Praise be to Allah the Lord of the worlds, to Him belongs the Everlastingness and the befitting attributes. May Allah raise the rank and increase the honor of our great Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, and protect his Muslim nation from that which he fears for it.
Thereafter, it was reported in the hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, that he said:
“من أتى مسجدًا وكان هَمُهُ أن يَتَعَلَمَ أو يُعَلِمَ خيرًا كَانَ لَهُ أجرُ حَجٍ وَعُمرَةٍ تَامين”
It means:
“The one who comes to a mosque and his concern is to learn or teach the goodness of the Religion, would earn a reward similar to the reward of performing a complete Hajj (Pilgrimage) and ^Umrah.”
This reward is given to the one who goes to a place with the intention to teach or learn the goodness of the Religion. The Knowledge of the Religion is very vast and the most important matter, whether to learn or teach, is to take good care of the Creed of Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama^ah. This Knowledge is very important and that is why the scholars said that it is obligatory on the person to learn the obligatory matters of the Religion and to teach them to others.
It was mentioned in the hadith, which is known as the Hadith of Jibril, that while the Prophet was with his Companions, a man came and joined their session. His clothes were so white and his hair was extremely black and he did not have the appearance of a traveling person.
In fact that was Jibril, who came in the shape of a man to teach the Companions the matters of the Religion. Among the things which Jibril asked the Prophet was: “Tell me about ‘Iman (Belief).”
The Prophet sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam said:
“أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ باللهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ واليَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَتُؤْمِنَ بالقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ”
It means:
“To believe in Allah, His Angels, His Revealed Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in destiny (qadar)–both good and evil.” (Narrated by Muslim)
As for his saying: “To believe in Allah”, literally the meaning of the word “’Iman (Belief)” is to believe, and religiously it means a specific belief which is to believe in all what the Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, came with.
So ‘Iman means to believe in Allah; it means to believe in the Existence of Allah, to believe that He existed before the creations and that He does not resemble the creations.
In the response to Angel Jibril’s question about the most important aspects of belief, notice how Prophet Muhammad replied, in order of priority, about the most important matters of the belief. He said the belief is (first) to believe in Allah, because this is the basis of the belief. To believe in Allah includes believing that Allah exists and that His Existence is without time and without place; unlike the existence of the created things, He does not need a place. Allah is not a body and does not have body parts. He is One and there is no God except Allah. He does not have a partner, parts or branches.
The belief in Allah includes believing that He is eternal; there was never a time when Allah did not exist and then He came into existence. He is everlasting; there will never be a time when He will cease to exist. Rather, Allah is the Creator of everything. He created everything by His Power, Knowledge, and Will. He does not need any of His creations, nor does He resemble any of His creations. Allah is attributed with Sight and Hearing; He sees and hears all seeable things without a pupil or light or any other instrument; He hears all hearable things without an ear or any other instrument.
The proper belief in Allah includes believing in all these matters. The one who believes in Allah believes that Allah is the Creator of everything and the True Owner of everything, and that He deserves to be worshipped, and that He deserves to be obeyed. The one who believes that Allah deserves to be worshipped and to be obeyed needs to know how to worship Him and how to obey Him. Allah, by His great Generosity and Mercy, sent prophets to call people to worship Him and to believe in Him and to teach them how to worship Him and how to obey Him. The one who believes in Allah, believes in His Messengers and the Revelation revealed to the Prophets.
The True Belief is the basis of the deeds and it is the foundation for the Muslim. Without the belief, the deeds of the person are not accepted. If the believer does as much as a speck of a good deed, it will be accepted by Allah the Exalted.
May Allah increase us in knowledge and keep us firm upon the correct belief. Ameen.
