these three elements: “One day when we were with the Prophet of God,
there came to him a man whose clothes were of an exceeding whiteness,
and his hair was of an exceeding blackness, nor were there any signs of
travel upon him. Although none of us had seen him before, he sat down
opposite the Prophet. He asked the Prophet to tell him what is meant by
surrender to God (
Islam
). The Prophet answered: ‘The surrender is that
you should say prayers five times, fast during Ramadan, pay zakat and, if
you can, go on the pilgrimage to the Sacred house (the Kabah).’ He said:
‘You have spoken truly.’ We were amazed that, having questioned the
Prophet, he should corroborate what he said.
“Then he said: ‘Tell me what faith (
iman)
is.’Then the Prophet said: ‘It is
that you should believe in God, in angels and the books, the prophets and
the Last Day, and you should believe that no good or evil comes but by His
providence.’ ‘You have spoken truly,’ he said. Then he said, ‘Tell me what
excellence,
ihsan,
is.’ The Prophet answered, ‘It is that you should worship
God as if you saw Him, or if you do not see Him, truly, He sees you.’Then
the stranger went away. Umar Farooq, the Prophet’s companion, says that
he stayed there long after that person had gone, until the Prophet said to
him, ‘O Umar, do you know who the questioner was?’ He said, ‘God and
His Prophet know best, but I do not know at all.’ ‘It was Gabriel,’ said the
Prophet. ‘He came to teach you your religion.”
The Sufis lay most emphasis on
ihsan.
Put most simply,
ihsan
can be
described as that level of devotion at which the devotee is completely absorbed
in the worship of God.The Sufis strongly believe that there are many levels
of excellence in the actual practice of
ihsan,
and the objective of the Sufi
practice is to raise this level of excellence. That is why they define true
ihsan
as the attainment of that level of devotion at which one begins to
experience the presence of God.
