In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
ISLAM, IMAAN AND IHSAAN
:salam2:
Dear brothers and sisters in Islam as we all know that in every field of life variety of people can be found, for e.g. black, white, short, tall, rich, poor and so on. And even in these categories u can find some very short others of middle height and some extremely tall u can find this in every field, but none the above said things are criteria for anyone’s success in the eyes of Allah. As Allah mentioned in the Quran
It is not their meat nor their blood, that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him: He has thus made them subject to you, that ye may glorify Allah for His Guidance to you and proclaim the good news to all who do right.
(Al-Hajj)
And there is another hadith in which it is mentioned that
Allah does not look at your faces and your wealth but at your hearts (intentions) and your deeds.
[NOTE: This is not the exact translation of the Hadith but I only have quoted it from my memory. I will try to find the exact hadith soon, Insha’Allah]
Since, everything is created by Allah hence all these materialistic things are not the criteria for the success of human beings. The criteria of success according to Quran can be stated in its simplest form in the verses of Surah Al-Asr
By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),
Verily Man is in loss,
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.
(Surah Al-Asr)
Let’s not get into the details here. My intention here is only to talk a little about the levels or degrees of Islam in the light of Quran and Hadeeth. We can name them into three levels
ISLAM
IMAAN
IHSAAN
In Surah Hujraat there is a dialogue mentioned between Rasul-Allah (SAW) and the Desert Arabs. These are the verses
The desert Arabs say, "We believe." Say, "Ye have no faith; but ye (only) say, 'We have submitted our wills to Allah,' For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
Only those are Believers who have believed in Allah and His Messenger, and have never since doubted, but have striven with their belongings and their persons in the Cause of Allah: Such are the sincere ones.
(Al-Hujraat: 14-15)
So its clear from this that when the Desert Arabs said ‘Aa-mun-na ‘ (Arabic for 'we believe') the answer directly came from Allah (SWT) that tell them not to say "We believe." but tell them to say ‘Aslamna’ (Arabic for 'We have submitted our wills to Allah’) and then Allah (SWT) Himself tells the reason for saying this in the remaining part of the verse which is like this ' For not yet has Faith entered your hearts’.
And Allah tells us that who the true BELIEVERS are in the next verse
Only those are Believers who have believed in Allah and His Messenger, and have never since doubted, and have striven with their belongings and their persons in the Cause of Allah: Such are the truthful ones.
From this verse it is quite clear that to become a TRUE BELIEVER we have to posses these two characteristics, ‘doubtlessness in Allah and His Messenger’ and ‘striving in the cause of Allah with our belongings and persons’ and if we are not doing so then we are not the true belivers
For getting a clear picture about STRIVING IN THE CAUSE OF ALLAH visit this thread, please.(http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4850)
We can also say that these two characteristics ‘doubtlessness in Allah and His Messenger’ and ‘striving in the cause of Allah with our belongings and persons’ can be summed up as TAQWA because it is the force that pushes a person to become better and better in his/her DEEN. In the same manner these two characteristics pushes us from one level to another i.e. from mere acceting of ISLAM to IMAAN
Now let us see that what I’m saying have any proofs from Quran and Hadeeth. In Surah Ma’idah Quran tells us
On those who believe and do deeds of righteousness there is no blame for what they ate (in the past), when they guard themselves from evil, and believe, and do deeds of righteousness,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and believe,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and do good. For Allah loves those who do good.
In the above verse u can see that the translator has used words OR twice because the Arabic words are like this
‘sum-mat-taqaw-wa-aamanu-sum-mat-taqaw-wa-ahsanu’
I think it would be better if I give the background of this verse. This verse is related to the commandments related to lawful and unlawful food. And when these commandments came the Sahaba (RA) felt uncomfortable and uneasy that they have eaten lot of unlawful or now prohibited food in the past. So to give them reassurance Allah (SWT) revealed that
On those who believe and do deeds of righteousness there is no blame for what they ate (in the past), when they guard themselves from evil, and believe, and do deeds of righteousness,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and believe,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and do good. For Allah loves those who do good.
But what I want to show from this verse is this
‘sum-mat-taqaw-wa-aamanu-sum-mat-taqaw-wa-ahsanu’
When those who have accepted Islam practice TAQWA (guard themselves from evil and be doubtless about Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with their belongings and persons) they become true believers ‘sum-mat-taqaw-wa-aamanu’, they reach the stage of IMAAN and when they again go on doing that again increasing their TAQWA (guard themselves from evil and be doubtless about Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with their belongings and persons) more and more they reach the stage of IHSAAN ‘sum-mat-taqaw-wa-ahsanu’
Most of the scholars here have translated ‘ahsanu’ as ‘do good’ but according to some of the scholars here ‘ahsanu’ means the stage of reaching the highest level of Islam i.e. IHSAAN and a hadith support this view that IHSAAN is the highest level of Islam. I am quoting only that part of hadith here, which is related to our current topic
"tell me about Ihsaan.”
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, “It is to serve Allah as though you behold Him; and if you don’t behold him, (know that) He surely sees you.”
(Bukhari and Muslim)
So from this hadith it is very clear that reaching the stage where one can feel as if he/she is seeing Allah, which obviously is the highest level, is called IHSAAN.
So, to conclude we can say that these are the three levels and there are three things by which they can be gradually achieved
The three levels namely are
ISLAM
IMAAN
IHSAAN
And the three things by which they can be achieved are namely as follows
>Doubtlessness in Allah and His Messenger after submission
>Striving in the cause of Allah with one’s belongings and person
>Guarding oneself against evil
May Allah forgive me if i commited any mistake
Everything that is good is from Allah and anything that is wrong is from me. May Allah guide us all and give us courage to follow his Deen in its completeness
Ma’ssalaam
(P.S. – Any corrections are most welcome)