Iman - Belief

By Mohammad A Rahman

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Iman (ْإِيمَانُ) in Arabic  means belief. In Islam, it technically means to believe in the Unity of Allah, His prophets, His Books, His angels, Day of Judgment, etc:

The apostle believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His apostles; We make no difference between any of His apostles; and they say: We hear and obey, our Lord! (Holy Qur'an 2:285)

Belief in the unity of Allah means the He is one, He has no partner. He is the Absolute owner of this universe, none shares in His Knowledge and Power:

Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And none is like Him (Holy Qur'an 112:1-4)

The best way to understand Allah is to believe that He is not like anything. Any thing we can conceive of regarding Allah, He is other than that because He Himself says that nothing is like Him:

There is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (Qur'an 42:11)

There are many traditions from the Holy Prophet (SAW) as to what the correct way of understanding the unity of Allah is. We are only going to narrate a few:

Abu Abdallah has related from his fathers that the Prophet of God (SAW) said in one of his sermons, "Praise belongs to God, who in His firstness (awwaliyyah) was solitary and in His beginninglessness (azaliyyah) was tremendously exalted through divinity and supremely great through His magnificence and power. He originated that which He produced and brought into being that which He created without a model (mithal) preceding anything that He created. Our Lord, the eternal (al-qadim), unstitched (the heavens and the earth)  through the subtlety (lutf) of His lordship and the knowledge within His omniscience, created all that He created through the laws of His power (qudrah), and split (the sky) through the light of dawn. So none changes His creation, none alters His handiwork, 'none repels His law' (XIII, 45), none rejects His command. There is no place of rest away from His call (dawah), no cessation to His dominion and no interruption of His term. He is the truly existent (al-kaynun) from the first and the truly enduring (al-daymum) forever. He is veiled from His creatures by His light in the high horizon, in the towering might, and in the lofty dominion. He is above all things and below all things. So He manifested Himself (tajalla) to His creation without being seen, and He transcends being gazed upon. He wanted to be distinguished by the profession of Unity (tawhid) when He withdrew behind the veil of His light, rose high in His exaltation and concealed Himself from His creation." 

"He sent to them messengers so they might be His conclusive argument against His creatures and so His messengers to them might be witnesses against them. He sent among them prophets bearing good tidings and warning, 'that whosoever perished might perish by a clear sign, and by a clear sign he might live who lived' (VIII, 42) and that the servants might understand of their Lord that of which they had been ignorant, recognize Him in His Lordship after they had denied (it) and profess His Unity in His divinity after they had stubbornly resisted."  

Another tradition: 

Ibn Abbas related that a Jew, called Na'thal, stood up before the Prophet of God-upon whom be blessings and peace-and said, "O Muhammad, verily I will ask thee about certain things which have been repeating themselves in my breast for some time. If thou answerest them for me I will embrace Islam at thy hand."  

The Prophet said, "Ask, O Abu Ummarah"  

Then he said, "O Muhammad, describe for me thy Lord."  

He answered, "Surely the Creator cannot be described except by that with which He has described Himself-and how should one describe that Creator whom the senses cannot perceive, imaginations cannot attain, thoughts (khatarat) cannot delimit and sight cannot encompass? Greater is He than what the depicters describe. He is distant in His nearness and near in His distance. He fashions (kayyaf) 'howness' (kayfiyyah), so it is not said of Him, 'How?' (kayf); He determines (ayyan) the 'where' (ayn), so it is not said of Him, 'Where ?' (ayn). He sunders 'howness' (kayfufiyyah) and 'whereness' (aynuniyyah), so He is "One . . . the Everlasting Refuge" (CXII 1-2), as He has described Himself. But depicters do not attain to His description. 'He has not begotten, and has not been begotten, and equal to Him is not any one' (CXII 3-4).  

Na'thal said, "Thou hast spoken the truth. O Muhammad, tell me about thy saying, 'Surely He is One, there is none like (shabih) Him.' Is not God one and man one? And thus His oneness (wahdaniyyah) resembles the oneness of man."  

He answered, "God is one, but single in meaning (ahadi al-mana), while man is one but dual in meaning (thanawi al-ma'na), corporeal substance (jism) and accidents ('arad), body (badan) and spirit (ruh). Similarity (tashbih) pertains only to the meanings."  

Nathal said, "Thou hast spoken the truth, O Muhammad." 

Belief in the messengers means they were all sent by Allah with true guidance for the people. They received and delivered messages faithfully without any distortion until people clearly understood their message. We have to specifically believe that Muhammad (SAW) was the last prophet (Nabi) and messenger (Rasul) as the Divine message was completed and perfected through him. We also have to believe that our salvation depends totally on following what he brought as mentioned by Allah:

Whatever the Apostle gives you, accept it, and from whatever he forbids you, keep back, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah (Holy Qur'an 59:7)

But no! by your Lord! they do not believe (in reality) until they make you a judge of that which has become a matter of disagreement among them, and then do not find any straitness in their hearts as to what you have decided and submit with entire submission. (Holy Qur'an 4:65)

And it befits not a believing man and a believing woman that they should have any choice in their matter when Allah and His Apostle have decided a matter; and whoever disobeys Allah and His Apostle, he surely strays off a manifest straying. (Qur'an 33:36)

We must also believe in angels. We also believe in the Last Day when all men will be resurrected and judged by Allah and He is going judge according to the following:

Then as for him who is inordinate, and prefers the life of this world, then surely the hell, that is the abode. And as for him who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord and forbids the soul from low desires, then surely the garden-- that is the abode. (Holy Qur'an 79:37-41)

Needless to say that we believe that the Holy Qur'an is the exact word of Allah dictated to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) by angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years. Allah has guaranteed that He is going to preserve His Book until the end of time. Hence, what we have in our hand today is what was exactly given to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) without any slight error in it:

Most surely it is a Mighty Book. Falsehood shall not come to it from before it nor from behind it; a revelation from the Wise, the Praised One. (Holy Qur'an 41:42)

Surely We have revealed the Reminder and We will most surely be its guardian. (Holy Qur'an 15:9)

And finally, we believe that belief must be followed up by good deeds. Belief without good deeds has no value in the sight of Allah:

And (as for) those who believe and do good, and believe in what has been revealed to Muhammad, and it is the very truth from their Lord, He will remove their evil from them and improve their condition. (Holy Qur'an 47:2)

We pray to Allah that He may guide us to His path and help us to have correct belief and do good deeds, insha'Allah.