Understanding Aqeedah

Here, we will present the basis of the Aqeedah of the ahlus sunnah wal Jamat, without delving too much into the nuances. This means that it would be on a basis of the six pillars of Eman. This is very brief. For more information, feel free to study about it elsewhere.

Lets take the analogy of a house. This house can be as beautiful and exquisite as possible, with designs you could only see in your dreams, but without a solid foundation, it would not be possible. Likewise is dawah. You could have all the knowledge, down to the finest detail, but without that base, it would be for nothing. This base is Aqeedah, your belief.

If anything that is mentioned does not sit right with you, or you would like to challenge this, feel free to send us an email. Without further ado, let us begin, insha allah.

What is our belief in Allah?

We believe in Allah through a concept of Tawhid.
Now, what is Tawhid?

Tawhid comes from the root word, wahhada, which means to unite, or to make one. In Islam, this means to believe in Allah’s oneness; that He alone deserves to be worshipped as He is the lord of all creation. We also affirm His oneness in terms of Him alone possessing His beautiful names and lofty attributes.

We can deduce this when Allah says

“All praise and thanks be to Allah, lord of all creation. The Merciful, The bestower of Mercy. King of the Day of Judgement. You (alone) we worship, and You (alone) we ask help.” (Surah Fatiha 1:1-4)

What is our belief in the prophet Muhammad ﷺ ?

Muhammad ﷺ is called in the Quran the Seal of the Prophets. This means there will be no more prophets after him.

“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets.” (Surah Al- Ahzab 33:40)

The Quran tells us that
“Muhammad is no more than a messenger; other messengers have gone before him…” (Surah Al- Imran 3:144)

From this, we can deduce that he had no divine aspect, but was only a messenger, much like the previous messengers that came before.

What is our belief in the Quran and the previous scriptures?

We believe in the Quran, and we believe that it is the uncreated Speech of Allah, a guidance for mankind, and a mercy to the entire world. Allah Ta’ala revealed the Quran, over a period of 23 years, to Muhammad ﷺ .

We also believe that Allah Ta’ala revealed other scriptures, of them including the Injeel to Isa, the Tawrah to Musa and the Zaboor to Dawud (Peace be upon all of them). However, we believe that their message has been corrupted, hence the reason for Allah revealing the Quran, a book that would remain uncorrupted and preserved.

What is our belief regarding the angels?

We believe that angels were created from light. We believe that they worship Allah. From what we know based on Quran and Hadeeth, we can say that angels have been given special tasks by Allah. For example, the angel Jibra’eel (Alayhis salam), who was given the responsibility of sending revelations to Allah’s messengers.

This can be deduced from the following passages

“… In fact, those (angels) are only (His) honoured servants, who do not speak until He has spoken, (only) acting at His command” (Surah Al- Anbiya 21:26-27)

“They glorify (Him) day and night, never wavering.” (Surah Al- Anbiya 21:20)

What is our belief regarding the day Last Day?

We believe in the last day, after which no other day will come, wherein people will be raised up for eternity, either in Jannah, or Jahannam.

This includes the three questions in the grave, the blowing of the trumpet, and the events of the day of Judgement.

This (i.e. the day of judgement) is a day where all of mankind, from Adam (Alayhis Salam) to the last of them, will stand in front of Allah to be judged. We believe that on that day, not a soul will face injustice, and every oppressed will be recompensated.

What is our belief regarding predestination?

We believe in a concept called Qadr. Qadr is the belief that Allah willed for something to take place, has knowledge of the thing that takes place, wrote down what would take place on something called the Lawhil Mahfuz, or the preserved tablet, and created our actions. This is also the belief that all good and bad comes from Allah Ta’ala.