Faith: Maarifah of God
Chapter 49 of the Quran addresses the believers thus: “The Arabs of the desert say, ‘We have believed.’ Say to them, ‘You have not believed yet; say rather, “We have submitted,” for faith has not yet entered into your hearts.” (The Quran, 49:14)
And then another verse in chapter 5 of the Quran describes believers thus: “When they listen to what has been sent down to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears, because of the Truth they recognize. They say, ‘Our Lord, we believe, so count us among those who bear witness. Why should we not believe in God and in the truth that has come down to us? We yearn for our Lord to admit us among the righteous.’ And for their words God will reward them with Gardens through which rivers flow, wherein they shall abide forever. That is the reward of those who do good.” (The Quran, 5:83-85)
By studying both these verses, we learn what constitutes faith. Those fortunate souls who are recognized and accepted in the Hereafter by God will be ushered into Paradise, where they will live in a world of unending happiness and comforts.
The first thing that God desires is that faith should enter in one’s heart (The Quran, 49:14). Just mouthing some words is not an act which will earn God’s acceptance or which will establish the utterer of those words as a believer. Words which fall from the tongue are, in fact, only a verbal expression of the acceptance of faith.
To God, the truly desirable faith is that which so penetrates to the innermost recesses of one’s heart, that it becomes the most important part of one’s consciousness. It is from this that a person’s spirituality begins to build.
From another verse, we learn that faith is another name for the realization of truth. That is, when man is truly able to realize faith and his Creator and is deeply aware of the fact that he is a helpless, powerless servant of God. When he reserves all greatness and all perfection for God, belief has so become a part and parcel of his personality that he surrenders himself before God. It is this deep experience of faith which is called maarifah or realization. Maarifah is the beginning of faith. Unless faith becomes a deep realization, it has no value in the eyes of God.
One sign of this realized faith is that when man experiences it, then his eyes overflow with tears. This experience produces tremors in his inner being. There is a great spiritual turmoil within him and his tears testify to this inner revolution. Any so-called realization of truth which is not testified to by his tears has no value in the eyes of God.
Such faith is no simple matter. In its reality, it is a universal acceptance of the truth. It is as it were to witness the divine reality before actually seeing it. It is to accept it voluntarily before the time comes when one shall have to accept it as a matter of compulsion. It is to bear witness to the All-Powerful God, testified to by the angels at every moment at the universal level.
Faith is, in fact, acceptance of the Hereafter as well as this world. It is to become more desirous of the blessings of the Hereafter than the blessings of this world. Those who proved to be desirous of this with all their hearts, minds and souls are the ones who will enter the eternal gardens of Paradise where they will reside without ever wanting to leave it. (The Quran, 18:108)
