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What a Muslim believes, set out the way the Prophet ﷺ answered Jibrīl: faith, submission and excellence. Each pillar comes with the Qur'an in Arabic and English and a sound hadith, followed by the history of how Muslims came to argue about and write down their creed.
This hadith exists because of an argument. Around the year 80 AH, Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar and a friend left Basra for Hajj, troubled that a man called Maʿbad al-Juhanī was teaching there that there is no divine decree. In Madinah they met ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, who disowned the idea and answered with what his father ʿUmar had seen: a stranger in white, with no trace of travel, who sat knee to knee with the Prophet ﷺ and asked him about Islam, faith and excellence. Muslim placed it first in his Ṣaḥīḥ.
The Qur'an names five of the six together, and the believers' creed in the last verses of al-Baqarah.
Islam is built on five
“Allah has ninety-nine names; whoever counts them will enter Paradise” Bukhārī 2736. Scholars The well-known list of ninety-nine is in al-Tirmidhī; many hadith scholars hold the list was added by a narrator rather than said by the Prophet ﷺ. Every name below is taken straight from the Qur'an. Tap one to read its verse.
For the first generation, faith was simply what the Prophet ﷺ taught. The questions that became “creed” were forced by events: civil war, arguments about sin, about the decree, about the Qur'an itself. This is the outline of how the Sunni creeds took shape.
Scholars Sunni Muslims have three main approaches to theology. All affirm the six pillars; they differ in method and in how they speak about Allah's attributes. The Amman Message (2004–05), signed by scholars across the Muslim world, recognised Ashʿarī and Māturīdī theology and “true Salafī thought” alike as within Sunni Islam.
| Atharī (Ahl al-Ḥadīth) | Ashʿarī | Māturīdī | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named after | Athar, “transmitted report”; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH), later Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) | Abu'l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324 AH) | Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH) |
| Followed mostly by | Ḥanbalīs; the Salafī movement today | Many Shāfiʿīs and Mālikīs; al-Azhar | Most Ḥanafīs: South Asia, Turkey, Central Asia |
| Attributes such as Allah's “hand”, or rising over the Throne | Affirmed as stated, without asking how and without likening Him to creation | Affirmed, with their meaning consigned to Allah (tafwīḍ), or read figuratively (taʾwīl) where needed | Close to the Ashʿarī approach |
| Role of reason | Follows the texts; reason supports | Reason defends revealed belief | Reason can know Allah exists, and some good and evil, before revelation |
| Does faith increase and decrease? | Yes, with deeds | Yes | Faith itself is affirmation and does not change in amount; its strength and light do |
| Describing tawḥīd | Three aspects: lordship, worship, names and attributes | Oneness in essence, attributes and acts | Similar to the Ashʿarī |
Sources
Qur'an: Arabic (Uthmani script) and Dr Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran, from quran.com. Hadith Arabic and English: sunnah.com, checked 11 Nov 2026.
- Muslim 8 (the hadith of Jibrīl, with the Basra background), Bukhārī 50, Bukhārī 8, Bukhārī 2736.
- Muslim 2996 (angels created from light), Muslim 2664 (the strong believer and the decree), Bukhārī 6502 (drawing near through obligations), Bukhārī 3 (the first revelation).
- History: al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-rusul wa'l-mulūk (the miḥnah under al-Maʾmūn); al-Shahrastānī, al-Milal wa'l-niḥal (the early groups); al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah; Ibn Taymiyyah, al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah; The Amman Message.