Originally Posted by
marwen
:sl:
Jazakom Allah khyran all of you brothers and sisters. I think the above posts are perfectly describing what is belief and how it's not a matter of direct proof or evidence.
In the same idea, I want to add some input about a subtle concept, which is :
the importance of the heart in the process of eemaan.
Something that non-believers don't know, and many muslims tend to forget when trying to call non-believers to the truth.
May Allah give us all the purity of the heart and husn al khateema. Aameen !
:bism:
I'll start from these 2 verses, which I think, summarize all the story of Imaan (faith) :
Surat Alshuaraa': verses 88-89:
"The day when wealth and sons avail not (any man) (88)Save him who bringeth unto Allah a whole heart."
يَوۡمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ۬ وَلَا بَنُونَ ٨٨ إِلَّا مَنۡ أَتَى ٱللَّهَ بِقَلۡبٍ۬ سَلِيمٍ۬ ٨٩
One of the conditions of the test on this earth is that Allah will not give us a strong explicit evidence of His existence. If we can see Allah with our eyes, or hear Him with our ears, then all the men on earth will believe automatically in His existence, like they believe in the existence of the sun, or in the existence of thunder. And thus, the hell and the jannah, the punishment and the reward will be irrelevant. People will never do sins, and the test in this dunya will be useless.
So for brothers and sisters who want to do dawah and try to find answers for the unbelievers, and who want to find explicit proofs or evidences about the existence of Allah, they should know that there is no segmental and final response that will work for all, and that will make all the people believers.
There is always people who will find their way easily, with the help of Allah. And also those who will stray from the right path.
Allah only gave us signs of his existence. And He gave us a mind and a heart. And we can easily get to Allah through our mind, by following the signs and the basic 'fitra' (innate common sense). That combination (mind or intelligence or fitra + the signs) theoretically can simply lead all the humans to believe in Allah. But why unbelievers still exist ? => Because there is another little thing that make the process of belief a little bit more complex and difficult : the heart. Your heart may cast you away from the way of Allah !
The process of belief, as simple as it is, is also a little bit delicate; Because it depends on two factors : the mind and the heart.
The mind is so simple and correct (though limited), you are not able to force it to be incorrect, or to change the way your mind works : "1+1=2"; "cause preceeds effect"; "I think, therefore I am"; etc. You can lie on others, but you cannot lie on yourself, because your mind will not let it pass, as simple as that.
But there is the heart. The other part of the game. The heart is not as rigourous as the mind, in fact it has no reason.
And the problem is that, the heart can influence on your mind, and can make you a believer or non-believer. How ?
Let's go back to the 2 verses in the beginning :
"The day when wealth and sons avail not (any man) (88)Save him who bringeth unto Allah a whole heart. (89)"
يَوۡمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ۬ وَلَا بَنُونَ ٨٨ إِلَّا مَنۡ أَتَى ٱللَّهَ بِقَلۡبٍ۬ سَلِيمٍ۬ ٨٩
==> The day of Judgement. Only the believers will come through. But Allah said that only will win those who come with a whole heart : that means a whole sane heart, a whole clean heart, a heart that is entirely intact and not affected with diseases.
From Arabic : Qalbun Saleem : a heart which is sane, or which is entirely devoted to Allah. This describes also a heart which is totally submitted (musallam) to Allah, the true meaning of Islam !
Diseases of the heart is what makes it so hard for unbelievers to believe,
and cleanness of the heart is what makes it so easy for believers to see Allah in such a clearness, that true believers don't understand how some people cannot see the clear truth.
The heart is what makes difference, between believing and not believing.
To really see the truth, as clear as the sun, one should cleanse his heart first, from diseases and impurities that may affect it, like : arrogance and pride, anger and hatered, earthly desires and interests, etc.
And then one should fill his heart with sincere will to seek truth, with justice and objectivity, with respect for others and for other ideas.
Now after being done with the heart, the way will be clear for our mind, all we have now is to open our mind for all the possibilities and to seek the truth everywhere, to discuss with people who claim that they have the truth, to read books and not to be stubbern if we see the convincing evidences and the clear truth. With that done I don't believe anyone will remain unbeliever.
But be careful, the job of the heart does not finish here. The heart always controls the level of your eeman (faith) : Working on your heart, by purifiying it and by increasing the amount faith in it.
We, Ahlu-s-Sunnah w'al Jama'ah ( who believe in Quran and Sunnah), believe that the level of faith in the heart is not constant. It fluctuates according to the state of the heart : eeman in the heart decreases by doing sins and by catching diseases in the heart, and it increases by doing purification and acts of worship (prayer, dua, fasting, quran, etc.).
Eeman in our heart moves up and down, from level0 = 0 belief = disbelief, to the highest levels of eeman : when you reach these highest levels, you will be hating the material pleasures of this life, and you will enjoy and delight the worship of Allah.
The more eeman increases in your heart the more your belief in Allah increases, that means the more your feeling of the existence of Allah gets stronger, and you feel that Allah is more close to you in all your states of life, and if this feeling of the existence of Allah in your life is so strong, you will be feeling that you live with Allah, and Allah is supporting you in all your matters. You will not feel the existence of other people around you or anything else, there is only Allah in your life and in your conscience, all the rest has no value for you. But few are who reach this level, let alone who stay in it.
Hadeeth : on the variation of the level of imaan through acts of worship (In Ryadhu-s-Saliheen, Imam Nawawi) :
Abu Rib'i Hanzala ibn ar-Rabi' al-Usaydi the scribe, one of the scribes of the Messenger of Allah, said, "Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, met me and said, 'How are you, Hanzala?' I said, 'Hanzala is a hypocrite!' I said, Glory be to Allah! What are you saying!' I said, 'We were with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who reminded us of the Garden and the Fire and it was as if we could see them with our eyes. When we leave the presence of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, we attend to our wives, children and estates in a state of great heedlessness.' Abu Bakr said, 'By Allah, we have experienced the same as this!' So Abu Bakr and I went to visit the Messenger of Allah and I said, 'Hanzala is a hypocrite, Messenger of Allah!' The Messenger of Allahmay Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'Why is that?' I said, 'Messenger of Allah, when we are with you,you remind us of the Garden and Fire and it is as if we could see them with our eyes. When we leave your presence, we attend to our wives, children and estates in a state of great heedlessness.' The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'By the One in whose hand my soul is, if you were to remain in the state you are in when you are in my presence and in the dhikr, the angels would shake hands with you on your bed and in the street, but, Hanzala, different times are not the same.' three times." [Muslim]