The Stages of Religion
Sufis consider religion beyond mere conviction and belief of
doctrine. Religion is related to the experience of absolute truth or
certainty (Arabic: yaqin). However, there are different ways to
approach this certainty. In Arabic, these ways or stages of
religion are called Islam, Iman and Ihsan.
Islam
Islam (stemming from the Arabic root s·l·m for "peace") means
devotion or loyalty to God. The stage of Islam consists of the conviction
which is expressed by the commitment to the belief: There is no God but God
and Muhammad is his messenger. This conviction brings a person to
obey the commandments of the religion and to adhere to
its basic rules (in addition to the avowal of belief): to do the
five prayers daily, to pay tax for the poor, to fast in the month of Ramadan
and to pilgrimage to Mekka. The religious life of persons
in the stage of Islam may have different occurrences depending on
the believer's devotion and committment and
how seriously he/she takes the commandments. Islam may also be explained as the visible or
external road of religion (sharia).
Iman
Iman literally means "belief" and stems from the Arabic root
a·m·n ("reliable, to be secure"). The christian word "amen"
has also its origin in this root. In this stage man seeks to approach the fire,
the knowledge through the eyes of the certainty. He walks on the inner path
(tariqa) in addition to the visible performance of the religious customs.
The tariqa is the path of the heart and of the internal reversal, which
is achieved through purification of the ego, through preferably permanent rememberance of God
and heart-dhikr (invocation of God through the heart).
Ihsan
Ihsan derives from the Arabic root h·s·n ("beautiful, to be good"),
it also translates to "virtue" or "to do good". In the stage of
Ihsan the believer is fulfilled with absolute certainty. Ihsan
is the most secret religious knowledge of which there exist only a very little predication
since it cannot be tought. The practice of Ihsan is the remberance of God
by the beautiful names of Allah on the level of the soul through which the
the human attributes are replaced by devine attributes.
Ihsan is the door to the everlasting ascension to Allah, a journey with no end.