Iman, Islam, Ihsan and Tasawwuf
Key Terms at a Glance
Iman: Faith: believing in Allah ﷻ, His angels, His messengers, meeting Him, and the Day of Judgement.
Islam: Worshipping Allah ﷻ alone and carrying out His commands in practice. Knowledge and practice of physical/visible deeds like prayers, hajj & dealing with others
Ihsan: Spiritual excellence: worshipping Allah ﷻ as if we see Him.
Taqwa: God-consciousness: guarding yourself from anything that displeases Allah ﷻ.
Fiqh: The knowledge of the rulings on physical/visible deeds such as prayer, fasting and Zakat.
Tasawwuf: The discipline of understanding and attaining Taqwa and Ihsan; the inner dimension of Islam. Knowledge & practice of invisible deeds like pure intent, patience, Trust in Allah ﷻ etc
Shariah: The complete set of Allah's commands, covering both physical/visible and invisible/internal deeds.
Tazkiyah: Purification of the self (nafs) from its evils.
Tariqah: The methods used to attain the (inner) qualities (like patience, virtuous intent, Trust in Allah ﷻ etc) that the Shariah commands.
Haqiqah & Ma'rifah: The insights that open up to a sincerely obedient person as a result of acting upon Shariah are called Haqaiqah (Realities) , and the process of gaining them Ma'rifah (Gnosis).
اعوذ باللہ من الشیطن الرجیم ۔ بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
لَیْسَ عَلَى الَّذِیْنَ اٰمَنُوْا وَ عَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ جُنَاحٌ فِیْمَا طَعِمُوْۤا اِذَا مَا اتَّقَوْا وَّ اٰمَنُوْا وَ عَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ ثُمَّ اتَّقَوْا وَّ اٰمَنُوْا ثُمَّ اتَّقَوْا وَّ اَحْسَنُوْاؕ وَ اللّٰهُ یُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِیْنَ۠ (۹۳)
There is no sin, for those who believe and do good deeds, in what they might have partaken earlier, if they fear Allah, and believe, and do good deeds; and again fear Allah, and believe, and still again fear Allah and do good deeds. Allah loves those who are good in their deeds. (Surah Al-Ma'idah)
According to this verse, any person can become beloved to Allah ﷻ if they have three qualities:
They have Iman (faith).
They do good deeds and avoid bad deeds.
They adopt Taqwa (God-Fearing) and Ihsan (God-consciousness).
These three branches of the religion are explained in a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari:
One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting with the people when a stranger came to him and asked:
"O Messenger of Allah! What is Iman?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Iman is to believe in Allah, His angels, His messengers and in meeting Him, and to believe in the Day of Judgement."
He asked: "O Messenger of Allah! What is Islam?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Islam is to worship Allah ﷻ alone and not to associate anyone with Him, to establish prayer, to pay the obligatory Zakat, and to fast in Ramadan."
He asked: "O Messenger of Allah! What is Ihsan?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you are seeing Him; and if you do not see Him, then firmly believe that He is certainly seeing you."
After Iman (faith) is attained, there are two further levels.
The first is carrying out good deeds, such as prayer, fasting, Hajj, Zakat and charity, and avoiding things like lying and stealing. The rulings and knowledge related to these actions are called Fiqh.
The second is doing all these deeds with a pure intention and only for Allah ﷻ, and avoiding even the smallest sin, out of concern that Allah ﷻ might become displeased with us. This inner state is called Taqwa and Ihsan, and the art of understanding and attaining it came to be known as Tasawwuf.
Hazrat Shah Waliullah (may Allah ﷻ have mercy on him) called these two levels "the two dimensions of the religion of Islam". He explains that since Allah ﷻ has promised to protect His religion (انا لحافظون – "We are indeed its Guardians"), there will also be two systems to protect both of these dimensions. In his book Hama'at, he writes:
"Those scholars who were granted by Allah ﷻ an aptitude for the Shariah became the guardians of the outward side of the religion. This is the group of the jurists (fuqaha), the hadith scholars (muhaddithin), the devout worshippers and the Qur'an reciters… The second group of the guardians of the religion is the one that Allah ﷻ granted the aptitude to protect the inner side of the religion, whose other name is Ihsan. In every age, the elders of this group have been a refuge for ordinary people. They invite people to the good effects that acts of obedience and righteousness leave on the inner self, and to the sweetness that hearts find in them; and they also urge them to adopt good character."
In other words, by Allah's grace, both the outward and the inward dimensions of the religion will remain protected until the Day of Judgement. The group charged with protecting and serving the outward side is called the fuqaha and ulama (jurists and scholars), while the group serving the inward side, that is, the field of Ihsan, is the Sufis.