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The Hadith of Gabrielle, continued So weve covered the Five Pillars, now we move onto the Six Articles of Faith.

Continuing the hadith: Iman is that you believe in God, His Books, His messengers, The Day of Judgement, and Destiny, both the good and the bad.

God, God; same thing. You can use either one. In the Arab world, Christians and Jews also use the word God just because its the Arabic word for God. The important thing is to have a correct belief about the Supreme Being. We believe that God has every good quality, and is free from every bad quality. He is Merciful, Kind, Just. When we read the Quran, we listen to what God say about Himself and believe in it. There are verses in the Quran called mutishabihat; these verses talk about God in being a way thats similar to something he has created i.e. Gods hand is over His hand. With these verses, we dont understand them literally. We dont see it as being literal. Some scholars interpret it as being a characteristic, i.e. Gods support is with them. Others have just left it and accepted it as it is. But the main thing is not to suggest that God has a hand like we do. i.e. And Gods anger is upon them. We dont understand this as being our anger. God cant be harmed, and its not an emotional reaction like ours is. Scholars interpret it as being His punishment; it follows necessarily from disobeying Him. When God says He is Merciful, he uses these words because Hes communicating with us, and for us to understand it He puts it in language we understand. Anything you can imagine, God is differentand greaterthan that. Similar with descriptions of Paradise. A hadith states that: Paradise has in it what no human eye has seen and what no ear has heard of and what has not crossed a persons imagination. The Afterlife has things that appear similar, but in their reality are different. I.e. the fruits of the afterlife look like the fruits of the world, but their taste is far superior.

God doesnt want to punish people, he is not vengeful and tyrannical. He wants good.

Angels: Created of light. We dont attribute gender to them. We dont attribute a physical description to them either. Sometimes they take the form of humans (Gabrielle in this hadith). They deliver the message of God. There are specific angels: The Angel of Death; Mikhail, who brings provisions God created angels as a means for things to happen, inshGod.

Similarly, Jinn. Jinn are unseen beings created from fire. They live in the material world, but we cant see them; they can see us, though. When God tells us of people who take the Jinn as their guardians, He is referring to people who practice magic and sorcery and communicate with spirits.

God says at the beginning of Surah Baqarah that things like Jinn and the punishment of the grave are from the Unseen; so be wary of videos of people who claim that they are interviewing Jinn or seeing someone punished in the grave.

The two places most frequented by the Jinn are taverns and certain churches. These certain churches most likely refer to churches were people start speaking in tongues (most likely Pentecostal).

Jinn cant hear a persons thoughts or intentions, but they can possess people.

That said, you cant pass off a persons mental ailments as having a trouble with their faith, or that they are possessed by Jinn. There are Muslims who are depressed, and this depression does not mean they have a bad relationship with God. Some people just have psychological issues; it has nothing to do with their iman. Its their struggle in life. Some people go to Sheikhs for all their issues (psychological, marital, etc.), and this can actually make a problem worse if the Sheikh is not qualified.

His Books: We believe that all of Gods books were changed eventually, except the Quran. The Quran will be preserved until the Day of Judgement. This does not mean that it wont be misinterpreted, but its words will be preserved. Abraham was given scriptures. Moses was given the Torah. Jesus was given the Gospels. David was given the Psalms. All of these scriptures were changed by people who came afterward. Misquoting Jesus Bart D. Erhman.

Messengers: Our belief about the Prophets is that they were perfect beings. God selected these people and protected them from sin. They were not capable of sin. Huge contrast to Prophets represented in other scriptures (i.e. incest, drunkenness, adultery, etc.) The stories of the Prophets were twisted to justify peoples sinful behavior. These people were ambassadors for God, so they were the best both inwardly and outwardly.

The Day of Judgement: The day we will all be resurrected and will be asked about what they did in life, and their deeds will be weighed.

Destiny: Destiny VS Freewill Allah knows everything, because time is the creation of Allah. That doesnt mean He forces us to choose whatever our choices are going to be. But He knows what the outcomes will be. Its simply to know that whatever happened to you could not have missed you, and whatever didnt happen to you would never have come to you.

God has given us a choice, and its based on those choices that were rewarded or punished. Keep hoping and praying that God will help you make the right choices.

Stay away from the 7 Big Sins: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Shirk (associating partners with God) Murder Sorcery Disobeying ones parents Interest Stealing from an orphan Adultery

The Prophet (pbuh) also described the worst types of these sins: 1. Shirk 2. To kill your child for fear that it will eat your food a. Exaggeration. b. Aborting a fetus because theyre scared they cant take care of it 3. That you sleep with your neighbours family a. Your neighbor trusts you, and you betray that trust and you commit adultery with your neighbours

Birth control is fine, as long as its not permanent (hysterectomy and vasectomy). Theres a difference between preventing kids and not wanting kids. You are allowed to not want to have kids. And you can prevent kids, but as long as its not permanent. But if Allah wants you to have children, youll have children. The Prophet (pbuh) encouraged us to have childrento have families too. It makes us less selfish. Choose a spouse with good deen and good character. The more good people in society, the better. If your raise good children, they are a source of good deeds forever.