Beliefs and Theology

Islamic theology begins with tawhid — the absolute oneness of God — and extends outward to the nature of divine attributes, the unseen world, human freedom, and the accounting that follows death. These questions were not settled by assertion but argued through centuries of disciplined debate, producing schools that differed sharply while remaining within a shared framework of revelation and reason.

This collection gathers the encyclopaedia's coverage of belief and its controversies. It includes the central doctrines of God, angels, predestination, and the Day of Judgment; the metaphysical concepts of the Preserved Tablet and the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary; the rationalist Mu'tazilite movement and the reaction it provoked; the development of the schools of jurisprudence; and the historical origins of the Sunni and Shia traditions, presented with attention to how each understands its own history.