It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the east and the west, but righteous is he who believes in Allah and the period hereafter and the angels and the book and the prophets, and gives wealth out of love for Him to the relatives and the orphans and the poor and the wayfarer and to those who ask (beggars) and for setting the slaves free, and establishes worship(salat) and gives charity (zakat), and those who keep up their agreements when they make an agreement, and the patient in poverty and adversity and at the time of conflict. Those are the persons who are true (believers) and those are the persons who guard (against evil).
1. The first item of faith is belief in Allah (SWT) which means being certain of His Existence with all His Attributes, His Unity and Powers. Belief in destiny (mentioned in Ahadees) is part of belief in Allah (SWT) because He it is Who has written down the destines of everything He created 25:2 and if He wills He can change them 13:39 because He has power over everything 2:20 and does whatever He wills to 3:40 or intends to 11:107 to do.
2. Belief in the hereafter is the certainty of accountability of faith and deed after death. It was explained in Vs. No. 4 that this belief is like the belief in the announcement of the results by the university after the examinations. This belief gives rise to hope of success and fear of failure which keep the candidate serious.
3. Belief in angels is the certainty that Allah (SWT) has created them for executing His orders. If angels are regarded as Incharges of various energies, then belief in them is the certainty that the human control on energies, which is the sole cause of the scientific and technological progress, is not human achievement but a gift of Allah (SWT) to the human race because it was He who made them bow before Adam (PBH) i.e. man 2:34.
4. Belief in books is the certainty that Allah (SWT) has sent down these laws for the peaceful existence of humanity just like other laws of nature which are instrumental in keeping everything in the Universe peaceful, the violation of which will give rise to chaos.
5.Belief in Prophets is the certainty that the Divine books were revealed to them by Allah (SWT) and they were required to illustrate the laws contained in them through their own faith and deed and thereby invite others towards Allah (SWT), Who would grant paradise to the followers of the Divine books and the respective messengers (PBH) and hell to those who went against them. These items of faith are to be exhibited through actions:
1.Giving wealth in charity out of love for Allah (SWT) i.e. to please Him
2.Establisment of Salat five times a day as far as possible in Mosques for the remembrance of Allah (SWT) 20:12
3.Giving Zakat at a fixed rate annually for the uplift of the poor.
4.Keeping up agreements, the most important of which is our agreement with Allah (SWT) that ‘There is no god except Allah and Muhammed (PBH) is His messenger’, which means that we will not accept any other person as the supreme Authority except Allah (SWT) and that we will implement His orders given to us through the Quran, in accordance with the teachings of Prophet Muhammed (PBH), His messenger.
5.And finally exhibiting patience while practicing Islam when faced with poverty, adversity or conflict. These are the persons who are the believers in the real sense and these are the persons who can be classed as ‘Those who keep away from sin fearing Allah (SWT).”
