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What Imaan Is

One day, the Companions were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ when a stranger walked in. His clothes were bright white, his hair was very black, and there was no sign that he had travelled. Nobody knew him. He sat down right in front of the Prophet ﷺ, knee to knee, and began asking questions like a student: What is Islam? What is Imaan? What is Ihsan? After he left, the Prophet ﷺ told Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) who the visitor had been. It was Jibril, the angel, who had come to teach them their religion.1

So when we ask "What is Imaan?", we are asking the very question the angel Jibril asked, and the answer comes straight from the Prophet ﷺ. Let's go through it together, one step at a time.

The word itself

The Arabic word Imaan comes from a root connected with safety and trust. That is a helpful clue. Imaan is not just knowing a few facts. It is trusting Allah, resting your heart on Him and on what He has told us, and finding a quiet sense of security in that trust.

What the Prophet ﷺ said Imaan is

When Jibril asked, "Tell me about Imaan," the Prophet ﷺ answered that it is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in qadar (divine decree), the good of it and the bad.1 That is six things. In everyday words:

  • Allah: that He is One, our Creator, and the Lord who looks after us.
  • The angels: unseen servants of Allah who carry out His commands.
  • The books: Allah's guidance sent to people through His messengers, ending with the Qur'an.
  • The messengers: chosen human beings who brought that guidance and showed us how to live by it.
  • The Last Day: this life is not the end. Everything will be set right, and every one of us will meet Allah.
  • Qadar: nothing happens outside Allah's knowledge and wisdom. We still plan, try and work, but we can rest easier about what is out of our hands.

The Qur'an speaks of these same things in several places. One verse says the Messenger and the believers all believe in Allah, His angels, His books and His messengers. Another says true goodness begins with believing in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the prophets, and then shows itself in how we treat people.2 A third reminds us that everything was created with measure and purpose, which is the heart of qadar.3 In another telling of Jibril's visit, the Prophet ﷺ put it slightly differently, mentioning the meeting with Allah and the resurrection.4 It is the same truth, seen from another side.

Believing in what we cannot see

Did you notice that all six are unseen? We have not seen Allah, or the angels, or the Last Day. That is why the Qur'an opens by describing the people of guidance as those who believe in the unseen.5

This is not blind belief. We never see the wind itself, only what it moves. In the same way, we see the signs of Allah all around us: in creation, in our own conscience, and in the revelation He sent. Imaan is letting those signs lead our hearts to trust.

Imaan, Islam and Ihsan

Jibril asked about three things, and they fit together beautifully:

  • Islam is what we do: the testimony of faith, prayer, zakat, fasting in Ramadan, and Hajj.6
  • Imaan is what we believe and hold in the heart.
  • Ihsan is doing it all with awareness: to worship Allah as if you could see Him, knowing that even if you cannot, He sees you.1

Think of a garden. Imaan is the roots, Islam is what grows above the ground for everyone to see, and Ihsan is the love and care with which we tend it.

It lives in the heart, and it shows

The Prophet ﷺ taught that Allah does not look at our faces or our wealth. He looks at our hearts and our deeds.7 Both matter. Imaan sits in the heart, and a living heart naturally shows itself in how we pray, how we speak and how we treat others. The Qur'an describes the true believers as those who believe in Allah and His Messenger, never let that belief be swallowed by doubt, and give their best for Allah's sake.8

None of us has a perfect heart. Imaan is not a trophy you win once and keep on a shelf. It moves, and the coming pages will talk about that in a gentle, practical way. If you feel your own faith is smaller than you would like, you are in good company, and this series is for you.

At the very center

At the center is certainty: knowing, with the heart and not only the tongue, that there is no god but Allah. The Prophet ﷺ gave wonderful news to the one who dies knowing this.9 Everything else grows from there.

Next: why Imaan matters.

References

1 Sahih Muslim 8 (also in Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2610), 2 Qur'an 2:177, 2:285 and 4:136, 3 Qur'an 54:49, 4 Sahih al-Bukhari 50, 5 Qur'an 2:3, 6 Sahih al-Bukhari 8 and Sahih Muslim 16, 7 Sahih Muslim 2564, 8 Qur'an 49:15, 9 Sahih Muslim 26.