These great fundamentals—also called the pillars of faith—were affirmed by all the messengers and every revealed law; the heavenly scriptures were sent down confirming them, and no one rejects them, or any part of them, except one who has stepped outside the circle of faith and become a disbeliever. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and seek to make a distinction between Allah and His messengers, saying, ‘We believe in some and reject others,’ and wish to take a path in between—those are the true disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment. But those who believe in Allah and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them, it is they to whom He will soon give their rewards. And Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” 1

These lofty principles and firmly established pillars require explanation and clarification, and—if Allah wills—we shall endeavor to provide as much of that as we can in this book.