Faith in Islam

The basic definition of “Faith” is to believe., Believe in what? from Islamic perspective Faith is to believe in ALLAH, his angels, his books, his messengers, last day and belief in Qadr (destiny) with its blessings and harm” as informed by the Last Prophet and Messenger Muhammad Sallalaahu Alayhi Wa Sallam.

If we look more deeply, it carries much more to it. Affirming these words is not enough, saying this sentence aloud may take only few seconds but living by it and implementing into actions is a lifetime struggle.

The heart is the residence of Faith, It’s door is the mouth by which we utter and the actions we do with our limbs is the medium of conveying this Faith.

Faith is not just a formality of uttering the declaration rather it is the full submission to that supreme being who is the originator and creator of everything else. Thus, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) has said

“No one will enter Paradise in whose heart is an atom’s weight of arrogance and no one will enter Hell in whose heart is an atom’s weight of faith.” A man said: What if I like my clothes to look nice and my shoes to look nice? He said: “Verily Allah loves beauty; rather arrogance means rejecting the truth and looking down on people.” – (Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh at-Tirmidhi)

There is no happiness for a person in either life except thru Faith, It is the decisive belief  that ALLAH is the creator of everything, he deserves to be singled out in every act of our life from being worshiped to being called / sought for help.

By doing so one’s life will be fully illuminated. As ALLAH exalted be he, himself quoted in the glorious Qur’an:

“Allah is the wali (friend) of those who BELIEVE. He brings them out from darknesses into the light….” (2:257)

Having said that, one should strive to perfecting their faith, in order to achieve this we must achieve the branches of faith that our prophet Muhammad (Peace & blessings of ALLAH be upon him) informed us about. By doing so we can get to that level of faith where in we find the content of Ar-Rahman.

More, we strive to increase our faith, more we gain closeness to ALLAH, and the more we gain Ar-Rahman’s Closeness more our hearts are moved towards him, so much so that we increase in our obedience towards him and decrease in Sins and then our worship does not remain duty but a way conversing with our Rabb and eventually we will taste that sweetness and would long to be in the company of ALLAH by remembering him often.

One of the great scholars of Islam Ibn Taimiyyah(RA), attempted to express the joy that he felt from his faith in Allah and the deeds he performed, “In this world there is a Paradise that whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise in the Hereafter.”

Meaning, if a person, taste that sweetness of faith in this world, would definitely taste the sweetness of the next world (ie. paradise)

This is the ultimate success, and its life time struggle because the Satan as-well our own Nafs is always with us to distract from ALLAH’s Path.

Best way to achieve this is by making the intention first and then making Du’a to ALLAH for guidance and help and try to remember ALLAH as much as you can, As ALLAH said:

Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest! (13:28)

I remember a brother, may ALLAH reward him with goodness, he asked what is that one thing that make us love some one, and he explained, if there is something good in someone that goodness attract us to them and we tend to love the person, (and obviously if a person has bad qualities no one would even like him), he further asked, how would you know “that someone” is having good qualities? Ans: By researching about him or  getting to know by someone else.

And so he said, if we can get attracted / love someone with few good qualities in him, how about ALLAH? do not you want to love ALLAH?, he advised me that one’s prime focus should be to gain closeness to ALLAH which is possible only when you start exploring about ALLAH as explained above.

And he told me, starting from today, no matter what, try as much as possible to learn something new about ALLAH on a daily basis.

2 years now,  AlhmduLILLAH, I must say, when I intended  and made Dua’a, ALLAH opened those doors upon me which I could not have ever imagined, not only doors of knowledge but his Rahmah, wisdom and contentment.

Take a note, I didn’t fully accomplish / achieve that level of spirituality or success, but I can surely say am progressing in positive direction, each day of mine is better than the previous day, in terms of goodness & closeness to ALLAH.

I gained closeness to ALLAH so much so that, I often call out to him by saying Rabbi – MY Rabb, My creator, My Cherisher, My provider, My sustainer, any kind of situation does not bother me as was the case 2y ago, because now i have realized how ALLAH is with me, taking care of me 24×7, every moment and every second of life, and with this it brought that sweetness of  the faith which earlier was merely a lip service for me and am sure it must be same for many among us.

And this is the proof of this sweetness of faith that am here writing about it, because i felt the changes with-in me and i strongly want it to be shared with all others so they too can find this sweetness in their life.

Be it any situation, joyous or Heart wrenching, richness or poverty, health or illness, in every situation you will find ALLAH with You so you will not feel the impact of the test you are going thru and in-fact in that moment you will find your heart to be content.

So try to make it a habit of knowing ALLAH daily as much as possible by you,

Try to reflect on your situations and try seeing ALLAH in every work of yours

Surround yourself with the people who remind you of ALLAH,

Or at least try  listening to the scholars thru videos/audios or even follow them on social sites, they share lot of good advice’ which in most cases will be relating to your situation (know that, this is from ALLAH azzwajal)

Make sure to read a part of the Quran daily at-least a page in Arabic as well as its translation and try to reflect on its meanings.

And most importantly, make lots of Dua, never ever leave making Dua, because it is the link that connects us to our creator.