Part 1(c): The 3 Levels of the Deen- Heart Therapy

Read the Table of Contents of Heart Therapy

Read the previous Part 1(a): The Components of Man
Read the previous Part 1(b): The Components of the Religion

ISLAM: Islam is linked with the outer actions and is for the benefit of the body (badan).
E.g. The five pillars of ISLAM: Shahadah, Prayer, Zakah, Fasting and Hajj. These forms of worship are done by our body (badan).

IMAN: Iman is linked with the inward belied system and is for the benefit of the intellect.
E.g. Belief in Allah, Belief in Prophets, Belief in Angels, Belief in the Book, Belief in the Divine Decree and Belied in the Last day. Allah has blessed us with the intellect (‘Aql) and that is why we have Iman.

Iman increases with the Obedience to Allah and decreases with the Disobedience to Allah.

IHSAN: Ihsan is linked with purification and perfection and is for the benefit of the soul (Ruh).

Ihsan means to worship Allah as though you are seeing Him, and while you see Him not yet truly He sees you. If we have this firm thought all the time, then we will do our level best to perfect our acts of Worship. When we perform our acts of worship with Ihsan, the acts will help us purify our soul (Ruh).

You find some people only taking care of their intellects and delving deeply into the Islamic creed and belief system- and this is a good thing- but they ignore the aspect of the souls. Likewise, others delve deeply into purifying tier souls but ignore the Islamic belief system. Further others perform acts of worship with their bodies while their hearts are devoid of any concentration or humility towards Allah: they have left out the aspect of purifying their souls.

We need to concentrate on all the 3 components of man and religion. If any of the components is deficient, then we do not complete our religion.

This series is primarily concerned with the first and perhaps, most important component of man: the ruh or soul. Hence, we will be concerned with purifying the soul with what the Prophet called Ihsan, perfection.

Read the Part 2 : Ihsan