“The Belief and Islam” explains the Hadith-i Jibril, the blessed saying of our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) which was transfered by Hadrat ’Umar ibn al-Khattâb (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh), who was a gallant leader of Muslims, one of the highest of the Prophet’s Companions.
The following paragraphs are quoted from the book “The Belief and Islam” , annotated translation of “Itiqad Nama”, written by Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdadi and published in English by Hakikat Kitabevi, Istanbul:
“Hadrat Jabrâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm) having been asked what was Islam and the answer having been given, he asked our master Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) to explain the essence and reality of îmân. Literally îmân means ‘to know a person to be perfect and truthful and to have faith in him.’ In Islâm, ’îmân’ means to believe the fact that Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) is Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Prophet; that he is the Nabî, the Messenger chosen by Him, and to say this with the heart; and to believe in brief what he transmitted briefly and to believe in detail what he transmitted in detail from Allâhu ta’âlâ; and to say the Kalimat ash-shahâda whenever possible.
Îmân and Islam are the same. In both, one is to believe the meaning of the Kalimat ash-shahâda. Though they differ in general and in particular, and have different literal meanings, there is no difference between them in Islam.
“This exalted person, Hadrat Jabrâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm), asked again, ‘O Rasûl-Allah! Now tell me what is îmân.’” Certainly the Sahâbat al-kirâm (radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhum ajma’în) knew it, too, but Jabrâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm) wanted to teach the meaning of îmân to the Sahâbat al-kirâm by asking what îmân meant in Islam.
And Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) said that îmân was to believe in six certain facts (Here we will give only the title of the six facts. We will quote the details of these six titles in future from the same source).
Six facts of Iman:
- “First of all, to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ,” he declared.
- The second of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in His angels.”
- The third of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe the Books revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ.”
- The fourth of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ’s prophets,” who were sent to make people attain the way He likes and to guide them to the right path.
- The fifth of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in the Last Day (al-Yawm al-âkhir).”
- The last of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in qadar, [that is] that good (khair) and evil (sharr) are from Allâhu ta’âlâ.”
The person, upon hearing these answers from Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam), said, ‘O Rasûl-Allah! You told the truth.’ ” Hadrat ’Umar (radiy-Allâhu ’anh) said that of the Prophet’s Companions, the ones who were there were astonished at the behaviour of this person who asked a question and confirmed that the answer was correct. One asks with a view to learn what one does not know, but to say, “You told the truth,” indicates that one already knows it”.
