The origin of the Five Pillars of Islam is a very famous Hadith sometimes known as the Hadith of Gabriel, where the Angel Gabriel visits Muhammad (pbuh) while with some of his companions and asks him questions. One of the questions is “what is Islam?”, and Muhammad replies “Islam is to testify that there is no deity but God and that Muhammad is God’s Messenger; and you establish Salat; pay Zakat; observe the fast of Ramadan; and perform pilgrimage to the (shrine) of Abraham if you are able (to bear the expense of) the journey.”
Thank you for your informative comments. The reason why I asked is that this “five pillars of Islam” seems to be exclusively Sunni. The Shiites don’t seem to recognize it. I don’t think they would disagree with the contents of it, but something known as the “five pillars” is not a recognizable idea. I have discussed it with knowledgeable Shiites, and it does not ring a bell with them. What the Shiites have is what they call the “basic principles of Islam” which, interestingly, also has five clauses in it. It differs from the “five pillars” in that it lays down what a Moslem should
believe in order to be a Moslem, rather than what he should
do to be good Moslem. It is the nearest thing to an Islamic “creed” that I have come across. It is as follows:
- Tawhid (Oneness of God)
- Nubuwwah (Prophethood of Mohamed)
- Ma’aad (Restitution/Resurrection, Day of Judgement)
- Adl (Justice of God)
- Imamate (Leadership of the Imams).
The first three are the main ones, which I believe the Sunnis would agree with. If you believe that, then you are a Moslem! But the last two are exclusively Shiite. The last one (Imamate) is well known, and you have already talked about it. But the fourth one (Adl (justice)) is particularly interesting. It states that “God is just”. The reason for the addition of this clause apparently is an ancient theological dispute that arose in Islam many centuries ago about the nature of the “justice of God”. There were two factions: one believed that God is “inherently Just,” meaning that there is an
a-priori principle of justice that God adheres to, and does not deviate from. The other faction believed that justice is determined by what God actually
does. In other words, there is no independent criteria of “justice” that God adheres to. God does whatever He likes to do; and what is just is determined by what God
does. The Shiites became adherents of the first group, hence they introduced this clause in their creed that “God is just;” meaning that He adheres to a certain independent criteria of justice. Whereas the Sunnis became followers of the second group, meaning that justice is determined by what God actually does. This is another important theological difference between the two.
The Sunni tradition is closer to the Protestant one. I is highly deterministic, and there is little room for human “freewill”. Everything is determined by God. But the Shiite tradition comes closer to Catholic one, which is less deterministic, and allows greater role for human “freewill”.
Sunnis believe in a man known as the Mahdi too, but they have a very different view. The Sunni belief is that he will be a righteous ruler of Muslims towards the last days who will move the capital of the Kingdom of God from Medina back to Jerusalem, find the Arc of the Covenant, begin the reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple and convert the Jews living in Palestine, and so paving the way for the return of the Jesus Christ (pbuh) and his defeat of the Anti-Christ.
This is another interesting subject that I wanted to learn more about. What are the sources of the Islamic doctrine of the Al-Mahdi?
zerinus
