What is belief? What does man obtain by believing in Allah?

Dear Brother / Sister,

b- Belief in Allah

Belief means to believe, to accept, approve and understand the truth. It means to accept Islam and act accordingly. Belief means to accept all of the realities about the religion and to act accordingly.

Belief is a light obtained from approving the religious obligations conveyed by the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) in detail and the principles other than obligations in brief.  

Belief means sincerely believing that the things that are known to have been ordered by Allah and informed by the Prophet (pbuh) are true.

The young people who want to see a miracle

A group of young people said to an academician during a conversation:

-“Let Allah show a miracle and we will believe in Him.” The academician said that all the beings in the universe were miracles. He stated that everything that man was too weak to do was a miracle:

- Is man not a miracle? In fact, every organ of man including a strand of hair is a miracle. Is a tree, every leaf of it, blossoms, and the stone in the fruit a miracle? They said,

- “We had a lot of questions about it. However, in the face of this answer, we have given up asking questions. We will listen to you now.”

There are six pillars (principles) of belief:

• Belief in Allah,
• Belief in His angels,
• Belief in His books,
• Belief in His prophets,
• Belief in the Day of Judgment and resurrection after death,
• Belief in qadar (predestination) and that both the good and the bad come from Allah.

Those six principles of belief are a whole. A person has to believe in all those six principles without doubt in order to be a believer. If he does not accept or doubts even only one of them, he will not be a believer. Just as sunlight consists of a combination of seven colors so too does belief consist of believing in all of those six principles.

According to Sa’dTaftazani’s tafsir, "Belief is the light that God Almighty throws into the heart of a person that He wishes after that person’s use of his free will."

Thus, belief is related to man’s partial free will. Man needs to want and do what is necessary. Then, Allah will grant him belief.

Belief is divided into two as imitative belief and investigative belief.

It is very important to make one’s belief investigative belief

“Now, the most important thing to do is to strengthen belief by turning belief into investigative belief and to save belief. It has become a strict necessity and even an obligation to be engaged in the principles of belief more than anything else…

Yes, to what extent can it be useful a try to repair and decorate a building whose foundations have been worn out in order to prevent it from collapsing? Will it be of any use to try to take precautions by applying pesticides on the branches and leaves of a tree whose roots have been rotten in order to prevent it from drying?

Man is a building like a palace. His foundations are the principles of belief. Man is a tree; his roots are the pillars of belief. One of the most important principles of belief is belief in Allah. Then comes belief in prophethood and resurrection. The science (knowledge) that a person tries to obtain in the first place to obtain it is the science of belief. The essence of sciences and the sultan of sciences is the science of belief.

Belief does not consist of a concise approval. Belief has several levels. An imitative belief, especially in this age, will quickly fade in the face of the storms of heresy. Investigative belief is an unshakable and inextinguishable force. Even if the belief of a person who has attained investigative belief is exposed to horrifying hurricanes of irreligion, those hurricanes are doomed to remain ineffective in the face of the strength of that belief. Even the most irreligious philosophers cannot cause delusions and doubts in a person  who has attained investigative belief”.¹

Man’s Need to Believe in the Existence of Allah

Man has many inherent emotions and feelings. Unless these feelings are taken into consideration, it is impossible for man to find the true bliss and peace in the world. It is possible to classify these feelings and thoughts under three headings:

Firstly, man has numerous hidden and open needs. He desires an apple as well as a garden, a spring, and the eternal Paradise. His heart and stomach need function; he also needs eyes that see, ears that hear and a mind that thinks. He needs air, water, the ground, the sun, and, in short, the whole universe and its administration for the continuation of his life.

Secondly, man has numerous material and spiritual enemies. Everything that can destroy his life, from an invisible, life-threatening microbe to a comet threatening to crash into the world, is his enemy. Man is a being with gentle and sensitive feelings. He is disturbed by a glance and a slight criticism; he has a spirit that is affected from the suffering of those who are harmed by fire, flood and earthquake.

Thirdly, what distresses man all the time is the worry of separation from his beloved ones and friends through death.

Man is always faced with the eternal separation of his beloved ones. His heart breaks down all the time from the pain of their separation. In order to overcome this desperation, a person who does not believe in Allah and the hereafter will seek entertainment to make him forget them; thus, he will not feel the pain of separation in appearance for a certain time like the severely ill people who are injected morphine. This is nothing but man’s deceiving himself.

Let us consider the pain caused by compassion and affection, which are among hundreds of feelings in man, due to unbelief. For example, even only the thought of how a mother will feel in her heart and conscience due to the loss of her only beautiful child horrifies man. What, other than the light of belief, can comfort her, and tell her that she will be with her child in eternal Paradise?

That is why man is struggling in despair because he does not have the strength and power to meet all these needs. Such a person needs someone who has infinite power, will and knowledge, who will meet all his needs, who possesses endless treasures, who has endless power to secure him from all enemies, who will stop all the separations that hurt him, and who can remove death and give eternal life.

All this can be achieved through belief in Allah and the hereafter.

Death is a Certificate of Discharge

Everyone is proud of the honor and authority of his master. If man attaches himself to Allah, who has infinite power, knowledge, will, wealth, mercy and compassion, with belief, and enters His service with worshipping, and if his death, which appears to be his end is converted into a certificate of discharge and if all of his wishes are fulfilled, he will be so  happy, glad, and grateful. What frightens man the most is death. On the other hand, belief makes death loveable by removing it from nothingness because death is a certificate of discharge and a change of place for a believer. It is the beginning of an eternal life and its entrance door. It is a flight from the troubles of the world to the gardens of Paradise. It is a turn to enter into the presence of Allah in order to receive the wages of the good deeds that he has earned in the world. It is an invitation to go to Paradise, which is a place of bliss. It is a reunion with all his beloved friends.

Man’s heart is freed from all of the endless fears, his soul is freed from all sorrows and pains and he gains eternal joy and relief by believing in Allah.

In conclusion, man’s heart is freed from all of the endless fears, his soul is freed from all sorrows and pains and he gains eternal joy and relief by believing in Allah. Such a spiritual strength occurs in his heart that he can withstand every misfortune and every event with that strength. No matter how bad and troubled his world is, he sees his world as the waiting hall of Paradise; therefore, he tolerates all kinds of distress and thanks Allah in patience. Thus, both his world and the hereafter can be turned into Paradise.

If he has no belief, these worries will always give his heart and spirit pain and suffering. Even if his world seems to be like Paradise, the worries about death and eternal separation tear his heart and conscience out. They make him suffer a spiritual Hell penalty.

Is there anything other than belief that can give man this consolation? One of the reasons for the increasing suicide rates and widespread use of drugs and in technically and materially developed societies is the lack of connection to God with belief. The feeling of loneliness and deprivation caused by not being able to recognize Him disturbs people and makes them lose sleep over it.  

A memory

Rauf, the dentist, narrates:

“During the period of communism, when irreligion and unbelief were dominant in Azerbaijan, we were given lessons of denying God. Because of this education, we did not believe in Allah and the hereafter. However, the worry that our lives would end with death and that we would disappear distressed us very much. We found some remedies for ourselves. One of them was sleeping one night and staying awake one night. We thought we extended our lives by doing so. This solution originated from despair. However, we always had the feeling that there would be a real solution to this. With this feeling, we went to the Western countries such as the Netherlands, England, Germany and France after the fall of communism. We read the books of famous philosophers regarding the issue. However, we could not find the answer there either. None of them gave us a satisfactory answer about death and the hereafter.

In the early 1990s, we met a guest who had come from Turkey. I asked them if there was eternal life. They read us and explained the issue of resurrection after death and resurrection from a book called HaşirRisalesi (Resurrection Booklet). I was satisfied with what was read and explained. Then, I introduced a friend of mine (an academician) to them.They read some passages about the existence of Paradise and Hell.

When I returned home after the talk, I received a telephone call from my friend. He said,

‘Rauf! Rauf! Since there is an eternal life, I have been saved from the worry of disappearing, even if it is Hell. I will be able to sleep peacefully tonight.’”

It is the light of belief that illuminates and comforts the human conscience. Belief comforts man’s spirit by illuminating his past and future. An unbelieving man imagines the past in a way that resembles a terrible, dark graveyard. He sees the future in the form of a large, dark, horrific grave that will decay him and everything and that will make snakes and scorpions eat his body. This state, which squeezes man between two graves, causes him to live a terrible life of Hell in his spirit and conscience hopelessly.

Man’s horizon expands from the creation of the world and the sending of Hz. Adam to the world, to the Day of Judgment, to Heaven and Hell. By informing man of eternal bliss, belief develops and perpetuates the abilities and desires that are like seeds in the conscience of man.

It is the light of belief that illuminates and comforts the human conscience. Belief comforts man’s spirit by illuminating his past and future.

In conclusion, man is responsible for taking what is good and nice and leaving what is evil, the ugly and bad with his will. That is the purpose of the will being given to man. That is, man has been given will so that he will obey Allah’s commands and avoid His prohibitions.

1.Nursi, B.S. Sözler. p. 925.

Questions on Islam