And certainly and self-evidently that All-Beauteous One of Perfection, Who makes the universe reflect the innumerable manifestations of His beauty and perfections, will give the most perfect worshipful stance to the one who is the most comprehensive and perfect measure and means of displaying His beauty, perfection, Names, and art, which He clearly loves and wants to display; He will make his conduct a fine example to others and encourage them to follow him so that his fine conduct may appear in others too.

I n S h o r t : Love of God necessitates and results in following the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH). How fortunate the person whose share of following them is great! And woe on the person who does not appreciate the Practices and embarks on innovations!

(The Eleventh Flash - Risale-i.Nur Collection)

In this discussion of the cardinal articles of Faith in Islam, we have deliberately differed from the Traditional view on the subject. We did not confine them to five or six articles. Instead, we tried to include as many Principles as was possible. But it should be pointed out here that all the articles of Faith mentioned above are based upon and derived from the teachings of the Qur’an and the Traditions of Muhammad. More verses from the Qur’an and many parts of the Traditions could have been quoted to show the foundation of these articles of Faith. This was not done because of the limitations of space. However, the Qur’an and the Tradition of Muhammad are available references for any detailed study. We have also kept to minimum the use of Western terminology and technical language like predestination, fatalism, free will, and so on. This was done deliberately because we wanted to avoid confusion and technicalities. Most of the technical terms used in religion among non-Arabic speaking people lead to misunderstanding, when applied to Islam, and give wrong impressions. It would be impossible to serve the purpose of this work if foreign religious terms were adopted and applied to Islam. If we were to use the alien religious terminology here, we would have had to add many qualifications and comments to clarify the picture of Islam. This also would haverequired much more space which we could not possibly afford under the circumstances. So, we tried to explain things in ordinary simple language, and this same course will be followed in the remainder of the book.

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