Is It Required
A To Believe?

Answer: No.

Believing in the existence of Allah while not believing in the prophets is not enough for a person to be a Muslim. What does it mean to believe that Allah is the Creator, the Provider, the Manager of affairs, and then disbelieve in His revelation and deny His Messengers? This is major disbelief. In fact, there is no greater crime than rejecting Allah’s revelation.

Allah Almighty said: {Those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and wish to make a distinction between Allah and His messengers, and they say, we believe in some and disbelieve in others, wishing to adopt a way in between. It is they who are true disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.} [Surat an-Nisaa: 151]

So, the one who believes in Allah and disbelieves in the prophets is definitely a disbeliever.

Anyone who disbelieves in one of the prophets is, in fact, a disbeliever in Allah because he denied the revelation of Allah. Therefore, the People of the Book were disbelievers because they disbelieved in the prophethood of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). {Those who disbelieve from the People of the Book and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding therein forever. It is they who are the worst of creatures.} [Surat al-Bayyinah: 6]

Allah’s threat that they will enter the Fire is true: {so My warning was fulfilled.} [Surat Qāf: 14]

Neither would Islam be valid, nor salvation attained by merely acknowledging that Allah is the Creator, the Provider, the One Who gives life and causes death; rather, it is essential to believe in His Messengers. Therefore, belief in the existence of Allah and disbelief in the prophets is not sufficient and does not benefit the servant with Allah on the Day of Resurrection, as he must worship Allah and have faith in all His messengers.

If belief in the existence of Allah was sufficient, Allah would not have sent His messengers, nor would He have revealed His Books, because all human beings know Allah by natural disposition. Allah, who created you, guided you, and provided you with sustenance, is the only one who deserves to be worshipped as He legislated through His messengers and prophets.

Doing good deeds is a disposition upon which Allah has created people. Therefore, any person may do righteous deeds, even if he is a disbeliever or a polytheist. All people do good deeds due to the disposition they were created upon.

However, the condition for accepting a righteous deed is that it has to be done for the sake of Allah, i.e., for earning its reward from Allah. For that reason, the one who disbelieves in Allah and worships other gods with Him, we say to him: Go to those to whom you set as partners with Allah in your good deeds and get your reward from them, for you did not seek by your good deeds to please Allah alone.

Imagine a person whose family raised him and spent on him until he became a strong young man, then he went to others to serve them. Does he have the right to go back to his family to say to them: Give me my wage for serving others? Let him go to those whom he served and get his wage from them.

And for Allah is the highest example. It is Allah Who created you, gave you provision, and bestowed upon you all your blessings, then you leave His worship and want to receive from Him the reward for your deeds? How is that possible?

That is why Allah said: {We will turn to whatever deeds they did and turn them into scattered dust.} [Surat Al-Furqan: 23]

And He said: {As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage in a plain desert, which a thirsty person deems to be water, until when he reaches it, he finds nothing.} [Surat an-Nur: 39]

Those who disbelieve do not deserve reward for their deeds, even if they are righteous, because they are disbelievers who did not intend by their righteous deeds to obtain the reward of their Lord, nor did they seek the pleasure of their Creator.

So, it is not just the good deed that counts, for we are all naturally made to do many good deeds. However, the issue is why you do this good deed and for whom you do it. Do you do it for your own interest, or do you do it out of ostentation, or do you do it for someone other than Allah?

All this is not done for the sake of Allah; so, no reward is expected from these good deeds, which is expected from good deeds that are done for the sake of Allah. 

A misconception is an issue of the religion that a Muslim does not understand, which may cause him confusion until he finds an answer to it. Allah Almighty has willed that there be some ambiguous matters in certain secondary issues of Islam, so that the people of falsehood would refrain from obeying their Lord because of such matters.

Allah Almighty said: {It is He Who has sent down to you the Book. In it are definite verses, which are the foundation of the Book, while others are ambiguous. Those with deviant hearts follow the ambiguous verses, seeking discord and seeking their [false] interpretation. But no one knows their [true] interpretation except Allah. And those who are well-grounded in knowledge say, “we believe in it. It is all from our Lord. None will take heed except people of understanding.”} [Surat Al Imran: 7]

Those with deviant hearts will follow such misconceptions, seeking thereby Fitnah and to stray from Allah.

Allah, by His wisdom, has willed that there should be both belief and disbelief among people.
{Some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers.} [Surat Taghābun: 2]

Those who desire disbelief become attached to these misconceptions and are preoccupied by them, straying away from their religion, prayers, and faith.

As for the believer, he follows the definite evidence, which is the foundation of the Book, affirming the validity of the religion and the message. If he encounters something that he does not understand, he seeks knowledge, but would never be distracted from his religion or prayer by what he does not comprehend.

Only those with sickness in their hearts are distracted from their religion by what they do not understand. {And so that those [hypocrites] in whose hearts is sickness and the disbelievers may say, “What does Allah mean by this number?” Thus Allah causes to stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.} [Surat al-Muddathir: 31]

The wisdom behind the existence of such misconceptions is also seen in the fact that these unclear matters cause the people of knowledge and insight to adopt variant positions. The one who has knowledge knows the answer to such unclear matters and is distinguished because of this from a common person who lacks profound knowledge of the religion and has not studied it. Thus, Allah will raise in degrees those who possess knowledge.

The truth is crystal clear, yet misconceptions are essential, as they serve to verify the faith of the believers.

The established norm of Allah in His creation is assignment, and His norm in the assignment is the concealment of some wisdom. The person who is successful is the one who uses what he knows to infer what is hidden and subtle. The unsuccessful is the one who allows his ignorance to veil him, preventing him from using his knowledge to understand what he does not know.