Chapter Three

Faith and belief

 Faith and Belif
 In Islam ,there are six articles of faith which are;
1. Belief in (Allah) as the One and Only God and Mohammad as the last
and final messenger of God.
2. Believe that angels are spiritual beings who carry out the will of God.
3. Belief in the Holy Scriptures revealed form God to all Messengers.
4. Belief in all prophets and messengers send to human beings.
5. The Belief that there will be a day of judgment and accountability with
resurrection.
6. The Belief in the destiny and that whatever happens in Universe is
created by God ,according to His eternal Knowledge and with His
eternal will.
 Prophets and Messengers of God

 The Qur’an says that there is no people on earth which has not received a
message from God through one of His messengers.
 These messengers were great teachers of the good, and the champions of the
right. They were men of good characters, and high honor; their honesty and
truthfulness, their intelligence and integrity are beyond doubt. They were
infallible in that they did not commit sins or violate the law of God, but as
mortals they might have made unintentional mistakes in some human affairs
and decisions.
 The Qur’an mentions the names of twenty five of the prophets and the Muslim
believes in them all, and accepts them as authorized messengers of God.
 Among the messengers are the names of some of the great of them like Noah
and Abraham, Ishmael and Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, may the peace and
blessings of God be upon them all ” We believe in God, and the revelation given
to us, and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes, and that which was
given to all prophets from their Lord. We make no discrimination between one
another of them, and we bow to God ”
 Prophets and Messengers of God

 Muslims believe that Prophets have no special powers of

their own; the miracles performed by them were done by
God’s permission and through His power.
Muslims believe that all the messengers with no
exception whatsoever were mortals, human beings,
endowed with Divine revelation, and appointed by God to
perform certain tasks.
 They believe that Muhammad was not the first prophet and
messenger of God, but he is the last messenger: The seal of the
prophets”. Muhammad was sent with the final message, and there is
no prophet to come after him.  His message is final and eternal, and
through him God completed His Message to humanity.
 Prophets and Messengers of God

 . Prophets were, with the exception of Muhammad, known as

"national" or local messengers, But their message, their religion, was
basically the same and was called ISLAM, because it came from One
and the Same Source, namely, God, to serve one and the same
purpose, and that is to guide humanity to the Straight Path of God.
 An outstanding aspect of the Islamic belief in prophethood is that
Muslims believe in, and respect all the messengers of God with no
exceptions.
 The Muslims are the only people in the world who consider the belief
in all the prophets of God an article of faith. Thus the Jews reject Jesus
Christ and Muhammad; the Christians reject Muhammad. The
Muslims accept them all as messengers of God who brought guidance
to mankind.. The belief in all the messengers of God is enjoined on
the Muslims by the Quran.
 Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)

 He was born in Mecca, a city on the Arabian Peninsula, in 571 AD.

 He was orphaned before his birth and his mother died when he was
six. He was raised by his grandfather till he was nine, then by his uncle
when his grandfather passed away.
 He did not have the benefit of education and was an unlettered man.
As he grew up he worked as a shepherd and as a trader in the caravans.
 At age 25 he was hired by a rich widow, Khadija, to manage her
business and trade.
 Khadija was impressed by the young man's intelligence, hard work,
honesty and integrity. They grew to esteem each other's qualities and
got married. Mohammad was married to Khadija for twenty-six years
and they had six children. Later on Khadija would be the first person
to accept Islam, and she is the epitome( best example) of a faithful and
devoted wife in Islamic history.
 Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)

 Mohammad grew up in an atmosphere and a society of cruelty,

lawlessness, war and treachery, without being touched by these
prevalent evils.
 He became famous for his truthfulness, honesty, charity and
helpfulness. He was a man of kind dispositions and was loved by all
who knew him.
 He was deeply troubled by the inhuman behavior that he saw around
him ,and used to leave the city to meditate in a cave on a nearby
mountain.
 when he was 40, he received a message from God Almighty that he
had been appointed the Messenger of God.
 He spent the rest of his life in an unending effort to deliver the
message of God.
 Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)

 Like all other prophets who were sent before him, Muhammad
suffered a lot in order to accomplish his mission.
 He was ridiculed and persecuted, and opposition toward him was so
intense that he was forced to leave the city of Mecca and migrated ,
with his followers, to the city of Medina, ( 270 miles North.)
 This migration is an epochal event in the history of Islam. It took
place in 622 AD, and it marks the first year of the Islamic calendar.
 Mohammad had been invited to Medina by its citizens to assume
leadership.
 He established a city-state, gave it a written constitution and ,beside
being a Prophet and Messenger ,he proved to be a very successful
politician, statesman, warrior, Judge and ruler.
 Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)

 When Muhammad migrated to Medina, the number

of his fellow Muslims was approximately 5000.
At the time of his last pilgrimage, at the city of
Mecca, he delivered his famous Farewell Address to
150,000 people who had come from different parts of
Arabia, to Mecca as pilgrims.
 When he died at age 63, the whole of the Arabian
Peninsula was under the fold of Islam .
 Within a hundred year, Islam became an established
religion in the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
 Prophet Muhammad(P.B.U.H)
Unlike the founders of many religions, the final prophet of
Islam is a real documented and historical figure. He lived
in the full light of history, and the most minute details of
his life are known.
 Not only do Muslims have the complete text of God's
words that were revealed to Muhammad, but they have
also preserved his saying and teachings in what is
called "hadith" literature.
 This having been said, it should be understood that
Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was only a man
chosen by God, and that he is not divine in any way.
 Prophet Muhammad(P.B.U.H)
 In simple terms, God sent the revelation to Muhammad, who in turn
taught it , preached it, lived it and put it into practice. In this way,
Muhammad was more than just a "prophet" in the sense of many of
the Biblical prophets, since he was also a statesman and ruler.
 Prophet Muhammad, was a man who lived a humble life in the
service of God, and established an all-encompassing religion and way
of life by showing what it means to be an: ideal friend, husband,
teacher, ruler, warrior and judge.
 For this reason, Muslims were asked by the Qur’an to consider him as
an example to follow :( Indeed in the Messenger of Allah
(Muhammad ) you have a good example to follow for him who
hopes in (the Meeting with) Allah and the Last Day and
remembers Allah much ).
 Tasks and Duties
of the Prophets
Conveying the message of God to the people to whom
they were sent.
Reminding people and guiding them to the way of
God.
Educating people about this life and preparing them
for the life to come.
Being a living example for the people to follow.
 The Miracles of the Prophets
 The definition of the Miracle: A miracle is an extraordinary act that cannot be
performed by just any person, or can not rationally be explained. it is an
evidence from God to support the prophet ‘s claim that he is a messenger.
 The miracles of the previous prophets were suitable for the era in which they
lived. Moses was in an era when magic and supernatural acts were more
common among people than science. Therefore, his miracle presented in an
act that people had never seen before and could not understand it through
their rational. With this miracle, he was able to refute the works of the
magicians and give them clear proof that he is a prophet.
 At the time of Jesus, on the other hand, diseases without cure had spread
throughout. Science and medication was highly in demand. Jesus's miracle
was presented in healing all diseases, a power not known to them, giving life
to the dead, and healing genetic blindness and leprosy. And through his
miracles, he fulfilled his proof upon the people of his time
 The Miracles of the Prophets
 A number of miracles were bestowed upon Prophet Muhammad ,and
performed by him to establish the proof of his prophethood.
 Among these miracles are: Splitting of the Moon  ,Food
multiplication, water multiplication and The Prophet's Night
Journey to Jerusalem and Ascent to the Heavens(mi’raj).
 These miracles and other s were mentioned either in the Qur’an like
the splitting of the moon or in the most authentic collection of
hadith such as :Sahih al-Bukhari, so we have to believe in them all.
 These Miracles were addressing the people at that time.
 However, The greatest miracle of the prophet Muhammad was the
revelation of the Qur'an.
 The Miracles of the Prophets
 Prophet Muhammad was appointed at a time when poetry and
eloquence in language was very popular among the communities, and
great attention was paid to poetry and language. Therefore his miracle
was the Holy Qur'an, that challenged the people ,who doubted his
Prophthood ,to bring a book similar to it in eloquence and language,
or bring only ten chapters or even only one chapter, "like the chapters
of Holy Qur'an.”
 It proclaims that if all the people along with Jinn are united to bring a
book like that of Holy Quran, they will not succeed.” Say: "If the whole
of mankind and Jinn were gather to together to produce the like of this
Qur'an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up
each other with help and support”.
 The Miracles of the Prophets
 Throughout the past 1400 years no one has been able to refute the Holy
Qur'an in bringing even one chapter similar to It.
 Historians, both Muslim and Non-Muslim, have not recorded any
successful accounts of those who tried to defeat the claim of the Holy
Qur'an.
 Since no one was able to give a proper answer (making a verse) which can
be also approved by Arabic literatures, it is proven that Holy Qur'an is a
miracle even to those people who do not know anything about the Arabic
literature.
 The Qur'an is miraculous in a number of aspects: Its linguistic perfection
and inimitability, its validation by recent historical, archaeological,
and scientific discoveries, its prophecies and so on. Unlike the miracles
of other prophets before him, the miracle of the Qur'an is eternal.
 
 Questions
According to the Qur’an To every nations God has sent a
messengers. Names six of those Messengers ,and how
many of them were mentioned in the Qur’an?.

Write short account about the life and the achievements

of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.)