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Three Facets of Deen (Islam) Part 2

Second facet of Islam is Iman (faith). Generally, translators translate Iman as faith or belief. This translation is incomplete and leave out its important connotation. Iman is derived from root which means to be secure, safe, and tranquil. Hence literal sense of Iman is to render secure, safe, calm and free from fear. This imply that by faith in Allah, one becomes secure from error and rooted in truth. Actually Iman is a step in the direction of certainty.

Notice in the quoted hadith, our beloved Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) repeated the word faith in definition itself. It means that here meaning of faith is not an issue, but rather objects of faith. Philosophers, proponents of Kalam and Sufis explore this aspect of Deen (Islam), but this is outside the scope of Jurist. A Philosopher explores this field with the help of pure reason (aql) without prophetic intervention. On the other hand, specialist of Kalam gives primacy to revelation, although he interpret it in rational terms. Whereas a Sufi agrees with specialist of Kalam that revelation has to play the primary role but unlike specialist of Kalam he stresses that to gain the full understanding of revealed texts a direct knowledge from Allah is necessary. This direct knowledge is given various names, like kashaf (unveiling), shuhud (witnessing), baseera (insight) etc.

The third facet of Deen (Islam) is Ihsan (virtue). Ihsan is derived from the root which means beautiful and good. Thus Ihsan means to accomplish what is beautiful and good, to do something perfectly and to gain perfect and virtuous qualities.

State of Ihsan can be achieved by following the Prophet’s (Peace Be Upon Him) advice, “worship (or serving) Allah as if you are seeing Him, for though you don't see Him, He, verily, sees you.”

Ihsan brings depth and inner attitude that accompany activity and thought. This is the area which belongs to Sufi exclusively. Although, Philosopher, and specialist in Kalam have explored this aspect of Deen, but strictly speaking this field does not belong to their area of expertise.

Our task as follower of our beloved Prophet, Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is to deepen our understanding and practice of Deen (Islam) gradually. The more deeper will be the depth, more nearer we will get to Allah, until we reach the state of Ihsan. But if we have not given due importance to the last two facets of our Deen (Islam), we will be left with meaningless activity and verbal definitions.

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