Belief in God’s Angels
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has informed us that these imperceptible spiritual beings, whom people believe to be deities of gods or God’s children, are really His angels. They have no share in God’s divinity; they cannot deviate from His commands even by the slightest fraction of an inch. God employs them to administer His Kingdom, and they carry out His orders exactly and accurately. They have no authority to do anything of their own accord; they cannot present to God any scheme conceived by themselves, they are not even authorised to intercede with God for any man.
We believe in their existence only because God’s true Messenger has informed us of it.
Faith in the Books of God
God had revealed His Books to His Prophets before Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and these books were sent down in the same way as He sent down the Qur’an to Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). We have been informed of the names of some of these books: Books of Abraham, the Torah of Moses, Zabur (Psalms) of David and the Injil (Gospel) of Jesus Christ.
Of the Books we have been told, the Books of Abraham are extinct and not traceable in existing world literature. David’s Zabur, the Torah and the Inji’l exist with the Jews and the Christians, but the Qur’an informs us that people have changed and added to these books, and God’s words have been mixed up with texts of their own making.
Faith in the earlier divine Books should be limited to the confirmation that they were all from God, were true and were sent down to fulfil, in their time, the same purpose for which the Qur’an has been sent. On the other hand, belief in the Qur’an should be of the nature that it is purely and absolutely God’s own words, that it is perfectly true, that every, word of it is preserved, that everything mentioned therein is right, that it is the bounden duty of man to carry out in his life each and every command of it and that whatever be against it must be rejected.
Faith in God’s Prophets
It is for this reason that in Islam it is necessary to have implicit faith in all the Prophets of God. One who does not believe in a particular Prophet would be a Kafir, though he may profess faith in all the other Prophets.
All the Prophets of God have been deputed by Him to teach the same straight path of ‘Islam’.
To become a true Muslim (a follower of the Prophet’s way of life) it is necessary to have complete faith in Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and to affirm that:
(a) He is a true Prophet of God;
(b) His teachings are absolutely perfect, free from any defect or error and
(c) He is the Last Prophet of God. After him no Prophet will appear among any people till the Day of Judgement, nor is any such personage going to appear in whom it would be essential for a Muslim to believe.
For complete Islamiat notes click here.