ShahadaThe Shahada (Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ DIN aʃ.ʃa.haː.da, "the testimony"), also transliterated as Shahadah, is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." The Shahada declares belief in the oneness (tawhid) of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God's messenger. Some Shias also include a statement of belief in the wilayat of Ali.
Existence of GodThe existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God or deities involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection").
AverroesIbn Rushd (; full name in أبو الوليد محمد ابن احمد ابن رشد; 14 April 1126 - 11 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( əˈvɛroʊiːz), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics. The author of more than 100 books and treatises, his philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the Western world as The Commentator and Father of Rationalism.
Prophets and messengers in IslamProphets in Islam (الأنبياء في الإسلام) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (rusul, sing. رسول, ), those who transmit divine revelation, most of them through the interaction of an angel. Muslims believe that many prophets existed, including many not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran states: "And for every community there is a messenger." Belief in the Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith.
KalamʿIlm al-kalām (عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to kalām and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", generally speaking, is the philosophical study of Islamic doctrine (aqa'id). It was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of the Islamic faith against the philosophical doubters. However, this picture has been increasingly questioned by scholarship that attempts to show that kalām was in fact a demonstrative rather than a dialectical science and was always intellectually creative.
AqidahAqidah (ʿaqīdah (ʕɑˈqiːdæ, ʕɑˈqɑːʔɪd), plural عقائد ʿaqāʾid, also rendered ʿaqīda, aqeeda, etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means "creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology. Aqidah go beyond concise statements of faith and may not be part of an ordinary Muslim's religious instruction. It has been distinguished from Iman in "taking the aspects of Iman and extending it to a detail level" often using "human interpretation or sources". Yet in contrast with Iman, Aqidah is not a term in the Qur'an.
Predestination in IslamQadar (قدر, transliterated qadar, meaning literally "power", but translated variously as: "fate", "divine fore-ordainment", "predestination," "divine decree", "decree" of Allah", "preordainment") is the concept of divine destiny in Islam. As God is all-knowing and all-powerful, everything that has happened and will happen in the universe—including sinful human behavior—is not only known but commanded by him. At the same time, human beings are responsible for their actions, and will be rewarded or punished accordingly on Judgement Day.
Sufi metaphysicsIn Islamic philosophy, Sufi metaphysics is centered on the concept of waḥdah or tawhid. Two main Sufi philosophies prevail on this topic. literally means "the Unity of Existence" or "the Unity of Being." , meaning "existence" or "presence", here refers to God. On the other hand, , meaning "Apparentism" or "Monotheism of Witness", holds that God and his creation are entirely separate. Some scholars have claimed that the difference between the two philosophies differ only in semantics and that the entire debate is merely a collection of "verbal controversies" which have come about because of ambiguous language.
AtharismAtharism or Atharī theology (الأثرية: ALA-LC / DIN æl ʔæθæˈrɪj.jæ), otherwise referred to as Traditionalist theology or Scripturalist theology, is one of the main Sunni schools of Islamic theology which is more strict in adherence to the Quran and Sunnah. It emerged as a school of theology in the late 8th century CE from the scholarly circles of Ahl al-Hadith, an early Islamic religious movement that rejected the formulation of Islamic doctrine derived from rationalistic Islamic theology (kalām) in favor of strict textualism in interpreting the Quran and the ḥadīth.
