Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
Some Signs of Ideal Faith
Introduction: Belief in God is most likely to bring about qualitative changes in your heart and mind. This in turn will improve your way of thinking and doing. Now some typical features of ideal Faith are outlined below:
(1) Unconditional & Steady Faith: It is required that you believe in God without any doubt, hesitation, pre-condition or needless delay. This means you must believe Him no later than you hear about Him: "We hear and we obey" (2:285). You should not wait for any proof of miracles from God. The whole world abounds with so many divine signs that not much more is needed. If you ask for more miracles as a precondition for your faith as the Jews asked Moses “to show us God in public”, then you face the risk of losing faith and facing unprecedented “penalty” (4:153; 5:115). God “stopped sending signs” or miracles as they were unhelpful to “the men of former generations” who rejected them as “false” or “magic (such as by Pharaoh)” (17:59; 20:56; 6:7)). God warned, “If I send down an angel (in response to non-believers’ request), then the matter would be settled all at once (leading to their destruction)” (6:8).
You should, therefore, unconditionally believe in “Unseen” God and believe Him strongly without any trace of “doubt” in mind (5:94; 6:114). You should not be half-hearted in faith like those who become happy when “good befalls them” but become disappointed “if trial period comes to them” (22:11). Accordingly, you should call on God not only while you are in a “boat (endangered by storm)”, as for example but also after “He delivers (you) safely to (dry) land” (29:65). In this way, if you can have your faith solid and steady, God will “endear the Faith to you’ and will make it “beautiful in your hearts” (49:7). You should view such precious Faith and guidance as a "favor upon you" from God and not your favor to Him (49:17).
2. Fearing God: As a true believer, you will recognize God as the All-knowing, All-seeing and All-hearing. This will make you fearful of God “at your utmost”, more than you fear any man (64:16; 4:77). That will inspire you to be “humble before God” (11:23) and shameful of doing any sin: either openly or privately. This is why, even a child during the time of Caliph Umar warned her mother from mixing saleable milk with water, saying her sin could escape the eye of the Caliph but not the attention of God. In fact, it is “more fitting that you should fear God” more than “you fear people” (33: 37). This will give you inner strength to fight for truth and justice, for pleasing God. One towering example was set by the Prophet when he said to his companion Abu Bakr “Have no fear, for God is with us” (9:40) as Meccan enemies were closing in their cave during their stealthy flight to Medina. As reward for God-fearing virtue, God promises you good conscience, “removal of evils” through “forgiveness” and overall “an easier path” (8:29; 65:4).
3. Fear of God Replaces Fear of Man: You will be conscious of your dignity as the best of creations. Accordingly, you will never subordinate yourself to anyone except God by means of worship or bowing your head down. You will vision God as the Supreme Being and “Sufficient” for you (65:3). You will therefore not “fear anybody except God” and you will fear Him “as He should be feared”, sensing that you cannot be harmed or “get killed without God’s leave” (9:18; 3:102; 3:145).
Do not forget that here on earth there cannot be any consequence worse than death and as a true believer you do not have to worry much about that. Death will anyway find you out today or tomorrow and that will bring you an opportunity to move on to the next phase of your more prosperous Afterlife. This fear from Almighty God thus makes you brave against any powers on earth. This reality made the companions of the Prophet into valiant holy fighters who were so effective that their100 could “vanquish 1000 of the unbelievers” (8:65).
4. Love for God: You should have “overflowing love for God” outweighing that for anything or anyone including your own life or dearest ones like your “fathers or sons”, wives etc. (2:165; 58:22). Historically, Prophet Noah chose love for God over his son Kenan, Abraham over his father Azar and Lut over his wife. You should never take God out of your mind due to distractions from your "riches or children" (63:9). By all accounts, “Nearness to God is the best of (your) goals” (3:14). You should never make God second to anyone including even a prophet in respect of attention, attitude or actions (ritual). You must not prostrate, bow heads down, or devote rituals to anyone other than God. You should not allow “contempt”, “arrogance”, “weariness” etc. to stand in the way of your sincere devotion to God (7:206; 21:19)
On the other hand, your heart should always “find pleasure” in remembering God and be proud of your Muslim identity. You need to be “content” with what He gave you (13:28; 9:59). Your contentment will be within easy reach if you compare your condition with those who have less and do not be jealous of those who have more. You will love to “bow and prostrate” in worship for Him which will ultimately leave “marks of prostration on (your) faces” (48:29). Thanks to your faith, your mind will always be at peace with God and you will assess your personal circumstances (good or bad) with positive optimism. By means of intense Faith, you may come within reach of some miraculous signs. For example, through utterance of God’s name, you will feel a “fear” or “tremor” in your hearts and during recitation of Quran, your eyes “will be overflowed with tears”. (22:35; 8:2; 5:83).
5. Gratitude: As a true believer, you will love to vent gratitude in all circumstances by saying “all praises to God” for His all-encompassing favors (1:2). In doing so, you will never underrate any acts of His kindness which you may perceive as trifle (like air or water) but you will realize their outsize importance in absence. You will not be like those who ungratefully forget or deny God’s credit during good times and despairingly blame Him “when some troubles touch them” (30:36). If you “show your gratitude” in this way, you may have access to His “higher (favors)” (14:7). By contrast, if you “show ingratitude”, God’s “punishment will be terrible indeed” (14:7). One ancient perverted people is quoted to have said in their prosperity “God is poor and we are rich” while regretting in their poverty “God’s hands are tied up” (3:181; 5:64). This type of examples of extreme ingratitude must be avoided in order to escape God’s painful punishment.
6. Reliance: As a believer, you are required to rely on God by placing your “hope” and “trust” in Him in view of the fact that “nothing will happen to us except what God decreed for us” (9:59; 9:51). This, however, does not mean you will sit on your hands, turning away from your ground actions. Instead, you will put in your best possible human effort, for achieving better possible outcome from your actions. However, you will never show arrogance by considering your roles sufficient. Instead, you will seek blessings of God for success in every action. For example, you should not say “I will surely do it tomorrow” without adding “if God pleases (InshaAllah)” (18:23/24). In this way, your reliance on God will make Him happy and supportive of your success.
7. Patience in Difficulties: You should be “firm and patient” in any trying circumstances and show composure and “self-control” as God vowed support for ‘those who patiently persevere” (2:177; 3:17; 8:46). Even if you profess your faith, it is under God’s plan not to “leave (you) alone” without testing your faith “to the extent I express who among you try utmost, (and) preserve in patience" (29:2; 47:31). He wants to test you with “evil and good by way of trial” or by “prosperity and adversity”, so you turn to” God with enhanced humbleness (21:35; 7:168). Ordinarily, test is tougher for stronger faith; even the Messengers “were (sometimes) so shaken in spirits”, they used to say “When (will come) the help of God?” (2:214). By means of trial this way, God wants to know who among you “strive with might and main” and are “best in deeds” (9:16; 67:2). If you qualify on that account through “patient constancy” you will score high in the test, eligible for reward with “the highest place in heaven” (25:75).
(a) Testing with Bad: Some examples of testing with bad are (i) ‘fear” of war or riot etc., (2:155) (ii) “loss in property, lives or fruits of (your) labor (like death of your son)” etc. (2:155), (iii) “hunger” or poverty due to lack of jobs or shortage of income etc. (2:155)., (iv) “pain” through suffering from severe ailments, “adversity” etc. (2:177) (v) burden of big family including “your riches and your children who may be but a trial” etc. (64:15). Under such diminished circumstances, you need to “show patient perseverance over (your) afflictions” (22:35). As examples, despite your poverty, you will “not strain your eyes in longing for things” that others got more than yours; or you will not stop from helping Islam or doing good deeds even after being physically or mentally “wounded” due to any mishap and the like (20:131; 3:172).
(b) Testing with Good: God may introduce you to good things like good fortunes, “luxuries of this life”, good health and education etc. (20:131). You can pass this test by being thankful for God’s “gifts” by sharing your wealth with the poor (6:165), not being distracted from “God’s remembrance” due to “traffic” or business “merchandise”, “landmark or fine buildings” or other types of “glitters” of this world (24:37; 26:129; 18:7 ), using your God-gifted physical strength to help the weak and so on.
(8) Prayers without Complaints: In the case of testing for your patience, if hard-to-bear sufferings come in waves, you will never think negative about God. Even in extreme case, you must not burst into impatience with complaints against God for how He shaped your predestination. In a metaphoric example, by punching a rocky mountain you can only break your fist but not the mountain. Likewise, if you “form an evil opinion of God”, that will only be suicidal for attracting “the Wrath of God on (you)” while you can never “injure God in the least” (48:6; 47:32).
So, you can help yourself by only having positive opinion of God, given the fact that He will treat you the way you think about Him: either as kind or cruel. It is therefore advisable that in your difficult times, you turn to God in silent tears, with humble prayer and appeal (‘dua’) with “fear and hope” (32:16). While doing so, you should have the following theme in mind: Oh God, We have oppressed our souls beyond limit. If you do not forgive us, our sufferings as a consequence of our sinning will be devastating for us. As we know, “you are our only God for worship and we ask (for our forgiveness and blessings) only from you” (1:5).
9. Greater Emphasis on Afterlife: Differently from those who “love this world more than the Afterlife”, the believers vision this world as transitory and put in more efforts for success in the Afterlife (16:107). You need to realize that even if you are given “few (more) years” to enjoy, finally your earthly life must come to an end (26:205/206). Therefore, you should frequently remember death as a sure reality and remain in a state of ever-readiness for that. You will not lend yourself to “mutual competition for piling up” the temporal things of this world that might “divert (your) attention” from more important things of the Afterworld (102:1). Any deprivations in this life should not result in your heart-breaking despair, as you will alternatively find comfort in the prospect of being compensated by salvation in the Afterlife, through “nearness to God” (3:14).
10. Total Acceptance of Islam: As an ideal believer, you should “enter Islam whole-heartedly” and “submit your whole self to God” (2:208; 31:22). This requires you (as a key to divine blessings) to practice the whole package of Islamic ‘sharia’ rules without skipping any important ones. You are not supposed to “believe (and practice) only a part of the Book (Quran)” while “rejecting the rest” (2:85). You will, therefore, follow the pure brand Islam, without replacing any of its parts with non-Islamic ideology like communism, socialism, capitalism etc. to suit your interest.
Conclusion: It appears from above that it takes a lot to become an ideal believer and the benefits from being such a believer can be more than matching.