Portal: Islamic Doctrine

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There is much in Islamic scripture that is not of direct legal relevance and which can be understood as constituting doctrine. The Arabic word aqeedah, or creed, has generally been understood to encompass a more limited range of ideas than what, to a modern person, would appear as Islamic doctrine. Whereas theologians writing in the 8th-11th centuries may not, for instance, have felt that The Islamic Whale (the cosmic whale below the universe), the literal creation of humans from clay, or even the reality of the Jinn constituted topics of special theological interest, as beliefs in these types of phenomena were commonplace in much (albeit not all) of the world (much as belief in gravity is commonplace today), today, these entities stand out as relatively unique or at least interesting objects of Islamic belief. Indeed, anything mentioned in the Quran and what are considered the authentic and widely narrated (tawaatur) hadiths can be said to be a part of Islamic doctrine, as rejecting any part of scripture is considered an act of kufr, or disbelief. In the view of mainstream Sunni orthodoxy, which until today reads scripture literally (including where physical or metaphysical phenomenon are described), any and every item mentioned in relied-upon scripture can be considered as essential an item of belief as the prophethood of Muhammad or the oneness of God, for to deny any part of what Muhammad or God said is, it is held, to deny them, and thus and act of disbelief. To quote the Quran, "So do you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part? Then what is the recompense for those who do that among you except disgrace in worldly life; and on the Day of Resurrection they will be sent back to the severest of punishment."[1]

God

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According to Islam, Allāh is the Creator of the Universe. Allah does not mean 'God' but rather 'the God' and is thus one of the remnants of Islam's pagan origins. In the pre-Islamic era, Allah was the supreme creator god of the Arabs. Yet he was still only one god among the many others they believed in. The goddesses; Allāt (the feminine form of “Allah”, meaning 'the goddess' ), Manāt, and al-‘Uzzá were Allah's daughters. In Islamic theology, Allah is thought of as the same and singular god of the other Abrahamic traditions.
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Tawheed (also spelled tawhid) is the Islamic monotheistic concept of god. Although the concept of monotheism is intrinsic to tawheed, tawheed encompasses more than the concept of god simply being one. It also refers to all of the implications of the existence of one god who created the universe and has very specific wishes for his creations. It stands in contrast to shirk, or polytheism, in all of its forms.
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Naskh, or abrogation, is the process whereby Allah is said to replace or revise his plans. Previous scriptures, such as those of Jesus and Moses, are said to have been abrogated by the Quran just as the militant Medinan revelations of the Quran are said to have abrogated the mostly theological and moralistic Meccan revelations. Here, Islam stands firmly on one side of Euthyphro's dilemma: God can and does change what is right, rather than being bound by it.
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The Islamic tradition holds that while god has very and perhaps infinitely many names, there are 99 special ones. Knowing these 99 in particular is said in Bukhari to guarantee heaven, but a list of these 99 is not forthcoming in scripture, which contain a cumulative 276. These names include everything from Allah (the God), al-Rahim (the Most Merciful), al-Noor (the Light) , and al-Walee (the Friend) to al-Mumeet (the Deadly), al-Qahhar (the Despot), al-Muntaqim (the Revenger), al-Mutakabbir (the Arrogant), and al-Mudhil (the Humiliator)


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