ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Origin of Shi'tte Islam and It's Principles Part 2 :the Fundamentals of the Religion Before we deal with the roots and the articles of faith in detail, we may divide our study of the Shi'a religion according to five principles: Knowledge of God. Identification of His Prophet How to worship. Doing good actions and refraining from bad ones.

Belief in ma'ad (the Day of Judgement), and punishment and reward There are two parts to religion - theoretical and practical - or, more precisely, belief or faith in God and the unseen, and daily action based on this belief. Tawhid (monotheism), Prophethood and ma'ad (the Day of Judgement) are the three basic arkan (pillars) of Islam.

If anyone denies one of the arkan, he is neither a Muslim nor a believer (u'min); if he does believe in them he will be counted among the Muslims according to God Almighty (refer to the following words which have been taken from the Quranic text: "He who believes in God, His Prophet and the Day of Judgement"), and shall be entitled to all the rights of the Muslims.

According to the holy verse the Muslim is the "one who believes in God, His Prophet and also performs good actions"; the "iman" (faith) of a Muslim refers to "belief in his heart, verbal acknowledgment and performance of fundamental acts". One may add another "rukn" (pillar) to these three, which is the obligatory acts on which the entire Islamic way of life depends.

These obligatory acts are of five kinds: (1) salat (prayers), (2) fasting, (3) zakat (generally speaking, the Islamic system of taxation), (4) hajj and (5) jihad (strivin or exerting oneself (even to the ex tent of fighting) for Islam). We may explain the difference between Islam and iman as a matter-of degree.

This difference is based on the words of God Almighty in the surah "al-Hujurat", "The Arabs say: 'We have iman!' Say (to them, O Muhammad): 'You do not have iman; but say "we have accepted Islam (aslamna: lit.

we have submitted)", for iman has not yet entered your hearts.'" For further elucidation, He says in another verse: "Verily, the believers (mu'minin) are those who accepted faith in God and His Prophet and never after that entertained any doubt; also they performed jihad with their life and wealth in the way of God - they alone are the true believers." "Iman" thus means the combination of testifying one's belief, and of acting in accordance with it. These are the basic beliefs of all the Muslim.