What Do Muslims Believe? The Six Articles of Faith Explained

What Do Muslims Believe? The Six Articles of Faith Explained

Muslim Post Editorial Desk@muslimpost

Learn how the six articles of Islamic faith describe God, angels, scripture, prophets, the Last Day and divine decree, with references to the Qur’an and Hadith.

Muslims believe in one God and in Muhammad as God’s messenger. A widely taught Sunni account of iman, or faith, names six articles: belief in God, angels, revealed scriptures, messengers, the Last Day and divine decree. The list comes from a well-known report in Sahih Muslim 8a, often called the Hadith of Gabriel. Several of its themes also appear together in Qur’an 4:136.

In the report, a visitor asks Muhammad separate questions about Islam, faith and excellence in worship. At the end, Muhammad identifies the visitor as Gabriel. The question about faith gives the six articles, while the question about Islam gives the practices known as the Five Pillars of Islam. That distinction is useful if you encounter both lists in an introduction to the religion.

To see how these sources fit together, compare Qur’an 4:136 with the Gabriel report. The verse mentions five of the themes together. The report lists them in an answer about faith and explicitly includes divine decree. The six-article formula summarizes the report. The Qur’anic passages below provide specific examples and do not need to use the same order.

Belief in one God is the starting point

The Arabic name Allah means God, and tawhid is the doctrine of God’s oneness. Qur’an 112, al-Ikhlas, describes God as one and without an equal. In Islamic belief, worship is directed to God. The same conviction appears in the shahada, the declaration of faith, whose two parts affirm worship of God alone and recognize Muhammad as God’s messenger.

Those two statements connect belief about God with how guidance reaches people. Muhammad is a messenger in the declaration. He is a human being entrusted with conveying revelation. To understand the terms in a short English explanation, read the statement about God first and then read what it says about Muhammad. The word messenger identifies his role in relation to God.

The oneness of God also explains how a short religious expression can have a place in ordinary life. Our guide to the meaning and use of bismillah describes invoking God’s name when beginning something. A phrase spoken before an action is a way of expressing a belief. The phrase and the teaching it expresses can be studied as related parts of religious life.

Belief in angels includes Gabriel’s role in revelation

Angels are part of the unseen in Islamic belief. Qur’an 2:285 names belief in God, angels, scriptures and messengers in the same verse. Qur’an 2:97 names Gabriel, or Jibril, and describes him bringing revelation to Muhammad by God’s will. In the Hadith of Gabriel, he also appears as the visitor who asks the questions used to explain Islam and faith.

The two accounts give Gabriel different roles in their respective scenes. One concerns the delivery of revelation, the other a conversation that teaches people who are present. In both, the angel has a role assigned by God. Linking each account to the passage that tells it helps a reader see what the tradition claims about angels without having to infer their role from a picture or from the English word alone.

Belief in revealed scriptures includes the Qur’an and earlier revelation

Muslims regard the Qur’an as revelation given to Muhammad. The article of faith concerns God’s revealed books more broadly. Qur’an 3:3 speaks of revelation to Muhammad alongside the earlier Torah and Gospel. Qur’an 5:46 connects the Gospel with Jesus and mentions the Torah that preceded it. These are references to earlier revelation within the Qur’an’s own account.

A reader can follow those names without assuming that the phrase revealed scripture has the same meaning in every religion. The Qur’an uses its own account of what God gave to earlier prophets. A Jewish or Christian description of a canon is answering a different question about the texts and tradition of that community. Here the article of faith expresses an Islamic belief about divine revelation, including the revelation that Muslims recite as the Qur’an.

In a material setting, a written copy can show how people read and transmit the text. Our guide to Qur’an illumination and reading marks shows how manuscripts organize a reader’s place on the page. The chapter and verse references in this article identify passages across copies and translations, even where the layout or wording of a translation looks different.

Belief in prophets places Muhammad in a longer tradition

Muslims recognize earlier prophets, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus. In Qur’an 21:25, the messengers who came before Muhammad receive the instruction to call people to worship God. Qur’an 33:40 calls Muhammad God’s messenger and the seal of the prophets, the basis for the mainstream Muslim belief that he is the final prophet.

For someone familiar with biblical names, recognizing Abraham, Moses and Jesus is an entry point. Islam gives those figures a role within its account of prophecy. In the six-article list, the books and the messengers appear in separate places because one concerns the guidance and the other concerns those entrusted to convey it. Gabriel’s role as an angel delivering revelation is distinct from the roles of human prophets.

Belief in the Last Day concerns resurrection and accountability

The Last Day refers to the resurrection and God’s judgment. It expresses the belief that people will answer to God for their lives. In Qur’an 99:7–8, even deeds of the smallest weight are brought into view. The image makes accountability concrete by drawing attention to acts that people might otherwise overlook.

The report in Sahih Muslim distinguishes faith in the Last Day from the question of when the Hour will occur. The first belongs in the list of beliefs. The answer to the second does not give a date. This is a useful distinction when reading a passage about the afterlife or encountering a claim that someone has calculated its timing. One is a teaching about accountability and resurrection. The other is a claim about time that needs to be judged on its own evidence.

English translations may use the Day of Judgment, the Last Day or the Day of Resurrection to emphasize related ideas. Judgment points to accountability, and resurrection points to being raised after death. The reference in the Hadith of Gabriel is one part of the answer about faith. The short passage in chapter 99 brings the idea into focus through the example of deeds, rather than listing other events associated with the day.

Belief in divine decree brings God’s knowledge and human responsibility together

Qadar is often translated as divine decree or divine measure. In the Gabriel report, it applies to good and evil. Qur’an 54:49 uses language of measure or decree in describing creation. Qur’an 76:3 speaks of guidance and different human responses to it. Read together, the passages give a starting point for understanding why discussion of divine decree also attends to human responsibility.

Muslim theologians have explained the relationship between God’s knowledge, will and human action in different ways. The six-article list identifies the belief and leaves room for the fuller debate. Everyday speech offers a smaller example: inshallah, or God willing, acknowledges that an intended outcome depends on God. People can make a plan and use the expression while recognizing that they cannot guarantee what will happen.

How the articles relate to practice and to other Muslim traditions

The declaration of faith, daily prayer, zakat, fasting in Ramadan and pilgrimage for those able to undertake it are the Five Pillars in the familiar formulation. The six articles describe beliefs. The distinction is clearest in the Gabriel report, which asks about the two in succession. A practice can express faith. Zakat, for example, is a religious obligation, while belief in the Last Day concerns accountability that can give the action meaning.

Other Muslim traditions organize teaching in their own ways. Sayyid Sa‘eed Akhtar Rizvi’s Twelver Shi‘i lectures on the roots of religion give five headings: divine oneness, divine justice, prophethood, the Imamate and resurrection or judgment. Three overlap clearly with the themes of the Sunni list. The other headings show why a difference in the length of two lists cannot tell you what an individual or school believes about every other subject.

What people report believing is another kind of evidence. Pew Research Center’s 2012 study of Muslims across 39 countries and territories found widespread belief in one God and Muhammad as his prophet, alongside variation on other questions and practices. Its interviews were conducted between 2008 and 2012 in the places included in the survey. The report describes those respondents and that period. The Qur’an, the hadith and the lectures document teachings.

Passages and records for further reading