences of it in the universe around us.

2) Belief in Allah and in his perfect might and power demands the belief in His predestination and His decree, His wisdom

and His will.

3) An architect is able to make drawings for a huge building on a piece of paper. He determines the time in which it will be built, and then works at the execution of his plan, bringing the reality of the building from the paper to reality in the time set for its accomplishment, and in accordance with what he drew on the paper, neither more nor less. This being the case for a human, how could anyone reject the fact that Allah has set the proportions of all things from now until the hour? And then, due to the perfection of His knowledge and His power, He brings about those assigned proportions just as He had pre-set them in terms of quantity, nature, time, and place. There is no reason to reject these facts once we know that Allah is capable of all things!

Kashaf

Kashf (Arabic: كشف‎_ "unveiling" is a Sufi concept rooted in Gnostic ideals dealing with knowledge of the heart rather than of the intellect. Kashf describes the state of experiencing a personal divine revelation after ascending through spiritual struggles, and uncovering the heart (a spiritual faculty) in order to allow divine truths to pour into it. Kashf is etymologically related to mukashafa “disclosure”/ “divine irradiation of the essence” which connotes “gain[ing] familiarity with things unseen behind the veils”]For those who have purified their hearts, and who come to know the Divine Names and Attributes to the fullest of their individual capacities, the veils in front of the purely spiritual realms are opened slightly, and they begin to gain familiarity with the unseen. In Sufism, an even further revelatory capacity exists by which the Divine mysteries become readily apparent to the seeker through the light of knowledge of God. This is called tajalli "manifestation".

Two passages in the Qur’an serve as the most solid basis for elaboration on the Sufi concept of kashf:

[50.22] ‘Thou wast heedless of this; therefore We have now removed from thee thy covering [veil], and so thy sight today is piercing.’

[53.57-58] The Imminent is imminent; apart from God none can disclose [remove] it.

The verb “kashafa,” but never the noun “kashf” occurs in the Qur'an a variety of times in the sense of either “to uncover” (a part of the body) or “to take away” (misfortune, danger).

Hadith of the Veils

One hadith holds particular significance for the concept of kashf:

2 - إن بين الله عز وجل وبين الخلق سبعين ألف حجاب وأقرب الخلق إلى الله عز وجل جبريل وميكائيل ، وإسرافيل ، وإن بينهم وبينه أربع حجب : حجاب من نار ، وحجاب من ظلمة ، وحجاب من غمام ، وحجاب من الماء الراوي: سهل بن سعد الساعدي المحدث: ابن الجوزي - المصدر: موضوعات ابن الجوزي - الصفحة أو الرقم: 1/166 خلاصة حكم المحدث: لا أصل له

"Between God (mighty and sublime) and creation are 70,000 veils. The nearest of creatures to God (mighty and sublime) are Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, and between them and Him are four veils: a veil of fire, a veil of darkness, a veil of cloud, and a veil of water."

This Hadith is quoted somewhat differently by Ibn Majah as follows:

“God has seventy thousand veils of light and darkness; if He were to remove them, the radiant splendors of His Face would burn up whoever (or ‘whatever creature’) was reached by His Gaze.”

It is said that Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin to the Prophet Muhammad, prayed a prayer that included this excerpt during the month of Sha'baan:

My Lord, grant me complete severance of my relations with everything else and total submission to You. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts with the light of their looking at You to the extent that they penetrate the veils of light and reach the Source of Grandeur, and let our souls get suspended by the glory of Your sanctity.

Al-Kushayri expands on al-Kalabadhi’s proposal that tajalli (manifestation) of “the essence” of the Divine is called mukashafa. He then illustrates three stages in progression towards understanding the Real:

Muhadara—getting oneself into position vis-à-vis the objective sought. The objective remains veiled at this stage. This stage presupposes the presence of the heart, but relies on transmission of proof through the intellect (i.e. understanding God through his miraculous signs).

Mukashafa—lifting of the veil. Here reasoning (of the intellect) gives way to evident proof (through intuition). One directly encounters the Attributes of God. Yet, this stage is still considered an intermediary stage.

Mushahada—direct vision. This stage indicates an immediate encounter with The Real, without the intellect OR the intuition acting as an intermediary. This is direct experience of the Divine Essence.[9]

Al-Ghazali—This Sufi scholar discusses the concept of kashf, not purely in its mystical sense, but also with respect to theology in general. In conjunction with Al-Kushayri, Al-Ghazali links kashf with intuition. For Al-Ghazali, mukashafa has a dual sense:

It indicates an inner state of purification, which is subjective and brought about by “unveiling” or kashf.

It describes the objective truths that are revealed through the “unveiling”/kashf.

Since, for Al-Ghazali, kashf is linked to intuition, he describes mukashafa as the certain knowledge of the unseen discovered by the “science of the saints”Thus, kashf is considered “a light,” that is freely bestowed upon the purified worshipper through the grace of God, yet also yields sure intuitive knowledge for the worshipper upon whom it is bestowed.

Ibn Arabi—This Sufi mystic indicates the necessity for “divine unveiling” (kashf) as the means by which to understand the universality of the reality of realities (i.e. the universality of God’s oneness). In fana (self-annihilation), the individual ego passes away and divine self-manifestation occurs. This self-manifestation is eternal (as it comes from God), but it must be continually reenacted by the human in time. Therefore, the human becomes a pure receptor required for pure consciousness to be realized. The human is a sort of barzakh or intermediary between divinity and elementality, between spirit and matter, and open to the experience of kashf.

Al-Hudjwiri—The author of the Persian Sufi text Kashf al-mahjub (Uncovering the Veiled), Hudjwiri argues, along with Al-Kushayri that very few real Sufis exist anymore in his time; rather, there are a large number of “false pretenders” which he calls mustaswif—“the would-be Sufi”. In his text, Hudjwiri attempts to “lift the veils” off of these pretenders so they can purify their hearts and really pursue Sufism. Hudjwiri argues for the importance of “morals” over “formal practice” in Sufism.[13] Perhaps most notably, he was the first to directly address the problematic diversity in Muslim belief during his time., In Kashf al-mahjub, he describes various Sufi approaches to theoretical ideas, linking them to particular key Sufi figures, and thus “delineat[ing] the boundaries of normative Sufism without […] homogenizing [the approaches]”.

In Shi’ism, the spiritual experience of kashf is treated as a theological rather than purely mystical dimension.

Imamis—Sayyid Haydar Amuli distinguishes three kinds of knowledge: 1) by the intellect, 2) by transmission, 3) by kashf—this is the only form of knowledge that leads to true understanding of Reality

Amuli additionally distinguishes between two kinds of kashf:

kashf suwari—divine manifestations reach the senses of sight and hearing

'kashf ma’nawi—spiritual encounter, such as the disclosure indicated by mukashafa

Ismalis—these followers of Shi’ism put emphasis on kashf in a double sense as both a Gnostic and cosmic “state.” The Ismalis define “cycles of metahistory.which alternate between phases of “unveiling” (dawr-al-kashf) and “occultation” (dawr-al-satr).

Later mystics[who?], relying upon the traditional terminology, classified the revelations as follows:

Kashf kaunī, revelation on the plane of the created things, is a result of pious actions and purifications of the lower soul; it becomes manifest in dreams and clairvoyance.

Kashf ilāhī, divine revelation, is a fruit of constant worship and polishing of the heart; it results in the knowledge of the world of spirits and in cardiognosis ["soul-reading"] so that the mystic sees hidden things and reads hidden thoughts.

Kashf aqlī, revelation by reason, is essentially the lowest grade of intuitive knowledge; it can be attained by polishing the moral faculties, and can be experienced by the philosophers as well.

Kashf īmānī, revelation through faith, is the fruit of perfect faith after man has acquired proximity to the perfections of prophethood. He will be blessed by direct divine addresses — he talks with the angels, meets the spirits of the prophets, and sees the Night of Might and the blessings of the month of Ramaḍan in human form in the ālam almithāl.