In this article, my topic of discussion is the use of the word 'faith' to describe Imaan. Personally, I don't approve of it.
When someone says, ''I have faith in you,'' does that mean they have unquestioning, absolute conviction that you will succeed? No, it indicates trust, but not absolute knowledge that you will succeed.
''Faith'' is a word that accurately describes the belief of other religions. Christians have ''faith'' in their religion, blindly hoping it is true, and they have ''faith'' in God, blindly hoping that He would not leave them misguided. Buddhists have ''faith'' in their religion, blindly hoping that it is true, and they have blind ''faith'' that they have properly and thoroughly understood the nature of the energies of the universe. The same goes for all other religions, whether Jews, Hindus, or any other.
Muslims, on the other hand, do not have faith. We do not hope that our religion is true. We do not hope that God has guided us. Instead, we have absolute certainty that Islam is true, and we have absolute certainty that Allah has guided us. We have Yaqeen (Absolute certainty based on proof) that Allah (swt) exist and we have Yaqeen that the Quran is from Allah (swt). We do not leave our Akhirah up to chance by hoping that the ''feeling'' we have inside about our religion is somehow better than the ''feeling'' other people of other religions have inside about their religion.
We have Imaan, which is defined as:
''Absolute certainty that matches reality and is based on proof.''
So, when trying to translate the word, ''Imaan,'' do not use the word ''Faith.''
Our Iman is not equal to the ''faith'' of others, rather it is a more narrow and simple yet strongly rooted belief that an eternal, divine being exists who has full control of what is ahead of us and what is behind us.
Say: "Whether you conceal what is in your hearts [21] or bring it into the open, God knows it: for He knows all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and God has the power to will anything." - 3:29 (Asad)
