The pillars of faith (iman)

You have learned the shahada and what it means. Now look at the beliefs that sit underneath it. In Arabic, faith is called iman. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, listed its pillars in one of the best-known hadith in Islam, the hadith of Jibril. (A hadith is a report of what the Prophet said or did.)

The hadith of Jibril

The companion Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) described a day when he and others were sitting with the Prophet. A man appeared in very white clothes, with very black hair. He showed no sign of travel, and none of them knew him. He sat facing the Prophet and asked him about Islam, then about iman, then about ihsan (worshipping Allah with excellence). When the man had gone, the Prophet told Umar:

He was Jibrīl (Gabriel). He came to teach you your religion.

Sahih Muslim 8

When Jibril asked about iman, the Prophet answered:

It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and believe in the divine decree, the pleasant and unpleasant aspects thereof.

Sahih Muslim 8

The six pillars of faith

1. Belief in Allah (al-iman billah): He is One, with no partner, and He alone deserves worship.

2. Belief in His angels (mala'ikatihi): beings Allah created to worship Him and carry out His commands.

3. Belief in His books (kutubihi): the revelations Allah sent to His messengers. The last of them is the Quran.

4. Belief in His messengers (rusulihi): the people Allah chose to carry His message. The last of them is the Prophet Muhammad.

5. Belief in the Last Day (al-yawm al-akhir): life after death, when every person will see the good and the bad they did.

6. Belief in divine decree (al-qadar): nothing happens except by Allah's knowledge and will.

Five or six?

You may have heard of "the five basic beliefs". The Quran names five of these pillars together in one verse (Quran 4:136): Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day. In the hadith of Jibril, the Prophet named the same five and added a sixth: belief in divine decree, called qadar. The Quran teaches this sixth pillar too:

Indeed, all things We created with predestination.

Quran 54:49 (Saheeh International translation)

So the complete list every Muslim learns is six. In the same hadith, Islam itself was described through five acts of worship, which you will study later in this step.

Faith lives in your day

Iman is not only a list you agree with. It shows in what you say and do. The Prophet said that faith has over seventy or over sixty branches. The highest is saying la ilaha illallah, the lowest is removing something harmful from the road, and modesty is a branch of faith (Sahih Muslim 35). So a kind act as small as clearing a path is part of your faith too.

Learn them by heart

Six items are easier to remember in pairs. Say each pair out loud, then tick it.

In the next lesson, you will see what each of these six pillars means for your everyday life.