| What is a religion? |
| The combination of beliefs and actions (deeds) is called religion. Beliefs are related to the human heart and deeds are related to the body. |
| What is faith? |
| Collection of beliefs ie. Love toward The Lord (God), the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa-Sallam) and his family i.e. Ahl-e-Bait is called faith. |
| What is Islam? |
| Islam is the collection of beliefs (as described in question above) and the collection of deeds, i.e., |
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| What is Ehsan? |
| Ehsan is the name of worshiping truthfully (with a pure heart), with good intentions and with the belief of being before the Lord. |
| So there are three basic principles of Islam, Faith, Karma (deeds) and Truth? |
| Yes, that's correct! The name of the collection of beliefs - deeds - and truth is Islam and the followers of this religion are called Muslims. |
| There is the word Momin in the Quran, and also the word Muslim. What is the difference between a Momin and a Muslim? |
| One who accepts the oneness of the Lord and the message of the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa-Sallam) only with his tongue without believing, is a Muslim and one who believes in him with all his heart is a believer (Momin). In short, those who firmly believe that the God is present in every human being, are called Momins. |
| What is Sharia? |
| Sharia is a law for the social life of Muslims. It applies to all beliefs and practices of Muslims, such as worship, prayers and all matters of life, such as marriage, business, commerce, death, etc. |
| What is Tariqat (Sufism)? |
| Tariqat (Sufism) is the method to remove inner sins like jealousy, anger, slander, hatred etc. and to get closer to God. The concept of Sufism has been explained in detail on the Sufism page. Please click here to visit Sufism page. |
| What is faith (Aqidah)? |
| Things which we have not seen with our own eyes but believe that they do exist. Such a belief is called Aqidah (faith). like heaven and hell |
| What is Devotion? |
| Devotion is the warm-heartedness towards a guru. |
| What does a 'Peer' or 'Murshid' (Guru) means? |
| “Peer” is a Persian word which means "big or elder". Here ‘elder’ means great scholar or knowledgeable person. And “Murshid” is an Arabic word, which means instructor/teacher (master) |
| What is a disciple (Murid)? |
| If a person takes an oath of allegiance to a guru and intends to obey that guru truthfully, then that person is called a disciple (murid) of that guru. |
| What is Bayyat – (Allegiance)? |
| The agreement/pact between Guru and Murid (disciple) is called Bayyat. In allegiance, the disciple makes a vow to his guru to have reverence for the Lord and the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), to follow good deeds, and to abstain from sins (big or small). And the Guru agrees to guide the disciple in worldly and after life. |
| There are those who say that the Holy book of the God (Holy Qur'an) and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) are enough to get closer to God i.e. Heaven (Jannat). Complete instructions can be obtained from the Qur'an and methodologies from the Sunnah. So tradition of allegiance or Guru-disciple (Piri-Muridi) is not required in Islam. Is that correct? |
| As we all know that the purpose of human birth in this world is to get closer to God through good deeds. In common parlance, we call it Heaven (Jannat). But in order to get closer to the almighty God i.e. Paradise, first of all it is necessary that good deeds should be done with full faith in the God and that too with complete honesty. Apart from this, another problem is that Nafs (Ego/Psyche) is attached to every human being. Until human heart is not purified from nafs i.e. anger, pride, greed, jealousy, lust, backbiting, stinginess, malice, etc., human will never be sure of the existence of GOD in his heart. On this point, the Quran says. |
| قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ تَزَكَّى |
| Qad Aflah man Ta-zakka |
| (surah Al-ala: Para-30; Ayat 14) |
| Meaning: One who cleans(meaning heart) reaches to the goal |
| Reference to cleanliness here, does not mean cleaning of the body (everyone does that) but cleaning of the heart. But divine-light (Noor) is needed to clean the heart or to remove the filth of the soul. Divine-light removes the evils of the soul and purifies the heart. That's why Guru's grace is a must. The heart is purified by the divine-light of the Guru. Then the Guru gives Noor-e-Mustafa (divine-light) from his heart to the disciple’s. Then the disciple sees the glow of the God in his heart. That’s when the disciple gets the complete assurance in the existence of the Almighty GOD. Because of this grace of the Guru, the disciple falls in love with the Guru. And then the disciple – with complete sincerity – take every action to please the Guru. That's why tradition of allegiance (piri-muridi) is important not just in Islam but in all the religions. |
