Aqidah
[2][3] Aqidah goes beyond concise statements of faith and may not be part of an ordinary Muslim's religious instruction.
)[7] According to Muslim scholar Cyril Glasse, "systematic statements of belief became necessary, from early [on in the history of] Islam, initially to refute heresies, and later to distinguish points of view and to present them, as the divergences of schools of theology or opinion increased.
"[8] The "first" creed written as "a short answer to the pressing heresies of the time" is known as Fiqh Akbar and ascribed to Abu Hanifa.
According to Malcolm Clark, while Islam "is not a creedal religion", it has produced some detailed creeds, "some containing 100 or more belief statements" that summarized "the theological position of a particular scholar or school.
"[10] The six articles of faith or belief (Arkan al-Iman) derived from the Quran and Sunnah,[11] are accepted by all Muslims.
Although not connected with the Sunni-Shiʿi controversy about the succession, the majority of Twelver Shiʿites do not stress God's limitless power (qadar), but rather His boundless justice (ʿadl) as the sixth point of belief – this does not mean that Sunnis deny His justice, or Shiʿites negate His power, just that the emphasis is different.
[citation needed] In Sunni and Shia view, having Iman literally means having belief in the six articles.
In the terminology of Islamic law, sawm means to abstain from eating, drinking (including water) and sexual intercourse from dawn until dusk.
It is considered to be a personal responsibility for Muslims to ease economic hardship for others and eliminate inequality.
It is one of the five pillars of Islam, and a religious duty which must be carried out by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so at least once in his or her lifetime.
Jihad (to struggle) and literally means to endeavor, strive, labor to apply oneself, to concentrate, to work hard, to accomplish.
[18] In the religious context, it is the struggle against disbelief and injustice using any means possible to establish, propagate and defend the faith and its principles on individualistic and societal levels.
[28] The Quran is the uncreated word of God in essence, however, it is created when it takes on a form in letters or sound.
[29] Maturidism is a Sunni theological school founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, holding many positions in common with the Ash'aris but differing from them on others.
[30][31][32][33] Much like the Ash'arite approach to Qur'anic verses that could yield an anthropomorphic concept of God, they affirmed His transcendence while understanding these expressions by the conventional figurative meanings they had garnered in Arabic.
[34] However, the human mind alone could not grasp the entire truth, thus it is in need of revelation in regard of mysterious affairs.
[35] For the Athari theology, the apparent meaning of the Qur'an and especially the prophetic traditions have ultimate precedence in matters of belief, as well as law, and to engage in rational disputation, without textual evidence, is absolutely forbidden.
They observe the following extra pillars: Many Muslim scholars have written Islamic creeds, or specific aspects of a aqidah.
