Islam for beginners: what Muslims believe, in plain English

Three words that map the whole religion

The course for new Muslims opens with a map, and it is worth having before anything else. The religion has three levels. Islam is what you do: surrendering to Allah by worshipping Him alone and obeying Him. Iman is what you believe in the heart, say with the tongue and do with the body. Ihsan is the highest level: to worship Allah as though you see Him, knowing that even if you do not see Him, He sees you.

Allah created people for one purpose: to worship Him alone. Everything below is how that is done.

The Shahadah: the door into Islam

A person becomes Muslim by saying the two testimonies, truthfully and believing their meaning: “Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah”, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”, and by giving up everything that contradicts them, such as worshipping anything besides Allah.

“There is no god but Allah” means that no one has the right to be worshipped except Allah; saying it goes together with rejecting everything else that is worshipped. “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” means believing what he told us, obeying what he commanded, avoiding what he forbade, and worshipping Allah only in the way he taught.

When someone becomes Muslim, Allah forgives every sin of their life before Islam, and keeps for them the good they did.

The five pillars of Islam

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that Islam is built on five things (Bukhari 8, Muslim 16):

1. 1The Shahadah: the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
2. 2Establishing the prayer (Salah): the five daily prayers, the most important pillar after the testimony.
3. 3Giving Zakah: the charity on wealth, for those who have enough to owe it.
4. 4Fasting Ramadan: the month of fasting each year.
5. 5Hajj to the House of Allah in Makkah, for whoever is able.

These are the practices. The course teaches each one in its own set of lessons, in this order: prayer in Level 1, fasting and Zakah in Level 3, Hajj in Level 4.

The six pillars of Iman

Iman has six pillars: belief in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and Qadar, its good and its bad. There is no Iman without all six: disbelieving in one of them is disbelieving in all of them. Here is each one as the course teaches it.

1. Belief in Allah

Belief in Allah means believing that He is one in three ways. In His Lordship: He alone creates, owns, provides, gives life and death, brings benefit and harm, and runs every affair, with no partner. In His right to be worshipped: all worship, outward and inward, is directed to Him alone, seeking nothing but His pleasure. And in His names and attributes: He has perfect names and attributes, and nothing resembles Him.

Worship is everything Allah loves: of the heart (love, fear, hope, reliance), of the tongue (praise, Qur'an, Du'a, seeking forgiveness) and of the limbs (prayer, fasting, Zakah, Hajj, charity). None of it may go to anyone else.

Allah accepts a deed only if it is done sincerely for Him alone and in the way the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught. A deed missing either condition is not accepted. The Qur'an puts the heart of it in one line: “And worship Allah and do not associate anything with Him” (Qur'an 4:36).

2. Belief in the angels

The angels are real: created by Allah from light, so many that only He knows their number, always obedient, honoured servants with no share in creating or running anything. No worship goes to them. Jibril, who brought the Qur'an down to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), is one of them.

3. Belief in the Books

All the Books Allah sent down came from Him, are His real speech, and called to the worship of Allah alone. The Qur'an is the last of them: Allah Himself has guaranteed to preserve it, so not a word has been or will be changed, and it is now the Book everyone must follow.

4. Belief in the Messengers

Allah sent Messengers to every people. Muslims believe in all of them and make no distinction between them in believing them, though Allah raised some above others. They were human servants of Allah, not lords. All the Prophets had one religion and one creed; only their laws differed.

Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Seal of the Prophets: the last, with no Prophet after him. Loving him is part of faith, and so is not going to excess about him.

5. Belief in the Last Day

Every soul will die and return to Allah. In the grave two angels question each person about their Lord and about Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Then Allah brings all the dead back to life for judgement: each person is given the book of their deeds, and the deeds are weighed on a real Balance, exact to the weight of a speck. Paradise and the Fire are real and last for ever. Muslims who die upon Tawhid but with sins may be punished as Allah wills, but they end up in Paradise.

6. Belief in Qadar, the decree

Everything that happens, happens by Allah's decree. The course teaches Qadar through four levels: Allah's knowledge of all things, His writing of them, His will by which they happen, and His creation of them. Nothing reaches you except what Allah has written for you or against you.

Belief in Qadar steadies the heart: thank Allah for the good, be patient with the hard, and still take the lawful next step. It is never an excuse for sin.

What undoes faith, and what does not

Major Shirk, giving any worship to anything besides Allah, takes a person out of Islam, and so does denying any of the six pillars. Sins below that, however serious, do not. Unwanted thoughts that you dislike and push away are not disbelief either: they are whispers, and disliking them is a sign of real faith.

Where to learn this properly

This page summarises the eight belief lessons of the free course Tayseer: the Shahadah and Tawhid in Level 1, then Allah's names, what undoes faith, and one lesson for each remaining pillar of Iman in Levels 2 and 3. Each is under ten minutes. If you are new to Islam, start there and with what to do in your first week.