An Elementary Study of Islam — Page 6
6 The third article relates to belief in the books. The books in religious terms refer to such divine scriptures as contain new teachings and bring a new religious law. They are mentioned after the angels because most often revelation is transmitted to man through the agency of angels, who play a central role in carrying the divine message to the messengers. Angels have many other tasks to perform, but of that we will discuss later. The fourth article relates to the messengers or prophets, who sometimes bring a new code of life and a new law for a specific people in a specific age and who sometimes are sent only for the purpose of reform. The fifth and last article of faith relates to the Day of Judgement. It also implies that every human being will be raised after death in some form, and will be held answerable to God with regards to the life he had led here on earth. These are the five fundamentals of Islam. However, according to some there is a sixth constituent of Muslim belief included in the fundamentals by the Holy Founder of Islam, and that is belief in Divine Decree. Let us now turn to a more detailed study of these articles one by one. The Belief in the Unity of God This seems to be a rather simple and elementary concept. It should not be difficult for anybody to understand the oneness of God, and there the matter seems to rest. But in fact there is far more to this than meets the eye. When one examines the concept of Unity in