First Things First

"And you should know that there is no God but Allah" (Al-Qur'an 47:19)

This Ayah (verse) is from Sura (chapter) Muhammad.

Allah is informing us that knowledge is so important that it precedes the declaration of faith.

You should know, acknowledge and understand that there is no god but Allah. Mere utterance of the faith without understanding or even with misunderstanding is of no avail.

So the knowledge which is obligatory is the knowledge of the obligatory!

It's obligatory on every Muslim males and females to perform the following action correctly, i.e. with the right knowledge:

Declaration of the faith

You should understand and believe that:

1. There is no god but Allah, The only God with attributes unique to Him. He has created all and everything else,

2. The Angles,

3. The revealed Holy Books,

4. Allah's messengers,

5. The Day of Resurrection,

6. The Divine Destiny.

The above are called the six articles of faith.

Our sources of knowledge is what Allah has taught us through the Qur'an or through His messenger Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).

Any religious knowledge that doesn't conform to Allah's Book or His messenger's tradition is false, misleading and should be rejected out of hand.

"O Allah we pray to you to teach us what is good for us and to make us benefit from what you have taught us."

All goodness is from Allah and all mistakes are mine alone.

Wasalamu alaikum