RS6Islam: Tawhid, the Nature of God and Angels

Islam is one of the diverse religious traditions in Great Britain. The main religious tradition is Christianity. Islam means submission to God, and a Muslim is someone who submits to God.

• Census 2021, England and Wales: 6.5% of people said they were Muslim (about 3.87 million), the second-largest religion after Christianity (46.2%). Scotland 2022: 2.2%.
• Muslims call God Allah, the Arabic word for God. AQA uses both words.
• Muslims believe Islam is the original faith of every prophet from Adam onwards. The Prophet Muhammad is the final prophet, not the founder of Islam.
• Sunni Muslims are most Muslims worldwide (roughly 85–90%) and most Muslims in Britain. They accept the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.
• Shi’a Muslims (roughly 10–15%; most Muslims in Iran and Iraq) believe God chose Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, and then Imams from the Prophet’s family, to lead.
• Sunni and Shi’a Muslims share the Qur’an, Tawhid and the duties of worship. The spec asks you to know where their beliefs differ.

The division began with a disagreement about leadership after 632 CE

Sunni Islam

Muslims who accept Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali as the first four leaders (caliphs) after the Prophet.

Shi’a Islam

Muslims who believe leadership passed by God’s choice to Ali and the Imams from the Prophet’s family.

Sunni Muslims summarise their beliefs as the six articles of faith. Shi’a Muslims summarise theirs as the five roots of Usul ad-Din (‘the roots of religion’).

• Similarities: Tawhid comes first in both, and both include prophethood and life after death.
• Differences: only the roots include Adalat and the Imamate. Only the articles list angels, holy books and predestination separately.
• Sources: the Qur’an names belief in God, his angels, his scriptures, his messengers and the Last Day (Qur’an 4:136; also 2:285). The Hadith of Jibril (Sahih Muslim) adds belief in God’s decree.
• Many Shi’a scholars teach that each Muslim should hold the five roots through their own understanding, not just because others do.

Three beliefs appear in both lists

Six articles of faith

The six key beliefs of Sunni Islam: Tawhid, angels, holy books, prophethood, Akhirah and predestination.

Five roots of Usul ad-Din

The five key beliefs of Shi’a Islam: Tawhid, Adalat, prophethood, the Imamate and resurrection.

Tawhid is the belief that God is one and unique. Most Muslims see it as the most important belief in Islam. Surah 112, a prescribed text, sums it up.

• Tawhid is the first part of the Shahadah, the declaration of faith: there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.
• It is the first of the six articles and the first of the five roots.
• God is the one creator and sustainer, so all of life, not just worship, belongs to God.
• Influence: Muslims worship God alone, make no pictures or statues of God, and see the whole of creation and the worldwide Muslim community (ummah) as united under one God.

Tawhid

The oneness and unity of God.

Surah 112

A short chapter of the Qur’an that sets out Tawhid: God is one, eternal, without parents or children, and beyond comparison.

Shirk means associating partners with God: treating anyone or anything as equal to God, or as sharing God’s power.

• Muslims see shirk as the gravest sin, because it denies Tawhid.
• The Qur’an says God does not forgive partners being set up beside him, though he forgives other sins as he wills (Qur’an 4:48). Muslims believe someone who repents in this life can be forgiven.
• Examples: worshipping idols; believing God has a son or a partner; praying to anyone other than God.
• Many Muslims also warn against hidden shirk: letting money, fame or showing off matter more than God.
• Influence: mosques have no statues or pictures of living beings. They are decorated with calligraphy and geometric patterns instead.
• This is one reason most Muslims make no images of God, the Prophet Muhammad, other prophets or angels.

Shirk

Associating partners with God; the opposite of Tawhid.

Ummah

The worldwide community of Muslims.

Muslims learn about God’s nature through the 99 Names (‘the most beautiful names’) found in the Qur’an and Hadith (Qur’an 7:180; 59:22-24).

• Ayat al-Kursi (the Throne Verse, Qur’an 2:255) describes God as living and eternal, never sleeping, owning all of the heavens and earth, and never tiring of keeping them.
• God is the creator and sustainer: nothing exists or continues without God’s will.
• Beneficence is shown in the gift of life, the natural world, and guidance through prophets and holy books.
• Many Muslims recite the 99 Names with prayer beads (a subhah or misbaha).
• Influence of omnipotence: trust in God in hard times; saying insha’Allah (‘if God wills’) about future plans; humility.
• Influence of beneficence: gratitude, shown in prayer, and generosity to others through zakah and sadaqah.

Omnipotence

All-powerful; a belief about God’s nature and one of the 99 Names.

Beneficence

Literally ‘doing good’: the generosity God shows to humans.

The 99 Names

The ‘most beautiful names’ of God, each describing part of God’s nature.

Muslims believe God is both merciful and just. The spec names Adalat, God’s justice, as part of God’s nature in Shi’a Islam.

• Mercy is God’s willingness to forgive those who repent. Every surah but one opens with ‘In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful’ (the Bismillah).
• The Qur’an tells people not to despair of God’s mercy, because God forgives sins (Qur’an 39:53).
• Fairness and justice: God treats everyone equally and as they deserve. God does not wrong anyone, ‘even of the weight of an ant’ (Qur’an 4:40).
• Adalat is one of the five roots in Shi’a Islam. It teaches that God is just by nature and never does wrong.
• Shi’a teaching draws out what follows: a just God would not punish people for what they could not help, so humans must have free will and be responsible for their choices.
• Sunni Muslims also believe God is just: al-Adl (the Just) is one of the 99 Names. Adalat is a separate root only in Shi’a Islam.
• Influence: Muslims repent (tawbah) and forgive others, because God forgives them; they try to act fairly and oppose injustice, because God is just.

Mercy

God’s willingness to forgive the sins of those who repent.

Adalat

Justice: in Shi’a Islam, part of God’s nature and one of the five roots; God is fair.

Fairness

God treats all humans equally and as they deserve.

The spec asks about God’s relationship with the world. Muslims describe God as both transcendent (beyond the world) and immanent (close to it and involved in it).

• Transcendent: God is outside time, space and creation. ‘Naught is as His likeness’ (Qur’an 42:11, Pickthall’s translation), and no human vision can take God in (6:103).
• God existed before creation and will remain when everything else passes away (Qur’an 55:26-27).
• God is beyond full human understanding, so humans know God through his names and revelation, not by picturing God.
• Immanent: God is closer to each person than their jugular vein (Qur’an 50:16), answers those who call (2:186) and knows every leaf that falls (6:59).
• The Qur’an describes God as ‘the Outward and the Inward’ (57:3), which many Muslims read as both ideas at once.
• Some Muslims, such as many Sufis, place special stress on closeness to God in their prayer and devotion.
• Influence: transcendence leads to awe, humility and no images; immanence leads to personal prayer (du’a) at any time and a sense of being seen by God.

Most Muslims hold the two ideas together

Immanence

The belief that God is close to humanity and involved in the world.

Transcendence

The belief that God is beyond and outside the world, time and human understanding.

Belief in angels (mala’ikah) is one of the six articles of faith. Muslims believe angels are spiritual beings who serve God and link God with humans.

• Made of light: a hadith in Sahih Muslim teaches that angels were created from light and jinn from fire; the Qur’an describes Adam as made from clay.
• Obedient: angels have no free will. They ‘do that which they are commanded’ (Qur’an 66:6) and praise God without tiring (21:20).
• Messengers: the Qur’an describes angels as messengers with wings (35:1). Most Muslims don’t try to picture them.
• They are not prophets and not male or female, and they don’t eat or sleep.
• Roles: bringing revelation to prophets, recording deeds (82:10-12), guarding people (13:11), taking souls at death (32:11), and guarding paradise and hell.
• Iblis (Shaytan) refused to bow to Adam. The Qur’an says he was one of the jinn (18:50), made of fire (7:12), not an angel. Angels cannot disobey God.

Angels

Spiritual beings made of light who obey God, bring God’s messages and watch over humans.

Jinn

Beings made of fire who, like humans, have free will; Muslims believe Iblis was one.

• Jibril (Gabriel) brought the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, beginning on the Night of Power in 610 CE (Qur’an 2:97; 96:1-5). Muslims believe he also brought God’s messages to earlier prophets.
• AQA’s vocabulary list adds that Jibril and Mika’il will help with the weighing of each person’s deeds on the Day of Judgement.
• Mika’il (Michael) is named alongside Jibril in Qur’an 2:98. Muslims believe he brings rain and provision, and gives spiritual and material help.
• Israfil will blow the trumpet to start the Day of Judgement. The angel of death (32:11), often called Izra’il, takes each soul.
• Recording angels (Kiraman Katibin): one on the right writes good deeds, one on the left writes bad deeds (50:17-18).
• Munkar and Nakir, in Hadith, question each person in the grave about their faith.

Angels named in the Qur’an and Muslim tradition, and their roles

Jibril

The angel who brought the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad; he will help weigh deeds on Judgement Day.

Mika’il

The angel who gives spiritual and material help to humans, such as rain; he will help weigh deeds on Judgement Day.

The 4-mark Beliefs question asks how a belief influences Muslims. Each point needs the belief and what Muslims think, feel or do because of it.