To be considered a good Muslim, you have to accept a few basic beliefs:
1. A belief in God (Allah)
2. A belief in the many prophets of God
3. A belief in life after death
4. A belief in the Books of God that have been revealed to the prophets
5. A belief in angels
6. A belief that God keeps track of human affairs and weighs our deeds, for good or for bad
7. A belief that there will be a Last Day
Some of these beliefs are pretty much a given, no matter what religion you’re talking about. I mean, obviously, any religion (with the possible exception of Buddhism) requires followers to believe in God. Most believe there is some form of life after death. And most believe that God knows whether we’re good or bad and that we’ll be rewarded or punished accordingly. Some of the others in the list above, though, are unique (at least in some way) to Islam.
Belief in the Prophets of God
Because Islam says that Allah is the same God who spoke to the Jewish and Christian prophets, Muslims accept all those people as legitimate prophets of the one true God. So, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the other prophets of Judaism and Christianity—even those whose names we may not know—are considered true prophets in Islam.
The key difference between Islam and Christianity, though, is that, to Muslims, Jesus was only a prophet—not the son of God or the Savior. He was just a prophet like all those other guys before him. And, since Muhammad is the final prophet, Muslims believe there will be no others coming before the end of the world.
That also means that there will be no savior coming, as predicted in Judaism. Muhammad’s all there is, like it or not.
Belief in the Books of God
Because Allah is the same deity who is described in the Jewish and Christian holy books, Muslims accept the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity as true scripture. Even the Qur’an mentions this, saying:
“Tell [Jews and Christians], ‘We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us [in the form of the Qur’an] and in that which came down to you [the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels]; Our God and your God is one; and it’s to Him we surrender.'” (Qur’an 29:46)
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| Islam accepts the holy books of the Christian and Jewish faiths (the Bible, above, and the Torah, below). |
Although Muslims believe the Jewish and Christian holy books are valid, they say that if there are any differences between them and the Qur’an when it comes to matters of faith or fact, we should follow the Qur’an. Basically, the Qur’an is supposed to be a “correction” of any mistakes that were made in earlier scripture.
Personally, I find this idea just a little obnoxious—it’s kind of like “You guys (Jews and Christians) made mistakes, but we got it right on the first try”—but hey, it’s not my call (and I only have to believe it for 30 days).
Belief in Angels
Faiths other than Islam—Christianity, for example—believe in angels. Islam refers to them as mala’ikah, and says they are beings made of light energy who can take on any form. They have no free will (like humans do). They exist only to do whatever God wants.
Different angels do different jobs. One named Jibra’il (known as Gabriel in the Bible) brings God’s revelations to the human prophets. An angel named Mika’il is in charge of the weather (and I wish he’d turn down the darn humidity already!). The angel of death is named Azra’il. And the angel Israfil has a pretty cool job: blowing a horn to let everyone know when the end of the universe has arrived (I bet there’s a lot of downtime in that line of work—sounds like fun).
Although I have a bit of a tendency to equate angels with fairies (which, as you may recall from my month as a pagan, I think are a little bit kooky), it’s not the angels I think are strange about Islam. It’s the jinns.
Jinns are kind of like . . . I don’t know . . . demons, for lack of a better word. As Yahiya Emerick explains in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam, “Jinns are similar to the genies so often portrayed in Western literature as wild and crazy spirits. . . . Islam proposes that these unique life-forms exist for their own sake and that we have no control over them in daily life.”
Unlike angels, which have no choice but to be good, jinns have free will like we do—and they can be good or bad, depending on their personality and mood. (I really hope my boyfriend doesn’t read this or I’m sure I’ll have a new nickname—Jinn.)
Muslims believe jinns are responsible for a lot of the mischief in the world: They haunt houses, they whisper to psychics what to tell people (which is why psychics sometimes seem to be eerily accurate—jinns know a lot, but not everything), and they’re the reason your dog sometimes seems to be barking at absolutely nothing.
Angels and jinns—weird, wild stuff.
Belief that there will be a Last Day
Like many other religions, Islam says there will come a time—the Last Day—when God decides to put an end to the universe. Every living thing will die and the whole universe will be destroyed. After that, God will judge our souls and determine what happens to us next—whether we’ll be rewarded or punished for our deeds during life.
The Muslim concept of the Last Day, or Judgment Day, is pretty detailed and complex—and really, really strange. We’ll talk more about that next time because I’m too tired to keep typing tonight. You have to remember that I’m running on very limited fuel these days, thanks to Ramadan. Next time, I promise.
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