Ihsan : The way to perfection

 

 

“Ihsan (perfection) is to worship Allah as if you see Him; if you can not see Him, surely He sees you.” Hadith

 While one day the Prophet (p) was sitting amidst his companions, a man came (who was actually angel Gabriel) and asked him several questions. One of these questions was

"what is ihsan?".

The Prophet's answer was:

"Ihsan is you worship ALLAH as if you see Him and if you cannot achieve that state then worship Him as if He sees you."
 


Some scholars haven even taken a deeper look at the meaning of Ihsan, beyond just a temporal state, into an achievement where a believer's conscience is always in zikr (remembrance) of ALLAH so much so that it becomes almost part of his subconscious.

If we ask: what kind of a salat will one make if he is making it, say, right in front of ALLAH? Obviously, he will be in full conscience and remembrance of ALLAH and he will spend his full effort in making a best salat that will be pleasing to ALLAH, as opposed to just getting done a required ritual and then moving on with his business.

That is the temporal state of Ihsan in which he makes that best salat (like you did in your experience). Now, if one extends that to his full sphere of life, that is the permanent state of ihsan that a believer can achieve.

In that state, he or she does all that ALLAH enjoins and stays away from all that He prohibits not because he just wants to follow the law but because he likes and enjoys it. Thus, it becomes, as if, part of his nature. Everything good emanates from him, and we can call such a person a "ALLAHly" person in Western terms, or a true Khalifa (vicegerent) of ALLAH in Islamic terms.

Based on this, one can imagine the state of a believer in a triangle like this:

 

I H S A N

I S L A M

I M A N

 

The base or foundation of this triangle is Iman, loosely translated as 'faith'. If faith is there,

then the believer submits himself (or herself) to ALLAH, which requires him to perform the pillars of Islam and abide by the commandments of ALLAH. He does these as a matter of following the laws which he is required to abide by. Then, if he continues to climb the ladder, he reaches the state of Ihsan where following ALLAH's commandments and doing good becomes part of his nature. He likes what ALLAH likes and he dislikes what ALLAH dislikes.

Such a state is not an angelic state where one never commits a sin. It is instead a humane and quite achievable state where he is overwhelmingly in the state of Ihsan and committing a minor sin is more of a mistake or fall then a normal behavior.

This is just one of the explanations of ihsan, or perhaps how I understood it to be. Ultimately, Allah (swt) and His Prophet (p) know best what ihsan is and what its practical implications are.