The Six Pillars of Iman (Faith)

Where the five pillars of Islam describe what a Muslim does, the six pillars of iman describe what a Muslim believes. They come from a well-known hadith in which the Angel Jibril, appearing in human form, asked the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to define faith, and he answered by listing six things. The six are: belief in God; belief in His angels; belief in His revealed books; belief in His messengers; belief in the Day of Judgment; and belief in divine decree (qadar) — that both good and difficulty unfold within God's knowledge and plan. These six beliefs are cumulative rather than a menu to select from — Islamic theology treats them as a connected whole. Belief in the messengers, for instance, is inseparable from belief in the books they were sent with, and belief in the Day of Judgment gives the other beliefs their consequence: actions and beliefs in this life are understood to matter because they will be weighed in the next. Each of the six pillars is its own broad subject in Islamic theology, and together they form the doctrinal foundation that the five pillars of practice sit on top of.