Allah says in the Qur’an,

“This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My
favour unto you and chose for you Islam as your religion.” (5 :4 )

Islam is perfect because it is the eternal and universal religion restored to the Divine Truth. So every believer who professes Islam, professes the Truth. But to truly profess the Truth means to know this Truth and to be able to formulate it. This Truth has an inner and an outer form and it is the duty of every believer to learn about both of them. The outer form of the religion being Islam, or one could say the Shariah (exoteric Law) and the inside is al-Ihsan, or one could say the Haqiqah, (esoteric realities) which conforms to the Hadith: Inna Li Kulli Shay in Thahiran wa Batinan’; “Everything has an inner and outer meaning.”

Hadith Gibraeel

According to the famous Gibraeel Hadith, recorded in Sahih al Bukhari, ‘The religion of Islam has three levels, Islam, Iman, Ihsan which makes up the sum total of the Din. Islam is an expression of the outer and exterior acts of worshipping which is compared to the Shariah, Iman, which is higher than Islam has to do with the Divine Love. In fact Iman could also be defined as Islam (Shariah) plus love. And this is taken from the Hadith of the Prophet (SAW) ‘There is no Iman for the one who has no love”. However, Iman cannot be acquired without having first attained to Islam. Ihsan is the highest level of the religion; it is the fruit of Islam and Iman. It is the perfection and completion of the religion. It is the state of witnessing the Divine Presence known as Al-Mushahada and in the words of the Prophet (SAW) when asked about al Ihsan he said, “An ta’buda Allah Ka annaka tarahu”, “to worship Allah as if you see Him”.

Allah will love us

In order to accomplish the true Sunnah of the Prophet it would be necessary to follow him in all three levels of Islam, Iman and Ihsan and this can be attested to in the verse, ‘Say if you love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you,’ (3: 31) but follow me in what? Follow me in Islam, Iman and Ihsan and the result is ‘YuhbibkumuAllah’ and Allah will love you. What happens at this stage when Allah loves the servant? Everything changes.  Allah says in the Hadith Qudsi: ‘And when I love My servant I become his hearing with which he hears, his eyes with which he sees, his hands with which he touches and his feet with which he walks’ and this is the highest maqam (station) of worship. To illustrate the three levels in its completion one could compare Islam to the body, Iman to the heart and Ihsan to the soul. Allah says in the Qur’an ‘O you who believe enter into Islam completely”, (2:202) meaning one must not stop at the level of Islam, one must progress to the level of Iman and Ihsan and this in turn is also an expression of the complete (’ittiba) following of the prophet (SAW). This is the true Sunnah which is to follow him in his words (Qawlan), his acts (Fi’lan) and his states (Halan).

Ihsan… a deeper understanding

The Prophet (SAW) says “Shariah is my speech, Tariqah is my acts and Haqiqah is my State”. In reality everything is contained in the Shariah. The Shaykh Ahmad Mustapha al-Alaoui (RA) gives a very profound analogy of this when he says: ‘Haqiqah, in reality, is the Essence of Shariah except that the Haqiqah is hidden in the Shariah, like the butter that is hidden in the milk, only with the churning of the milk will the butter appear.

In the same way that Haqiqah would only appear with the force of love, (Mahabba). When Nabi ‘Esa (AS) spoke of the great secret of love he said: ‘Allahu Mahabba’ Allah is Love. The Prophet (SAW) simplified this very deep expression in a way that was easier to understand when he said,

“Man Ahabba Liqa Allah Ahabba Allahu Liqa ahu"

 ‘The one who loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him’.

(The prophet did not say, “Man arada” … the one who wishes or desires to meet
Him.)

Shariah on the one hand has to do with the deeds and rewards of the Hasanat. At this level the slave is still attached to the deeds. At the level of Iman on the other hand the heart becomes more attached to Allah (the Beloved) because of love. Even if he does the deed on the outside, he is not attached to it, because of his pre-occupation with the One for whom the deed is done and that is Allah Most High. At this level he wishes for a spiritual reward only, because his aim is Allah and only Allah. At this level the slave has a greater Adab with Allah because he sees everything as coming from Allah, even his deeds. He sees the real doer of his deed as being Allah and not himself. Allah says:

"Wallahu Khalaqakum Wama Ta’malun"
‘Allah created you and your deeds’. (37:96)

At this stage this verse now becomes for him a reality and it is with this state of Iman that the slave is able to reach al Ihsan.

When the slave reaches the reality of al-Ihsan, he cannot pay attention to anything but Allah. He does not pay attention to his good deeds; he is annihilated in the love of the Beloved. He is in a state of fana (annihilation): he sees only Allah. This is when Allah covers him with His Divine Qualities, like in the Hadith Qudsi: ‘when I love My servant I become his eyes with which he sees…’. There is not much that the intellect can take from this Hadith; it is only with love that one can truly taste the reality of this Hadith and this is what the Sufis refer to as Ma’rifatu Allah (the Knowledge of Allah).

Shaykh Mahdi is a graduate in Islamic Studies from Medina University. He also holds a Masters
degree in Arabic from the University of Western Cape. At present he is a lecturer in Tafsir and
Ahlaq at the International Peace University of South Africa, Cape Town. Shaykh Mahdi is associated
with the tariqa ‘Alawiyya based in North Africa and which derives its spiritual guidance
from Shaykh Ahmad Mustapha Al ‘Alawi Al Mustaghanim.