3. The Messenger
is a man who received a Revelation of Shari'ah (religion and law), and was
ordered by God to announce it, however, if he received a revelation and wasn't
ordered to announce it, then he is only a prophet and not a
messenger.
4. The
(Shahadah) of Allah, the Exalted, is implemented by His Word and His Action, and
His Support for His Messenger by victory, miracles, and various proofs that what
he brought forth is the Pure Truth.
5. La ilaha illa
Allah (There is no god but Allah) is the formula of Tawhid (Oneness) which all
Messengers (peace be upon them all) agreed upon, rather it is the essence of
their messages, and every Messenger made it the opening of his message and its
pillar, as our Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"I was
ordered to fight people until they say La ilaha illa Allah, and if they say it,
then they protect their blood and their property from me except for its dues,
and Allah, The Almighty, The Supreme, will judge them." (Al-Bukhari and
Muslim)
6. And making
the shahadah (testimony) for the Messenger (peace be upon him) of the Risalah
(Message) and the 'Ubudiyah (Servitude to Allah and worshiping Him) connected
with the Testimony of the Oneness of Allah, to indicate that both of them must
be mentioned together, and no one of them takes the place of the other, for this
they were connected in adhan (the call for prayers) and at-tashahhud (the
testimony). Some people interpreted the verse,
"And We
exalted your name." (al-Inshirah 94/4) as: "Whenever I am mentioned
you will be mentioned with Me."
And He combined
for him (the Prophet) the two tides, namely that of the Messenger-ship and the
Servitude, because they are the highest of which any human being could be
described. The Servitude or the worship is the reason for which Allah made the
creations, as He said:
"I created
the jinn and humankind only that they should worship Me." (adh-Dhariyat,
51/56)
So the
perfection of the creature is in accomplishing that goal, and the more the human
being increases his accomplishment of the servitude, the more he increases his
perfection and makes his status higher, for this Allah mentioned His Prophet
with the title 'Abd (slave, servant, worshipper) during his highest and noblest
situations like al-Isra' (the night journey from Makkah to al-Quds). Also, in
the sound hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Do not
praise me as the Christians praised The Son of Mary (Jesus), indeed, I am only a
human being, so, say; 'The 'Abd of Allah and His Messenger'."
7. The Saved
Group is the victorious one according to the saying of the Prophet (peace be
upon him):
"A band of
my 'Ummah shall stick to truth and will stay victorious, and will not be harmed
by whoever betrays them until the Day of Judgment" (Al-Bukhari and
Muslim)
And his
saying:
"This
'Ummah will be divided into 73 divisions, all of them will go to Hell except
one, which follows what I and my Companions are today."
(at-Tirmidhi)
8. The Sunnah
means the way which the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions lived and
behaved before the rise of the heretical innovations.
9. These six
articles are the pillars of the faith, and every true believer must accept all
of them according to the guidance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and whoever
rejects any article of them is not considered a true believer. Those pillars are
mentioned in the story of Gabriel when he came to the Prophet (peace be upon
him) as a bedouin to ask him about Islam and Iman (faith) and Ihsan (worshiping
Allah as if we see Him, since we do not see Him, He sees us): the Prophet said:
"To believe
in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and to believe in the
Resurrection after death, and the Qadar (Divine Decree) whether it is good or
bad. The Books are the revealed ones from the heavens to the Messengers, of
which are known to us are: The Scrolls of Abraham (Suhuf Ibrahim), The Old
Testament (at-Tawrah), The New Qur'an Testament (al-Injil, the Zabur (the Psalms
of David), and the Qur'an, the Last Revelation. "
The Messengers:
only twenty-five of them are mentioned in the Qur'an, as for the rest, we should
believe in them without bothering ourselves in counting them, or knowing their
names, because this is what Allah kept for Himself as He said in the Qur'an
"Verily We
sent Messengers before you, among them those of whom We have told you, and some
of whom We have not told you." (Ghafir or al-Mu'min 40/78)