What is Ihsan?

That you worship Allah as if you see Him, for if you don’t see Him then truly He sees you

An ta’budAllaha ka’anaka tarahu, fa’in lam takun tarah fa’inahu yaraka

What is Ihsan?” Allah’s Apostle (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) replied, “To worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that He is seeing you.”

The lexical meaning of ‘Ihsan’ is help, aid, support etc. But, to understand the Qur’an and Hadith, we have to see what the Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) has used to define the same.
In the case of Ihsan our Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) has said, “It is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you cannot achieve this state then you must remember that He is seeing you”.

So, we can say that Ihsan consists of two parts —

1. to worship Allah as if we see Him
2. to worship with the thought that He is seeing us

Ihsan is the highest state of Islam. It implies the deep attachment, profound love, genuine faithfulness and sacrifice which make a Muslim identify himself completely with Islam.

It is impossible to find a word in the English language which can express, to any fair degree, the real meaning and import of ihsan. It means to do a thing well, in the best possible manner; to achiever excellence; to aim at beauty and prefection; and most importantly, to do it as an inner compulsion and urge, and not as a consequence of external prodding and urging. In brief, ihsan is a labour of love, not merely a duty. This can result only from an inner sense of presence before Allah and love for Him.

The essence of Taqwah is fear of God which may enable a person to escape God’s anger. The essence of Ihsan is love of God, which motivates man to try to win God’s pleasure.
The difference between the two may be illustrated by the following example:

Among the employees of a government may be some who scrupulously discharge the functions entrusted to them, doing nothing to which one can take exception, but who are not otherwise committed. Others, however, may be loyal, devoted and totally committed to the Government. They do not just carry out the duties that have been assigned to them but are always zealously concerned to promote the interests of the Government. They exert themselves beyond the call of duty, being perpared to sacrifice their lives, property and children in defence of their country. Any violation of the law hurts them personally, any sign of rebellion is enough to arouse them. Far from deliberately harming the Government they will spare no effort to support it. More than anything, they want to see their own Government paramount in the world and their flag high in all corners of the earth.

The first kind of people are Muttaqin of the Government and the other its Muhsiniin.
Though the Muttaqin are regarded as good servants, exceptional honour and reward are reserved for Muhsiniin. though Muttaqin are valued and trustworthy people, Muhsiniin make up the real strength of Islam. The task that Islam has to accomplish can only be carried out by this group.

It is therefore impossible to count these people as Muhsinin who stand passively by and see the religion of God dominated by the forces of Kufr, the sanctions of Allah (hudud) completely ignored and the Divine laws being at best neglected and at worst overturned: the reign of tyranny and oppression unleashed on God’s earth by God’s rebels. Or who see that the ascendancy of disbelief is not only promoting moral and social ills in human society, but is also causing the Muslim community itself to turn from the path of righteousness, and do nothing.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/