Fundamentals of Islam
Fundamentals of Islam
“One day while we were sitting with the Messenger of Allaah (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam)
there appeared before us a man whose clothes were exceedingly white and whose hair was
exceedingly black; no signs of journey were to be seen on him and none of us knew him. He
walked up and sat down in front of the Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam), with his knees
touching against the Prophet’s (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) and placing the palms of his hands
on his thighs he said: “O Muhammad, tell me about Islaam.”The Messenger of Allaah
(sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “Islaam is to testify that there is no deity worthy of worship
but Allaah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah, to perform prayers, to give zakaah, to
fast in Ramadaan, and to make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to do so.”He said:
“You have spoken rightly”; and we were amazed at him asking him and saying that he had
spoken rightly.He (the man) said: “Tell me about Eemaan.”He (the Prophet, sallAllaahu alayhi
wa sallam) said: “It is to believe in Allaah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Last
Day, and to believe in divine destiny (qadr), both the good and the evil of it.”He said: “You have
spoken rightly.”He (the man) said: “Then tell me about Ihsaan.”He (the Prophet, sallAllaahu
alayhi wa sallam) said: “It is to worship Allaah as though you see Him, and if you do not see
Him, then (knowing that) truly He sees you.”He said: “Then tell me about the Hour.”He said:
“The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner.”He said: “Then tell me about
its signs.”He said: “That the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress, and that you will see
barefooted, naked destitute shepherds competing in constructing lofty buildings.”Then he (the
man) left, and I stayed for a time. The he (the Prophet, sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: “O
`Umar, do you know who the questioner was?”I said: “Allaah and His Messenger know best.”He
said: “It was Jibreel, who came to teach you your religion.”It was related by Muslim
The Significance of this Hadith
This hadith includes within it all outwardly actions and inwardly beliefs. The sciences of the
Sharia’ return back to this hadith due to it encompassing knowledge of the Sunnah. Hence,
some of the scholars have termed this hadith the Mother or Core of the Sunnah, just as Surah
Fundamentals of Islam
al-Fatiha has been termed the Mother or Core of the Qur'aan, due to it containing the entire
Message of the Qur'an.
This hadith is also known as Hadith Jibreel (Angel Gabriel) (as). The hadith tells the story of
Jibreel (as) when he came to the Prophet (sas), asking a set of questions. The Prophet (sas)
responded to those questions and then addressed his companions. There is a door called
“Baab Jibreel” at Masjid An-Nabawi in Madina. It is known as the door that Jibreel (as) came in
to
Etiquette
Jibreel (as) came dressed in a very nice and clean way. He sat in front of the Prophet (pbuh) in
a very respectful and humble way. There are many things that the scholars took from this Hadith
in terms of seeking knowledge. Among the etiquettes of seeking knowledge is students should
have decent apparel, they should look clean as much as possible. Moreover, they should show
a high level of respect towards their teachers.sk the Prophet (sas) these questions.
Outward Actions & Inward Beliefs
Jibreel (as) turns to the Prophet (sas) and says, “Tell me about Islam”. The Prophet’s answer
was centered around outward actions. Then he asks him about iman and the Prophet’s answer
focused on internal actions of belief and of thought.
Islam and iman are interchangeable concepts revolved around the five pillars of action and the
six foundations of belief. When Islam and iman are mentioned together in the same place, then
Islam refers to the outward actions and iman refers to the inward beliefs.
Fundamentals of Islam
Belief manifests itself. The scholars say that a belief lives in the heart and shows itself on the
actions and on the tongue. For example, the Prophet (sas) said that the Muslim is the person
who the people are safe from his hands and his tongue. And the believer is the one who people
trust him with their wealth and themselves.
Belief in Allah is of 3 levels
His lordship: that He created us, sustains us, nurtures us, will cause us to die, etc
His divinity: Only He is worthy of our worship, our repentance, seeking help, etc
His names and attributes: He is the only one with the most perfect of names and attributes
Although the people of Quraysh believed in the oneness of Allah with regards to His lordship,
they denied the attribute of Allah’s divinity, so they believed it was only Him who created us, but
they refused to worship Him alone and worshipped others with Him
Believing in the oneness of Allah with regards to His lordship is not sufficient by itself, hence the
people of Quraysh were called disbelievers
Denying any of the 3 types of Allah’s oneness, or not affirming all 3 types of Allah’s oneness
renders a person a disbeliever
Many people fall into the mistake of denying a part of Allah’s divinity, and this is due to their
ignorance of what constitutes worship. Worship of Allah includes making du’aa, seeking refuge,
slaughtering, making oaths, and praying. However, it also includes fear, hope, humility, seeking
help and many other actions which many people do not see as worship
Not all types of fear, hope, humility, etc. fall into the oneness of Allah’s divinity, hence we must
study them to understand and differentiate between what must be dedicated to Allah alone from
what can be dedicated to the people
Fundamentals of Islam
A brief summary is that any action which makes a person give others a right that only belongs to
Allah is considered as associating partners with Allah and disbelief in Allah e.g. if you fear
someone because you think he has the power to deprive you of your sustenance then you have
associated partners with Allah by giving someone an attribute that only belongs to Allah
(providing sustenance), and you have disbelieved in Allah because you have denied the
oneness of Allah’s lordship in that you do not believe that it is only Allah who can provide
sustenance.
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Belief in the Angels entails belief in their:
1. Existence
2. Names
3. Characteristics
4. Duties
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Belief in the Angels helps us:
1. Realise the greatness of Allah
2. Feel grateful towards Allah
3. Thank Allah for not commanding us to worship Him to the extent the Angels do
4. Realise the greatness of the worship of the Angels
5. Realise the sins we make harm the Angels
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Belief in the books entails:
1. Belief they came down from Allah
2. Having specific belief in the ones we have been given the names of
3. Belief that every singles verse in the Qur’an is the truth and is brought down by Allah
4. Act according to what it says
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Allah gave us many ways to know His existence:
1. Our fitrah (natural disposition)
2. Our intellect
3. Via looking at His creation
4. Via the holy scriptures which He revealed to us
Fundamentals of Islam
5. We need the holy scriptures to know how to worship Allah in the correct way and to
know the correct path
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Belief in the Messengers entails belief in their:
1. Existence and that they were inspired with the truth
2. Belief in the messengers specifically mentioned in the Qur’an and ahadith
3. Belief in all that they stated and that they completed their messages
4. Submit and act in accordance with the final message
5. The difference between a messenger and a prophet is that a messenger is someone
who is given a message and a prophet is someone who follows the message of a
messenger before him
6. Every messenger is a prophet but not every prophet is a messenger
7. Every nation has been sent a messenger as in [Faatir, 35:24]
8. The prophets have infallibility from forgetting or falling into error when it comes to
conveying matters of the religion, and they do not commit major sins
9. A reason why messengers were humans and not angels is so that we can try to emulate
them
10. Disbelief in one is like disbelief in all, hence who does not believe in Muhammad
(sallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) is a disbeliever in all messengers
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Tasks of the messengers:
1. Convey the message
2. Call people to believe in Allah
3. Give glad tidings and warnings
4. Correct the souls and purify them
5. Establish the proof upon the people
6. Lead the ummah
7. Correct the corrupted thoughts among the people
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Belief in the last day entails belief in:
1. Life after death
2. The reckoning
Fundamentals of Islam
3. Heaven and Hellfire
4. For every believer, Allah has created a place for him in Heaven and Hellfire, and if they
are good, then their place in Hellfire will be given to someone else, otherwise, they will
enter it. Knowing this should really make us more careful and fearful
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Belief in divine will entails belief that:
1. Allah knows everything
2. It has all been written in ‫ ال مح فوظ ال لوح‬/sacred tablet (the book of decrees)
3. Allah has decreed everything, but we have free-will and whatever we do according to
our free will, will be in conformity to what Allah has decreed
4. Allah created everything, so He created us and our actions
5. In the hadith, belief in divine will was reiterated to show its importance and to signify that
many people will not believe in it
6. Belief in divine will does not negate free-will, it just says that Allah knew you would do
such and such
7. If we see something bad, we don’t say Allah wanted it, but say Allah allowed it
8. There may be many wisdoms behind what we perceive as evil
9. Allah created us and our actions because for every action you need:
10. A will: you can only do this with Allah’s will
11. Ability: you can only do this with Allah’s blessings
Knowing this should make us more humble in front of Allah and show more gratitude to Him,
because even our righteous actions are due to His blessings and will
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Ihsan is of two levels:
1. ‫( م شاهدة‬observing): To perform actions while feeling that Allah is actually seeing you at
that moment [higher level]
Fundamentals of Islam
2. ‫( مراق بة‬being watched): To perform actions knowing and being mindful that Allah is
watching you
3. Both levels of ihsan are derived from the wording of the hadith. The first part is talking
about mushahadah which is to worship Allah as if you see him, then the hadith says and
if you can’t/don’t see him, then i.e. If you can’t achieve this level, then try the level of
muraqabah which is to worship Allah knowing that he sees you
4. One should find peace and tranquillity when alone and prefer to be alone with Allah than
sitting with friends
The Big Three: Islam, Iman, & Ihsan
Scholars consider Islam, Iman and Ihsan the three stages in the path towards Allah
(swt). The first path is you force yourself and bring yourself to do those actions which
you know that Allah wants you to do. The second level is iman where you are not only
doing those actions, but you are strengthening your relationship with Allah (swt) and
you’re beginning to taste the sweetness of your relationship with Allah. The third level is
the level of Ihsan, which is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and even if you cannot
see Him, to know that He sees you. So, you are moving in this path, this journey,
towards the Divine. And in doing so, it’s getting more and more intense.
The Hour
When Jibreel asked the Prophet (sas) about the hour, He said, “The one who is being
asked about it is not more knowledgeable about it than the one who is asking.” Here, the
Prophet (sas) is saying, this is something that Allah (swt) keeps to Himself and it is part
of the “ghayb” (unseen). This is an important lesson because it doesn’t matter when the
Day of Judgment is, what really matters is what and how we are preparing for it. We
should be continuously striving to please Allah and seek his forgiveness.
The Signs
Fundamentals of Islam
The next question was, “So, tell me about it’s signs, tell me about the things that will
occur”. These signs are considered as warnings. The Prophet (sas) gave two signs to
this particular hadith of the end of time. One of them is, “the slave woman will give birth
to her master,” and the tense is feminine so it is referring to her female master.
One of the interpretations that relates to modern time would be: The one who gives birth
is supposed to be in power, or have some sort of level or authority over the one who she
gives birth to. But this here is a flipping of the scale. The one who gives birth becomes
the servant of the one who is born. Whereas before, the child would respect, honor and
listen to their parents. Now it’s the complete opposite, and if you look around, you will
see it. You see and feel as if the parents are slaves to the children. Parents desperately
trying to please their children, and moms are trying to imitate their daughters.
The second sign; is the person will see barefooted, lightly dressed, and poor people who
are shepherds. They will see these people competing with one another in their buildings.
The point here is you have these people who don’t have anything, they are very poor.
Then suddenly the situation changes for them, and they are competing with one another
over who can build the tallest building. They are competing to see who has the nicest
car, the latest gadgets, etc.
Characteristics of the minor signs:
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These signs are many. Some books have listed over 130 of them
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They are not supernatural
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They do not come in a particular order
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They can happen more than once
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They are not necessarily very close to the hour
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They are not necessarily felt by everyone or happen everywhere
Characteristics of the major signs
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There are 10 major signs
Fundamentals of Islam
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They are supernatural
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They follow each other directly
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They are felt by everyone
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They are directly followed by the hour
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The major signs are:
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The coming of Al-Dajjal
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The descension of Eesaa (alayhi assalam)
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The coming of Ya’juj & Ma’juj (Gog & Magog)
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Major landslide in the East
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Major landslide in the West
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Major landslide in the Arabian peninsula
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The smoke
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The coming of the creature/beast
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The rising of the Sun from the west
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Fire will emanate from Yemen and will push the people to the mahshar (the gathering)