basic beliefs of islam

hello

we have with us uh dr musharraf hussain

who is the chief executive of the

academia institute here in nottingham

and he's with us to talk about the basic

beliefs of islam

and well shot off can you tell us what

the basic beliefs

are well first of all beliefs in

arabic is iman and it simply means to

accept as truth whatever

the prophet of islam muhammad taught so

it's having this

unwavering belief and acceptance

of first and foremost of course is

belief in god in an almighty god and

and really that is it to be honest the

rest of the

two major uh beliefs that is the

prophethood

uh and the um hereafter

all revolve around this and of course

we'll be talking about the six

beliefs angels the books the hereafter

the predestination but really it is

all about one god and all these other

elements and tenets of the faith really

reinforce

the belief in one supreme

almighty all-powerful god really

so these it's really all about god

and the six basic beliefs so if we count

them let's see there's

god it's angels it's messengers

it's books it's the last day and it's

predestination they're all about god

absolutely i mean if each as we will

you know explore them later on we you

will see that

really they all come back to god the

angels the books it's all about

god communicating god talking to his

people

and of course you know that is the only

way that

we can know god so where does one look

to find what these beliefs

are are there creeds are there books

i mean well of course the first and

foremost source

is the glorious quran itself you know

that is the source

but muslim scholars over the centuries

have been trying to distill and to put

it succinctly and package it

nicely into a creed similar to the

christian creed and we have many

uh popular ones and the one which the

hanafis

in particular world over and the

ashari's use is called

akaid anasafi the beliefs of the great

teacher of the 11th century nasafi

okay what are some of the other is the

anasazi and the used mentioned hanafi

and ashari

can you just briefly say where this fits

into the wider

tradition the beliefs are really

um there are three ways of looking at

the islamic creed slightly different

from one another there is the

humbly way uh and then there is the

ashari way and then there is the

maturity the the the

the contents are the same it's just the

style

and it is just the tone and the tenor in

which they are

and sometimes details actually that's

the only difference but otherwise i mean

they are actually the same in in many

respects what

is this word uh belief what's it mean i

think you used the word amen did you yes

what do we mean by this well it's

in a way it's accepting

god as the creator of the universe

it is um accepting that this is the

reality really and it's actually in many

ways we can compare it to

a spectacle you know how we it gives us

a world view

how we view the world how we view

ourselves and how we

view the world in relation to this

creator

really so it's a it builds an attitude

it builds a mindset it builds a

particular

world view that is what beliefs are

really and

by looking through this

beliefs system you begin to see the

world

differently from people who might not

have that belief really so it is a very

fundamental

way of understanding the world and

seeing the world and understanding

what's around you

how does belief then relate to works

because that's a

an issue in many religious traditions

how does that fit together well

and you know there is this notion that

um belief gives you this

basis of relating with your creator uh

and therefore

uh trying to please and to really

um live his will really

and so the works are really putting into

action

what your faith teaches you so it's

really that the relationship is very

close that you know the

beliefs really have to be expressed

physically and that's what we're about

really and the uh the works are really

the deeds are really

expression uh of our love

and relationship with god good

one last quick question can can belief

increase and decrease because i know

that's a fascinating debate amongst the

muslim scholars and

there is one view which is very simply

that no you know

faith doesn't actually increase it's

like all or non in physiology you know

you need to reach a certain threshold

once you've reached that threshold

and you've crossed it that's it it

doesn't really matter after that

so it's actually meaning you've entered

the pale of islam

you've entered the the the the

boundaries of islam

and that's it but of course there is the

other view that no faith

keeps on increasing as your deeds and

then as your relationship and as your

connection develops with the

almighty thank you mashara for helping

us understand about faith or belief we

use these two terms to mean

to translate the arabic word iman and

now we move on to

our additional videos thank you very

much for being with us

you