All praise be to Allah: we praise Him, seek His help and pray for His forgiveness of our sins and misdeeds. Whomever Allah guides shall never go astray and whomever He leaves astray cannot find guidance

I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah, the One who has no partners and who says: "It is He who has sent to the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves to declare to them His revelations, to purify them and to instruct them in the Book and in wisdom, yet before that they were indeed in manifest error"

I also bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's servant and messenger, with whose message Allah has favoured mankind. He says: "Indeed, Allah bestowed a favour on the believers when He sent them a messenger from among themselves, to recite to them His revelations, and to purify them, and teach them the book and wisdom, whereas before that they were surely in plain error"

Allah, the Sublime, sent His messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him), with guidance and the true faith, so that he brings people out of darkness into the light and out of manifest error into perfect guidance that ensures the comfort and reassurance of human hearts. Guidance is useful knowledge and the true faith means good action. These two are the cornerstones of good human life.

In His sublime book, the Qur’an, Allah included all that people may need with regard to their faith, worship, transactions, manners and morality. For what the Qur’an states in general or equivocal terms, the Sunnah provides explanation and detail. The Prophet says "I have been given the Book together with something like it"

The Islamic faith represents the essence of the religion of Islam, and gives it strength that enables it to prevail over all religions. It benefits by a number of unique characteristics, which include:

a. Belief in Allah's oneness, addressing worship to Him alone and following the practice of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

b. Its divine source: Derived from the Qur’an and the hadith only, Islam does not refer to anyone’s view or to any analogy

c. It is in perfect harmony with the sound human nature that Allah has planted in mankind.

d. It is consistent with sound human logic that is not subject to misunderstanding or desire.

e. It is comprehensive and addresses all aspects of life, man and the universe.

f. . It is a complete whole, with mutual complementarity between its parts, and is free of contradiction.

g. It pursues a well balanced approach to all aspects of life

These important features of the Islamic faith have yielded the following results:

a. It has made submission purely to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds

b. Muslims follow Allah's messenger and reject all deviation and its promoters.

c. It achieves perfect happiness and reassurance as a result of the bond between man and Allah, the wise Creator.

d. It supplies clear and rational conviction that is free of all contradiction and superstition.

e. It provides for man’s physical and spiritual needs and achieves complementarity between belief and behaviour.

Muslim scholars have always attached great importance to the Islamic faith and have taught it to people and produced a broad variety of works on the subject. Some are concise and others provide detailed explanations and commentaries. Scholars and their works explained what the early Muslims believed, and at times elucidated a particular question or refuted the arguments of deviant creeds and erroneous beliefs.

I have chosen to arrange the questions of belief according to the order in which the Prophet mentioned the six essential Islamic beliefs, as outlined in the hadith narrating his conversation with the angel Gabriel. I rely only on the two revealed sources: the Qur’an and the Sunnah. I have included the details of every essential principle and I finish each with a brief mention of those who err in this aspect, outlining their errors and the counter argument, without going too deeply into this.

This is, then, a medium-length book which combines clarity with simplicity to enable individual readers to make the best of it and learn the faith as accepted by the early generations, in simple language and proper order. I have chosen the title: The Islamic Faith: A Simplified Presentation.

I pray to Allah to make this effort acceptable to Him and useful to His servants. May He grant peace and blessings to Prophet Muhammad, members of his household and all his companions.