Imaan (Faith)

Firm conviction in something without seeking proof. Renewal of belief (tajdeed-e-imaan) means to continuously refresh belief in God. The seekers are never content with formal imaan, but are in search of enhancing it by knowing more and more about God. Since God is Limitless, the seeker’s quest for knowledge (maarifat, gnosis) must always be on the increase and he should be a renewed Muslim every moment.

Imaan is of two kinds: taqleedi and tahqeeqi, which is based on hearsay and on research.

Imaan-i-taqleedi: Those, whose imaan is taqleedi, believe in God without seeing and understanding set off to worship Him. Such persons are far better than those philosophers who indulge in rationale, are lost in the labyrinth of argumentation and lose what little of imaan they possessed in the beginning. Or they try to conform Islam to their convoluted thinking, thus paint an erroneous picture of Islam in their minds. On the other hand, imaan-taqleedi, which may be repugnant and unacceptable to the philosophers, is acceptable to God Almighty and enables one to win God’s pleasure and enty into Paradise. This kind of imaan is enough to exonerate one from the responsibility of forming a correct estimation of the Hereafter. A saint who spent a major portion of his life in philosophical and rational discussions, prayed to God towards the end of his life, to be blessed with the kind of imaan, which the old ladies of Madina were blessed with.

Imaan-i-haqeeqi is that of the auliya Allah, who know understand and see that the universe has only a relative existence and is non-existent in reality. They believe that it is god Almighty who really exists in the garb of all manifestations ta’ayyunnat, and that all these manifestations have relative (I’atabaari) not real existence. This kind of imaan is gained through spiritual experience of envisioning and witnessing (kashf-u-shahood) and not by reading books on Sufism, science or philosophy.

Firm conviction in something without seeking proof. Renewal of belief (tajdeed-e-imaan) means to continuously refresh belief in God. The seekers are never content with formal imaan, but are in search of enhancing it by knowing more and more about God. Since God is Limitless, the seeker’s quest for knowledge (maarifat, gnosis) must always be on the increase and he should be a renewed Muslim every moment.

Imaan is of two kinds: taqleedi and tahqeeqi, which is based on hearsay and on research.

Imaan-i-taqleedi: Those, whose imaan is taqleedi, believe in God without seeing and understanding set off to worship Him. Such persons are far better than those philosophers who indulge in rationale, are lost in the labyrinth of argumentation and lose what little of imaan they possessed in the beginning. Or they try to conform Islam to their convoluted thinking, thus paint an erroneous picture of Islam in their minds. On the other hand, imaan-taqleedi, which may be repugnant and unacceptable to the philosophers, is acceptable to God Almighty and enables one to win God’s pleasure and enty into Paradise. This kind of imaan is enough to exonerate one from the responsibility of forming a correct estimation of the Hereafter. A saint who spent a major portion of his life in philosophical and rational discussions, prayed to God towards the end of his life, to be blessed with the kind of imaan, which the old ladies of Madina were blessed with.

Imaan-i-haqeeqi is that of the auliya Allah, who know understand and see that the universe has only a relative existence and is non-existent in reality. They believe that it is god Almighty who really exists in the garb of all manifestations ta’ayyunnat, and that all these manifestations have relative (I’atabaari) not real existence. This kind of imaan is gained through spiritual experience of envisioning and witnessing (kashf-u-shahood) and not by reading books on Sufism, science or philosophy.