The 6 Pillars of Eemaan
The third lesson from the "Important Lessons for the Muslim Ummah" of Shaykh Bin Baaz is the Pillars of Eemaan.
The 6 pillars are to believe in:
1) Allaah
2) His Angels
3) His Books
4) His Messengers
5) The Last Day
6) Qadr (Divine Predecree) - its good and its bad
These are the principles that all of the Prophets were united upon. They all agreed in calling to these 6 pillars.
The Prophet Sallallaahu Alayhi Wa Sallam said:
"The Prophets are brothers from one Father. Their mothers are different but their religion is one."
Meaning; Their 'Aqeedah is one but their legislations may differ.
Allaah says:
"And for every one of you (of the Prophets) we made for him a legislation and a way to follow (i.e. a sunnah)"
You cannot separate the pillars from each other, you must believe in all of them. They go hand in hand. The one who believes in some and not in others cannot be called a believer.
In the Qur'an we find many ayaat affirming these six pillars, for example:
"It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness) that you turn your faces towards east and (or) west (in prayers); but Al-Birr is (the quality of) the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, the Prophet's"
and also:
"The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. They say, "We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers" - and they say, "We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your Forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the return (of all)."”
Belief in Allaah
The first, and most important of the 6 pillars, is Belief in Allaah. All other pillars stem back to this pillar. It’s not possible to have belief in the others without the belief in Allaah
Belief in Allaah consists of 3 pillars:
1) To believe in the Oneness of Allaah in His Lordship (Ruboobiyyah) - to single out Allaah in His Actions (Creating, Sustaining, Maintaining the Affairs, etc)
2) To believe in the Oneness of Allaah in His Names and Attributes - So the creation become aware of who they are worshipping. These Names and Attributes are found only from the Quraan and Sunnah, there is no room for us to derive names for ourselves.
"And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them" 7:180
As it relates to the Names and Attributes of Allaah, we have 4 key principles; We do not 1) Ask "How?" (Takyeef); 2) Liken them to creation (Tamtheel); 3) Distort the meaning (Tahreef); 4) Render them futile (Ta’teel)
3) To believe in the Oneness of Allaah with His Worship (Uloohiyyah) - to single out Allaah with our actions
"And they were commanded not, but that they should worship Allah, and worship none but Him Alone (abstaining from ascribing partners to Him), and perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat) and give Zakat, and that is the right religion." (98:5)
This 3rd and final pillar (Uloohiyyah) was the reason the Prophets fought with the Mushrikoon. As this was the point of differing between the believers and the disbelievers.
In next week’s lesson we will move on to the Belief in the Angels bi’ithnillaahi ta’aalah. For more in depth notes from this lesson, see the post on learnaboutislam.co.uk. BaarakAllaahu Feekum.
