The six pillars of faith
📖 In short
Faith is what we believe in our hearts. The angel Gabriel (Jibril), peace be upon him, came in the form of a man and asked the Prophet ﷺ about faith, and he said: “It is to believe in God, His angels, His books, His messengers and the Last Day, and to believe in destiny, the good of it and the bad of it.” These are six pillars a Muslim learns and lives by.
آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ🤩 Did you know?
- The Qur'an names 25 prophets and messengers.
- The Qur'an names 4 books sent down by God: the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel and the Qur'an.
- The hadith in which Gabriel asks about faith is called the “Hadith of Gabriel”, reported by Imam Muslim.
- The Qur'an is the last of the revealed books, and God has protected it from being changed.
🔎 Find out more
🌟 Belief in God
We believe that God is One with no partner. He created the sky, the earth, people and animals, and He sees us, hears us and has mercy on us. When we look at the sun, the trees and the seas, we understand His greatness.
🔍 Angels and books
Angels are beings made of light that we can't see; they always obey God. Among them is Gabriel (Jibril), who brought the revelation. God sent down books to guide people: the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus and the Qur'an to Muhammad ﷺ.
💡 The messengers
God sent messengers and prophets to teach people to worship God and to behave well, among them Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, peace be upon them, and the last of them is Muhammad ﷺ. We love and respect them all.
🎯 The Last Day and destiny
On the Day of Resurrection God will reward each person for what they did, and even the smallest good deed is never lost. We believe that everything happens with God's knowledge, so we try our best and work hard, then accept what God decrees for us.
📚 Key words
- Faith
- Believing with the heart, saying with the tongue and acting with the body
- Revelation
- The word of God that Gabriel brings to the prophets
- Destiny
- God's knowledge of everything that will happen, and His decree of it
🌱 Put it into practice today
Go outside with your family, look at the sky, the trees and the birds, and write down five things that show you the greatness of the Creator.
🧩 Test yourself
1 How many pillars of faith are there?
2 Who was the Gospel sent down to?
3 Who is the last of the prophets and messengers?
📚 Read next
- 🕌 The five pillars of Islam
- 💧 Wudu and purity
- 🧎 Prayer
- 🌙 Ramadan and fasting
- 🤲 Zakat and charity
- 🕋 Hajj and Umrah
- 🎉 Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha
- 🕌 Friday
- 🤲 Du'a
- 📅 Hijri months
- 📖 The Qur'an
- 🌟 The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
- 🕌 The mosque, the house of God
- 💬 Honesty
- 🤝 Trustworthiness
- 👨👩👧 Kindness to parents
- 🐈 Mercy and kindness to animals
- 🧼 Cleanliness is part of faith
- 🏘️ Being good to neighbors
- 🍽️ Table manners
- 😊 Greetings and smiles
- ⛵ The story of Noah (Nuh)
- 🔥 The story of Abraham (Ibrahim)
- ⭐ The story of Joseph (Yusuf)
- 🌊 The story of Moses (Musa)
- 🐋 The story of Jonah (Yunus)
- 🌱 Patience