Basic Beliefs of Islam

hello we have with us uh dr musharraf hussain who is the chief executive of the academia institute here in nottingham and he's with us to talk about the basic beliefs of islam and well shot off can you tell us what the basic beliefs are well first of all beliefs in arabic is iman and it simply means to accept as truth whatever the prophet of islam muhammad taught so it's having this unwavering belief and acceptance of first and foremost of course is belief in god in an almighty god and and really that is it to be honest the rest of the two major uh beliefs that is the prophethood uh and the um hereafter all revolve around this and of course we'll be talking about the six beliefs angels the books the hereafter the predestination but really it is all about one god and all these other elements and tenets of the faith really reinforce the belief in one supreme almighty all-powerful god really so these it's really all about god and the six basic beliefs so if we count them let's see there's god it's angels it's messengers it's books it's the last day and it's predestination they're all about god absolutely i mean if each as we will you know explore them later on we you will see that really they all come back to god the angels the books it's all about god communicating god talking to his people and of course you know that is the only way that we can know god so where does one look to find what these beliefs are are there creeds are there books i mean well of course the first and foremost source is the glorious quran itself you know that is the source but muslim scholars over the centuries have been trying to distill and to put it succinctly and package it nicely into a creed similar to the christian creed and we have many uh popular ones and the one which the hanafis in particular world over and the ashari's use is called akaid anasafi the beliefs of the great teacher of the 11th century nasafi okay what are some of the other is the anasazi and the used mentioned hanafi and ashari can you just briefly say where this fits into the wider tradition the beliefs are really um there are three ways of looking at the islamic creed slightly different from one another there is the humbly way uh and then there is the ashari way and then there is the maturity the the the the contents are the same it's just the style and it is just the tone and the tenor in which they are and sometimes details actually that's the only difference but otherwise i mean they are actually the same in in many respects what is this word uh belief what's it mean i think you used the word amen did you yes what do we mean by this well it's in a way it's accepting god as the creator of the universe it is um accepting that this is the reality really and it's actually in many ways we can compare it to a spectacle you know how we it gives us a world view how we view the world how we view ourselves and how we view the world in relation to this creator really so it's a it builds an attitude it builds a mindset it builds a particular world view that is what beliefs are really and by looking through this beliefs system you begin to see the world differently from people who might not have that belief really so it is a very fundamental way of understanding the world and seeing the world and understanding what's around you how does belief then relate to works because that's a an issue in many religious traditions how does that fit together well and you know there is this notion that um belief gives you this basis of relating with your creator uh and therefore uh trying to please and to really um live his will really and so the works are really putting into action what your faith teaches you so it's really that the relationship is very close that you know the beliefs really have to be expressed physically and that's what we're about really and the uh the works are really the deeds are really expression uh of our love and relationship with god good one last quick question can can belief increase and decrease because i know that's a fascinating debate amongst the muslim scholars and there is one view which is very simply that no you know faith doesn't actually increase it's like all or non in physiology you know you need to reach a certain threshold once you've reached that threshold and you've crossed it that's it it doesn't really matter after that so it's actually meaning you've entered the pale of islam you've entered the the the the boundaries of islam and that's it but of course there is the other view that no faith keeps on increasing as your deeds and then as your relationship and as your connection develops with the almighty thank you mashara for helping us understand about faith or belief we use these two terms to mean to translate the arabic word iman and now we move on to our additional videos thank you very much for being with us you

Channel: University of Nottingham

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Keywords: jon hoover, musharraf hussain, islamic studies, theology and religious studies, the university of nottingham, al-nasafi, ash'ari, maturidi, Nottingham Uni, Nottingham University, Notts Uni, Uni of Notts, Higher Education, Russell Group, Learn, Study, Experience, Degree, Masters, PhD, Undergraduate, Research, #WeAreUoN, Extraordinary Nottingham, Postgraduate

Id: WxuHBTES2-s

Length: 6min 39sec (399 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2016