Al-Ajwibatus Sadeedah ‘ala al-As’ilatir Rasheedah” – (The Sound Answers to the Right-minded Questions) – (Part 4)
By: ‘Allamah Zayd ibn Muhammad ibn Hadi al-Madkhali (may Allah have mercy on him)
Urdu Translation: Umm Muhammad Khushnuma Muslihuddin
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Question 6: How many pillars of faith (Imaan) are there? What is the meaning of each pillar, what is its evidence, and what is its fruit (benefit)?
Answer: There are six pillars of faith:
(1) To believe in Allah.
(2) To believe in His angels.
(3) To believe in His books.
(4) To believe in His messengers.
(5) To believe in the Last Day.
(6) To believe in the divine decree (Qadr), that both its good and bad are from Allah the Almighty.
This means to affirm the existence of Allah, to acknowledge His Lordship (Rububiyyah) with the heart, to admit His right to be worshipped (Uluhiyyah) both inwardly and outwardly, to dedicate every form of financial or physical worship purely to Allah, to have true faith in all His beautiful names and great attributes, and to implement this in one’s practical life according to the will of Allah and the way shown by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Allah the Almighty has said:
{ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ ۖ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَاعْبُدُوهُ ۚ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ} – [Al-An’am : 102]
Translation: "That is Allah, your Lord! There is no deity worthy of worship except Him, the Creator of all things. So worship Him. And He is the Disposer of all affairs."
In another place, He stated:
{وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۖ لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ} – [Al-Baqarah : 163]
Translation: "And your god is one God. There is no deity [worthy of worship] except Him, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful."
He further stated:
{لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ ۖ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ} – [Ash-Shura : 11]
Translation: "There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing."
The Fruits of Believing in Allah:
A person frees himself from the slavery and bondage of everyone except Allah and dedicates his self and all his actions purely to his Creator, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. In this way, he attains true happiness and success in this world, in the Barzakh (life in the grave), and in the Hereafter.
This means to affirm that angels truly exist and are among the greatest creations of Allah. Allah created them and established them in perpetual obedience to Him. They cannot disobey Allah’s command. Allah the Almighty has assigned them some important tasks that no one else can perform. Some of them descend with Allah’s message (revelation), some are appointed to manage rain and vegetation, and some protect the children of Adam from evils and undesirable matters. In addition to these, they have many other duties, some of which we know and many of which we do not, as Allah the Almighty has said:
{وَمَا يَعْلَمُ جُنُودَ رَبِّكَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ} – [Al-Muddaththir : 31]
Translation: "And none knows the soldiers of your Lord except Him."
He also said:
{بَلْ عِبَادٌ مُّكْرَمُونَ (٢٦) لَا يَسْبِقُونَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ وَهُم بِأَمْرِهِ يَعْمَلُونَ} – [Al-Anbiya : 26 – 27]
Translation: "Rather, they are [but] honored servants. (26) They do not precede Him in speech, and they act upon His command."
The Great Fruits of Believing in Angels:
(1) One gains knowledge of the greatness of Allah the Almighty, His power, and the vastness of His dominion; He who created such a vast creation that it is impossible for any human to count their number. He is the one who gives them death, and He is the one who will resurrect them.
(2) The servant becomes grateful to his Lord for His general and specific nurturing and perfect care, to the extent that He has subjected everything in the heavens and the earth for him, and among them are the angels with various important responsibilities and high ranks.
(3) Love for the angels is developed because they are the most well-wishing and sincere creation for the believing servants of Allah.
Belief in the books of Allah means to hold the firm conviction that all these books were revealed by Allah the Almighty. Allah the Almighty spoke them as His word and revealed them to His messengers through revelation. The believers, affirming their messengers, also believed these books to be true, meaning they affirmed them as well.
And Allah the Almighty has commanded the Ummah of Muhammad to declare their belief in the books revealed to previous prophets, both inwardly and outwardly, as Allah the Almighty has said:
{قُولُوا آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَمَا أُوتِيَ النَّبِيُّونَ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقْ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ} – [Al-Baqarah : 136]
Translation: "Say, [O believers], 'We have believed in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.'"
Belief in the messengers means to have a firm and unwavering conviction that Allah sent the messengers to give glad tidings and to warn, and so that after the messengers came, people would have no argument against Allah. The first of these messengers is Nuh (Noah) (peace be upon him) and the last is Muhammad ﷺ. So whoever followed them and accepted their call was guided, and whoever denied their prophethood and rejected it went astray, as Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, says:
{وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَلَمْ يُفَرِّقُوا بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ أُولَٰئِكَ سَوْفَ يُؤْتِيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا} – [An-Nisa : 152]
Translation: "But they who believe in Allah and His messengers and do not discriminate between any of them - to those He is going to give their rewards. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful."
The Great Benefits and Fruits of Believing in the Messengers:
(1) One attains certain knowledge of the mercy of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, who did not leave His creation to rely on their intellect alone but sent messengers to them and revealed books to them.
(2) To consider the mission of the messengers as a great blessing from Allah, which He bestowed upon His servants in every time and place.
(3) To love these honored messengers, who were advisors, truthful, trustworthy, and embodiments of sincerity.
Belief in the Last Day means to affirm, based on the knowledge derived from the book of our Lord and the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, that Allah the Almighty will resurrect the creation after death, then gather them on a day whose coming is without a doubt, and will recompense everyone for their deeds, as the Almighty has said:
{فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ (٧) وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ} – [Az-Zalzalah : 7 – 8]
Translation: "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, (7) And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it."
And whoever denies this day or anything that will occur on it (like the Sirat bridge, the Mizan scale, the Hawd pool, Paradise, Hell, the recompense for deeds, etc.), the proof of which is among the necessities of religion, has certainly strayed from the straight path, because the proof for all these matters is found in the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the Muslims.
Some Benefits of Believing in the Last Day:
(1) Belief in the Hereafter inclines a person towards righteous deeds, good words, and correct beliefs, as they hope for the reward promised in the Holy Quran and the purified Sunnah.
(2) This belief restrains a person from all kinds of sins—outward and inward, verbal and practical. This is because committing sins leads to the punishment of Allah which He has promised for those disobedient ones who transgress His limits, neglect His obligations, and turn away from things that were actually a means of their own reform and success, provided they believed in it and adhered to it.
Belief in the divine decree means that the destiny of all creations—whether celestial or terrestrial, whole or in part, speaking or silent, moving or stationary—has been predetermined by Allah the Almighty from eternity. All these things will occur at their appointed times, places, and with their specific attributes, just as Allah decreed from eternity. The proofs for this pillar are abundant in the Quran and the Sunnah. Only a disbeliever can deny them, and only an ignorant person or one who deliberately feigns ignorance can misinterpret or misconstrue them. Allah the Almighty says:
{وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَقَدَّرَهُ تَقْدِيرًا} – [Al-Furqan : 2]
Translation: "And He created everything and determined it with [precise] determination."
In Sahih Muslim (1), it is narrated from Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-‘As (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:
“كَتَبَ اللَّهُ مَقَادِيرَ الْخَلَائِقِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِخَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ”.
“Allah wrote down the decrees of creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth.” [Sahih Muslim: 2653]
And many other similar narrations have been reported.
From these clear texts, it becomes absolutely clear to a true believer that all the voluntary and involuntary actions of the creation do not happen without the will of Allah. Rather, whatever happens in the upper and lower worlds—such as giving life and death, health and sickness, poverty and prosperity, long and short life, the time, place, and cause of death, misery and happiness, ease and hardship, disbelief and faith, good and evil—all occurs under the eternal decree of Allah. All of this was written by the pen that Allah created and commanded to write the destiny of everything until the Day of Resurrection. Thus, there is no action or event that will occur from that time until the Day of Resurrection that was not written by that pen, as you have just read. However, this does not mean that servants should rely on their fate and abandon action, as this is a form of weakness and a violation and deviation from the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Therefore, it is necessary for servants to strive and endeavor in acquiring virtues and abandoning evils, because this is the cause of the pleasure of the Lord of the Worlds, as well as the means of entering Paradise and attaining its lofty ranks.
In a hadith, Imam Ahmad (2) and other hadith scholars narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattab (3) (may Allah be pleased with him) that once Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the Prophet ﷺ:
“O Messenger of Allah! What is your opinion about the actions we perform? Are they something newly initiated or something that has already been decided?” The Prophet ﷺ replied: “فِيمَا قَدْ فُرِغَ مِنْهُ يَا ابْنَ الْخَطَّابِ، وَكُلٌّ مُيَسَّرٌ، أَمَّا مَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ السَّعَادَةِ فَإِنَّهُ يَعْمَلُ لِلسَّعَادَةِ، وَأَمَّا مَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الشَّقَاءِ فَإِنَّهُ يَعْمَلُ لِلشَّقَاءِ”.
“O Ibn al-Khattab! It is a matter that has already been decided. And for everyone, the path has been made easy (for which he was created). So, whoever is among the people of happiness will perform the deeds of happiness, and whoever is among the people of misery will perform the deeds of misery.” [Sunan Tirmidhi: 2135, Sahih]
And in one narration, Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “O Messenger of Allah! Now we will strive hard.”
Some Prominent Fruits of Believing in the Good and Bad of Divine Decree:
(1) Complete trust in Allah and entrusting all one’s affairs to Him, since the Giver of life, the Fulfiller of needs, the Remover of calamities, and the One who acts in all His creation according to His will and wish is Allah alone.
(2) When a person achieves a desired goal in matters of religion or the world, he is saved from the disease of self-admiration. He always feels that the attainment of every desired thing and the aversion of every undesirable thing is in reality a blessing decreed by Allah the Almighty, bestowed by the All-Wise, the All-Knowing. Therefore, one should be grateful to Allah for it.
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(1) Muslim: He is Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri al-Naysaburi, the author of Sahih Muslim. He was one of the Imams of the Huffaz (scholars of hadith who have memorized a large number) and a prominent and distinguished figure in the world of hadith science. He was born in 260 AH and passed away in 315 AH, at the age of 55. (Taqrib al-Tahdhib, vol. 2, p. 254).
(2) Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: The Imam of Ahlus Sunnah of his time and the leader of the scholars of hadith. His full name is Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani. He was born in Baghdad in Rabi’ al-Awwal, 164 AH. His father passed away in his childhood, after which his mother gave him an excellent upbringing. He acquired knowledge from many scholars in Iraq, Syria, Hijaz, and various other cities. During the days of trial, he remained steadfast as a mountain, even though this period of affliction lasted for about sixteen years. He passed away in 241 AH. (Sifat al-Safwah, vol. 2, p. 236 and onwards; Hilyat al-Awliya, vol. 9, p. 161 and onwards).
(3) Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him): His full name is Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Rabah ibn Abdullah ibn Qurt ibn Razah ibn Adi ibn Ka’b ibn Lu’ayy al-Qurashi al-Adawi. His kunya (patronymic) is Abu Hafs. He was born thirteen (13) years after the incident of the Elephant. He became the caliph after Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him). He was a Muhaddath (inspired) personality, and Allah had placed truth on his tongue and in his heart. The Quran also agreed with his opinion on several occasions. Due to his greatness and strong faith, even Satan would flee from him. He was martyred by Abu Lu’lu’a al-Majusi in the year 24 AH. This incident occurred on a Wednesday when four nights remained of the month of Dhul-Hijjah. The duration of his caliphate was ten years, five months, and twenty-one days. According to the correct narration, he was 63 years old at the time of his martyrdom.
Allah’s command is executed in every situation; no one can avert His command. Your despair or restlessness cannot change anything, but being content with Allah’s decision and having good thoughts about Him can change everything. You will receive the reward of the patient, and also the best reward for thinking well of Allah. In a Hadith Qudsi, Allah, the Lord of Glory, says:
“أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي بِي”.
“I am as My servant thinks of Me.” – [Sahih Muslim: 2675]
This means that Allah deals with His servant in the same way that the servant thinks of Him. So, always think well of Allah. He will grant you more beautifully and magnificently than your thoughts and imagination, that which you have not even conceived. And you will surely receive a reward from Allah that will fill your heart with peace and contentment.
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