Faith
Belief in God and a corresponding system of religious beliefs
No concept in the Qur’ān is more basic to the understanding of God’s revelation through the prophet Muḥammad than faith. As the core of the truly good or moral life, faith is generally understood to encompass both affirmation and response.
According to the qur’ānic perspective, nothing of virtue (q.v.) is conceivable which does not arise directly from faith in the being and revelations of God (see revelation and inspiration). Such faith as it is articulated in the Qur’ān in its most basic sense means acknowledgment of the reality and oneness of God (see god and his attributes) and of the fact that humans will be held accountable for their lives and deeds on the day of resurrection (q.v.). These two integrally related concepts frame the message of the Qur’ān and thus the religion of Islam itself.
Faith in God is both trust in God’s mercy (q.v.) and fear of the reality of the day of judgment (see last judgment). It also means that it is incumbent on those who acknowledge these realities to respond in some concrete way.
The details of that response, and thus the relationship of faith and action, have been the subject of much debate in the history of Islamic thought.
The nature of faith
The Arabic noun rendered in English as either faith or belief is īmān. It is from the verb amuna, which in its several forms means to be faithful, to be reliable, to be safe and secure from fear. The fourth form of the verb, āmana, carries the meaning both of rendering secure and of putting trust in someone something, the latter understood as having faith.
The one who is faithful, therefore, the mu’min, is he or she who understands and accepts the content of God’s basic revelation and who thereby has entered a state of security and trust in God (see covenant). “The faithful (al-mu’minūn) are the ones whose hearts, when God is mentioned, are filled with awe. And when his revelations (āyāt) are recited to them, their faith is strengthened and they put their trust in their lord” (q 8:2).(1)
The term al-īmān itself, used with the definite article, appears only 16 times in the text of the Qur’ān. Other derivatives of the fourth form of amuna, however, specifically mu’min and mu’minūn (the singular and plural of the faithful) appear frequently in the Qur’ān. “O you who have faith” is a common refrain as God speaks to the members of his community through commandments (q.v.), admonitions, or words of counsel.
1. إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذینَ إِذا ذُکِرَ اللَّهُ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَ إِذا تُلِیَتْ عَلَیْهِمْ آیاتُهُ زادَتْهُمْ إیماناً وَ عَلى رَبِّهِمْ یَتَوَکَّلُون
Quiz
1. بر اساس آنچه در متن بیان شده است، ایمان به خدا شامل یه اجزایی می‌شود؟
الف) اعتماد به لطف الهی
ب) باور به شفاعت
ج) ترس از روز قیامت
د) الف و ج*
2. در جمله زیر، عبارت concrete way به چه معناست؟ It also means that it is incumbent on those who acknowledge these realities to respond in some concrete way)
الف) راه محکم
ب) روش استوار
ج) شیوه عینی*
د) هیچکدام
3. بر اساس متن، ایمان به معنای تصدیق چه امری می‌باشد؟
الف) توحید*
ب) عدالت
ج) باور به وجود ملائکه
د) عمل صالح
4. واژه ایمان چند بار در قرآن استفاده شده است؟
الف) 23
ب) 18
ج) 16*
د) 14
Sometimes faith is expressed specifically as the remembrance (q.v.; dhikr) of God: “Those who have faith are those whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of God” (q 13:28) .(1)
Implicit in the Qur’ānic understanding of God is an unqualified difference between divine and human. The very recognition of God is often expressed by the term tawḥīd, meaning both God’s oneness and human acknowledgment of it through the act of faith. It presupposes that there is no other being in any way similar to God (see polytheism and atheism), that God is utterly unique and that humans must not only testify to that uniqueness but embody their acknowledgment of it through their own lives and actions.
As God alone is lord (q.v.) and creator of the universe (see creation), so the Muslim acknowledges that oneness by living a life of integrity and ethical and moral responsibility, in other words a life in which faith is reflected in all its dimensions (see ethics and the qur’ān). The greatest sin a human being can commit from the Islamic point of view is impugning the oneness of God (shirk, see SIN, MAJOR AND MINOR), i.e. to suggest by word or deed that anything else can in any way share in that divine unity.
The Qur’ān leaves no doubt that faith as a general category of human response did not begin with Muḥammad or those who heard the first messages he preached.
Throughout the ages there were people who understood that there is only one God, and who responded with faith and submission. In the Qur’ān they are usually described not as Mu‛minūn but as ḥanīf (q.v.; pl. ḥunafā‛), monotheists who lived a kind of pristine purity in the knowledge and recognition of God. The first of these to be acknowledged by name, and thus understood as an archetypal person of faith or submission (islām), was Abraham (q.v.).
“Abraham was not a Jew, nor a Christian, but he was an upright man (ḥanīfan), one who submits (musliman), and he was not of those who practice shirk (wa-mā kāna mina l-mushrikīna). The nearest of humankind to Abraham are those who follow him and this Prophet and those who have faith. God is the protector of the faithful”(2)(q 3:67-8). The Qur’ān contains numerous references to Abraham and his offspring as those who were the original muslims, those who acknowledged and surrendered to God. The faith of the ḥanīf served as a precursor of the īmān which was to emerge as the essential characteristic of those who became part of the religion of Islam. It is the faith of Abraham that was signaled in the Qur’ān as that which gave justification to Judaism and Christianity as religions of the book (q.v.; see also people of the book), not the manifestations of those religions in forms which did not acknowledge that they were precursors of the coming of Muḥammad. “They say: Become Jews or Christians, then you will be rightly guided.
Say: No, [rather] the religion of Abraham, the upright (ḥanīfan), and he was not one of those who practiced shirk (wa-mā kāna mina l-mushrikīna)” (q 2:135).(3)
1. الَّذینَ آمَنُوا وَ تَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِکْرِ اللَّهِ أَلا بِذِکْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
2. ما کانَ إِبْراهیمُ یَهُودِیًّا وَ لا نَصْرانِیًّا وَ لکِنْ کانَ حَنیفاً مُسْلِماً وَ ما کانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِکینَ*إِنَّ أَوْلَى النَّاسِ بِإِبْراهیمَ لَلَّذینَ اتَّبَعُوهُ وَ هذَا النَّبِیُّ وَ الَّذینَ آمَنُوا وَ اللَّهُ وَلِیُّ الْمُؤْمِنین
3. وَ قالُوا کُونُوا هُوداً أَوْ نَصارى تَهْتَدُوا قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّةَ إِبْراهیمَ حَنیفاً وَ ما کانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِکین
آزمون
1.در قرآن توحید به چه معنایی استفاده می‌شود.
الف) یکی بودن خداوند
ب) تصدیق انسان به وحدانیت خداوند
ج) هر دو*
د) هیچکدام
2.بزرگترین گناهی که یک فرد می‌تواند انجام دهد چیست؟
الف) دروغ
ب) تهمت
ج) شرک*
د) قتل
3.افرادی که پیش از اسلام به وحدانیت خداوند معتقد بودند، در قرآن چه نامیده می‌شوند؟
الف) مومن
ب) حنیف*
ج ) صالح
د ) مستضعف
4.کلمه faith به چه معنایی به کار می‌رود؟
الف) ایمان
ب) دین
ج) هیچ کدام
*د) هر دو
Faith as gratitude, fear and responsibility
Many verses in the text of the Qur’ān attest that one of the primary ways in which faith is to be understood and expressed is by recognition that the world is the manifest gift of God (see gift-giving), and that its constituent elements are the signs (q.v.; āyāt) by which God makes evident his beneficent favors to humankind (see blessing).
The person who has faith is the one who sees these signs and understands with his intelligence or intellect (q.v.; ‛aql ) their nature as a gift from God. Those who are lacking in faith are the ones who fail to recognize and be grateful for these signs (see belief and unbelief; gratitude and ingratitude).
Faith in its Qur’ānic understanding, then, contains as an important ingredient the element of thankfulness to God for the bounties he has bestowed on humanity and praise (q.v.) of God as the only fitting response: “Only those have faith in our revelations (āyātinā) who, when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration and give praise to their lord, and do not become arrogant” (q 32:15;(1) see arrogance; bowing and prostration).
Appreciation is expressed not only in the heart (q.v.) and by individual praise and prostration, but by active participation in helping support the faithful of the community (see community and society in the qur’ān): “Only those are faithful (mu’minūn) who have faith in God and his messenger (q.v.), then never doubt again (see uncertainty), but strive with their wealth (q.v.) and their lives for the cause of God (see path or way).
Such are the sincere” (q 49:15)(2). In listing some of the names of God, q 59:23 (3) identifies him as both salām (from s-l-m, the root letters of muslim and islām) and mu’min. Rather than suggesting that God is a “believer, or one who possesses faith, as is said of a human person, the term mu’min signifies that God witnesses to his own truthfulness or trustworthiness, that in effect he testifies to his own unicity, and that he is responsible for the signs that make humans mu’minūn.
1. آیه سجده: إِنَّما یُؤْمِنُ بِآیاتِنَا الَّذینَ إِذا ذُکِّرُوا بِها خَرُّوا سُجَّداً وَ سَبَّحُوا بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَ هُمْ لا یَسْتَکْبِرُون
2. إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذینَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَ رَسُولِهِ ثُمَّ لَمْ یَرْتابُوا وَ جاهَدُوا بِأَمْوالِهِمْ وَ أَنْفُسِهِمْ فی سَبیلِ اللَّهِ أُولئِکَ هُمُ الصَّادِقُون
3. هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذی لا إِلهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ الْمَلِکُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَیْمِنُ الْعَزیزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَکَبِّرُ سُبْحانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا یُشْرِکُون
آزمون
1.در قرآن طبیعت به چه منظور مورد بحث قرار میگیرد؟
الف) پرداختن به خواص و ویژگیها موجودات
ب) به عنوان نشانهای از خداوند*
ج) هر دو
د) هیچ کدام
2.واژه attest در متن به چه معناست؟
الف) مخالفت کردن
ب) گواهی دادن*
ج) تردید کردن
د) بی تفاوت بودن
3. بر اساس متن درس سوم، ایمان شامل چه جزئی می‌شود؟
الف) شکرگزاری*
ب) تقوا
ج) تعبد
د) راستگویی
4. با توجه به متن درس سوم، قرآن چه اوصافی را برای خداوند به کار می‌برد؟
الف) قیوم
ب) سلام
ج) مومن
*د) ب و ج
It is important to underscore the importance of fear (q.v.) as a component of faith.
The word generally rendered as piety (q.v.), godliness or devoutness is taqwā, derived from the root letters w-q-y, which, in their fifth and eighth verbal forms, mean to fear, especially God: “O you who believe, says q 59:18,(1) “fear God.” Some have argued that to fear God (ittaqa llāh) is virtually synonymous with āmana, to have faith.
Fear, however, is not a state in which the person of faith is terrorized or left in a pitiable condition bereft of consolation (q.v.).
It is rather an attitude of trembling before the power and the majesty of God and the reality of the events to come at the end of time, including those signaling the coming of the “hour, the resurrection, the judgment and the final consignment (see eschatology).
Fear as an element of faith is balanced in the Qur’ān by the very trust implied in the original definition of īmān, often rendered as tawakkul, with the implication of a kind of unshakable reliance on the fundamental goodness, justice and mercy of God (see justice and injustice): “In God let those who are faithful put their trust” (q 14:11)(2) . Such trust is not always easy to achieve, however, and so the Qur’ān assures the faithful that they must also have patience, especially when up against difficult circumstances (see trust and patience).
“O you who have faith! Seek help with steadfastness (ṣabr, lit. patience) and prayer (q.v.). God is with those who are steadfast (al-ṣābirīn)” (q 2:153)(3) . Faith which is grounded in absolute trust expresses the certainty of conviction, and it is therefore the highest form of knowledge (‛ilm). It is contrasted with other kinds of belief such as ẓann (supposition, opinion, assumption) and khars, which is close to guessing. The highest kind of faith is that generated by revelation. Many of the qualities which the Qur’ān affirms as an integral element of faith were part of the moral code that structured the lives of persons of conscience and honor (q.v.) in pre-Islamic Arabia (see pre-Islamic Arabia and the qur’ān).
The faithful are therefore described as those who are “protecting friends, one of another, as specified in q 9:71.(4) This verse continues by placing on male and female believers (mu’minūn and mu’mināt) the responsibility for carrying out what was to become one of the signal responsibilities for Muslims as developed in the schools of law and theology (see law and the qur’ān; theology and the qur’ān), namely to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Thus doing good and avoiding evil (see good and evil), in the general Qur’ānic understanding, is essential to an understanding and expression of faith.
1. یا أَیُّهَا الَّذینَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَ لْتَنْظُرْ نَفْسٌ ما قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبیرٌ بِما تَعْمَلُون
2. قالَتْ لَهُمْ رُسُلُهُمْ إِنْ نَحْنُ إِلاَّ بَشَرٌ مِثْلُکُمْ وَ لکِنَّ اللَّهَ یَمُنُّ عَلى مَنْ یَشاءُ مِنْ عِبادِهِ وَ ما کانَ لَنا أَنْ نَأْتِیَکُمْ بِسُلْطانٍ إِلاَّ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْیَتَوَکَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُون
3. یا أَیُّهَا الَّذینَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعینُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَ الصَّلاةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرین
4. وَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَ الْمُؤْمِناتُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِیاءُ بَعْضٍ یَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَ یَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْکَرِ وَ یُقیمُونَ الصَّلاةَ وَ یُؤْتُونَ الزَّکاةَ وَ یُطیعُونَ اللَّهَ وَ رَسُولَهُ أُولئِکَ سَیَرْحَمُهُمُ اللَّهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزیزٌ حَکیم
آزمون
1. تقوی در لغت به چه معناست؟
الف) صداقت
ب) ترس*
ج) امانت داری
د) هیچ کدام
2. یکی از عناصر ایمان، ترس است، عنصری که در مقابل این ترس قرار میگیرد چیست؟
الف) توکل*
ب) صداقت
ج) شفاعت
د) بدا
3. این آیه در مورد چه کسانی است؟ God is with those who are steadfast
الف) متقین
ب) شاکرین
ج) صابرین*
د) مجاهدین
4. این آیه در مورد چه افرادی است؟ In God let those who are faithful put their trust
الف) مجاهدین
ب) توکل کنندگان*
ج) حافظین قرآن
د) زنان
And the next verse again spells out clearly the reward for this discernment, namely the promise of God that the faithful men and women will abide in the blessed dwellings of the gardens of paradise (q.v.). In a number of references the Qur’ān affirms that those who have faith are regular and humble in their prayer, help and give asylum to the needy, pay the poor-tax (see almsgiving; poverty and the poor), guard their modesty (q.v.), love truth (q.v.) and honor their pledges (see contracts and alliances), are not weary or fainthearted, fight in the way of God (see jihad), and always trust in the guidance of God regardless of the circumstances.
Qur’ān commentators agree that while a person is still alive in this world there is always the possibility of his or her coming to a position of faith. But when the final hour arrives, and time as we know it comes to an end, then the opportunity to attain faith is gone forever and one must pay the consequences.
Some interpreters insist that to fare well in that final judgment one must not have abdicated his or her faith at any time, that faith must continue unabated from the time at which one acknowledges oneself to be a mu’min to the last hour.
Others allow that God in his mercy will accept the one who comes to the final judgment in a state of faith, regardless of earlier inconsistencies.
Faith and its Qur’ānic opposites
The Qur’ān is replete with the kind of absolute dichotomy represented both by the choices of right and wrong, and by the ultimate consequences of those choices in the consignment to the garden (q.v.) or the fire (q.v.; see also reward and punishment).
Faith becomes the ultimate criterion by which one is aligned either with the positive or the negative, and thus in many verses one sees the sharp contrast drawn between the person of faith and the one who lacks faith, who actively disbelieves, who thereby rejects the message and the promise of God. The quality that is set in opposition to faith is most often rendered as kufr, with its agent the kāfir contrasted with the mu’min. Kufr has two basic meanings in the Qur’ān, either the absence of faith, often rendered as disbelief, or ingratitude for God’s signs (āyāt).
In one way these meanings connote somewhat different aspects of negative response to God, of lack of faith, and in another they are integrally related. Sometimes kufr is said to be the response of those whose intellectual reasoning does not enable them to believe and adopt a position of faith.
Quiz
1. In the following sentence, mercy means? God in his mercy will accept the one who comes to the final judgment in a state of faith, regardless of earlier inconsistencies
a) Forgiveness*
b) Rage
c) Knowledge
d) Will
2.There is a sharp contrast in the verses of Quran based on …
a) Loyalty
b) Faith*
c) Poverty
d) Richness
3.Āyāt in Quran means … ?
a) Warnings
b) Good news
c) Signs*
d) faithfulness
One of the most obvious examples of this kind of kufr is that offered by those who cannot accept the reality of the resurrection and time of judgment: “… they rejected (kafarū) our signs, saying: “When we are bones and fragments, shall we be raised up as a new creation? the wrongdoers reject all save disbelief (kufr)” (q 17:98-9 (1) see death and the dead). The contrast of kufr with īmān is vivid, and serves to illustrate not only that there is a sharp difference between faith and rejection, but that acceptance of the resurrection and judgment is an essential element of faith.
The other dimension of kufr as it is contrasted with īmān relates to ingratitude. It was noted above that gratitude and corresponding attitudes of praise are fundamental to faith: “He gives you all that you ask for. If you count the favors of God you will not be able to number them. Man is truly a wrong-doer, an ingrate (kāfir)” (q 14:34)(2)
As the person of faith allows the promises of God to assume reality, however difficult that may be for reason to accept, and to engender in him or her a grateful response, so the kāfir both rejects truth (q 43:78)(3) and is actively unaccepting of and ungrateful for the bounty of God’s gifts to humankind: “Then remember me, says God, “[and] I will remember you. Give thanks to me, and do not reject [me] (lā takfurni)” (q 2:152). (4)
In this striking negative parallelism, found throughout the Qur’ān between the concepts of faith and rejection ingratitude, appears the definition of the qualities of the one in the negation of the qualities of the other. The original and in some senses prototypical kāfir, according to the Qur’ān, was the angel Iblīs (q.v.) who refused to obey God’s command (see disobedience).
“And when we said unto the angels, ‘Bow down before Adam (see adam and eve), they bowed down, all except Iblīs. He refused and was haughty, and so became a disbeliever -kāna mina l-kāfirīn)” (q 2:34).(5)
Another Qur’ānic term which stands in contrast to īmān is nifāq, generally rendered as hypocrisy (see hypocrites and hypocrisy) or dissimulation (q.v.).
Unlike kufr, however, which is the mirror opposite of faith, nifāq is understood to be the act or condition of making a profession of faith verbally while inwardly not being a believer at all: “Have you not seen those who declare that they have faith in what is revealed to you and to those before you
When it is said to them, ‘Come to what God has revealed and to the messenger, you see the hypocrites (al-munāfiqūn) turn away from you with disgust” (q 4:60-1) .(6)
1. ذلِکَ جَزاؤُهُمْ بِأَنَّهُمْ کَفَرُوا بِآیاتِنا وَ قالُوا أَ إِذا کُنَّا عِظاماً وَ رُفاتاً أَ إِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقاً جَدیداً *أَ وَ لَمْ یَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ الَّذی خَلَقَ السَّماواتِ وَ الْأَرْضَ قادِرٌ عَلى أَنْ یَخْلُقَ مِثْلَهُمْ وَ جَعَلَ لَهُمْ أَجَلاً لا رَیْبَ فیهِ فَأَبَى الظَّالِمُونَ إِلاَّ کُفُوراً
2. وَ آتاکُمْ مِنْ کُلِّ ما سَأَلْتُمُوهُ وَ إِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ لا تُحْصُوها إِنَّ الْإِنْسانَ لَظَلُومٌ کَفَّار
3. لَقَدْ جِئْناکُمْ بِالْحَقِّ وَ لکِنَّ أَکْثَرَکُمْ لِلْحَقِّ کارِهُونَ
4. فَاذْکُرُونی أَذْکُرْکُمْ وَ اشْکُرُوا لی وَ لا تَکْفُرُون
5. وَ إِذْ قُلْنا لِلْمَلائِکَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلاَّ إِبْلیسَ أَبى وَ اسْتَکْبَرَ وَ کانَ مِنَ الْکافِرین
6. وَ إِذْ قُلْنا لِلْمَلائِکَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلاَّ إِبْلیسَ أَبى وَ اسْتَکْبَرَ وَ کانَ مِنَ الْکافِرین
Quiz
1. There are the two important elements for faith, what are those?
a) Resurrection and taqwa
b) Resurrection and fear
c) Judgment and resurrection*
d) Judgment and fear
2. Beside Kufr, there is another Quranic term in contrast to Iman, that is… .
a) Shirk
b) Nifaq*
c) Shukr
d) No one
3. About whom this verse has been revealed? Have you not seen those who declare that they have faith in what is revealed to you and to those before you When it is said to them, ‘Come to what God has revealed and to the messenger, you see the hypocrites turn away from you with disgust
a) Mushrikin
b) Munafiqin*
c) Kuffar
d) No one
4. In the following sentence, truth means … . kāfir rejects truth
a) Reality*
b) lie
c) oppression
d) revelation
Some exegetes of the Qur’ān have posited that hypocrisy is sufficiently different from either faith or rejection that it should be categorized separately. The majority, however, have understood that nifāq is a kind of sub-set of kufr, both standing in essential opposition to īmān. q 57:13-5 (1) draws a dramatic picture of the great divide between the hypocrites and the faithful on the day of resurrection: Hypocrites (male and female, contrasting with the male and female believers of q 57:12)(2) will beg the believers to borrow from their light.
But to the horror of the hypocrites, there will arise between them and the believers a gated wall, with mercy to be found on one side and doom on the other. The munāfiqūn will ask of the faithful, “Were we not with you?” But the answer is that while in one way they were, in another and more important way they led lives marked by temptation, hesitation and doubt, consumed with vain desires until it was too late. Now no ransom is possible (see intercession), and the lot of the hypocrites is the fire.
Faith and works; Islām and īmān
In the Qur’ān, as we have seen, there is a close connection between having faith and doing good deeds (q.v.). The expression “those who believe and do good works” is repeated in many verses, and such people “are the inhabitants of the garden; they will abide there eternally” (q 2:82).(3) The Qur’ān closely links the term for good works (ṣāliḥāt) to īmān. The verb ṣalaḥa in Arabic means to be good, right, proper, pious and godly, and the ṣāli`āt are the good deeds (q.v.) in which the faithful engage.
The joining of faith and works is so integral to the Qur’ān that many have argued that the performance of works is implicit in the understanding of what it means to have faith. Faith is not so much believing in something or adhering to some kind of acceptance of the unseen (see hidden and the hidden) or what is not immediately evident to the senses or reason, as it is active testimony to what one holds unquestionably to be true. God acts on behalf of humankind, and men and women respond in the act of faith.
But what is the content of that faith? What is the mix of mental discernment, verbal confession (see creeds) and the performance of good deeds that is really at the heart of īmān? Despite their apparent Qur’ānic association, the question arose early in the history of the Muslim community as to whether faith and works were to be understood as one and inseparable, or as two different though perhaps necessarily related concepts.
1. یَوْمَ یَقُولُ الْمُنافِقُونَ وَ الْمُنافِقاتُ لِلَّذینَ آمَنُوا انْظُرُونا نَقْتَبِسْ مِنْ نُورِکُمْ قیلَ ارْجِعُوا وَراءَکُمْ فَالْتَمِسُوا نُوراً فَضُرِبَ بَیْنَهُمْ بِسُورٍ لَهُ بابٌ باطِنُهُ فیهِ الرَّحْمَةُ وَ ظاهِرُهُ مِنْ قِبَلِهِ الْعَذابُ *یُنادُونَهُمْ أَ لَمْ نَکُنْ مَعَکُمْ قالُوا بَلى وَ لکِنَّکُمْ فَتَنْتُمْ أَنْفُسَکُمْ وَ تَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَ ارْتَبْتُمْ وَ غَرَّتْکُمُ الْأَمانِیُّ حَتَّى جاءَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَ غَرَّکُمْ بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ *فَالْیَوْمَ لا یُؤْخَذُ مِنْکُمْ فِدْیَةٌ وَ لا مِنَ الَّذینَ کَفَرُوا مَأْواکُمُ النَّارُ هِیَ مَوْلاکُمْ وَ بِئْسَ الْمَصیرُ
2. یَوْمَ تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنینَ وَ الْمُؤْمِناتِ یَسْعى نُورُهُمْ بَیْنَ أَیْدیهِمْ وَ بِأَیْمانِهِمْ بُشْراکُمُ الْیَوْمَ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْری مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهارُ خالِدینَ فیها ذلِکَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظیمُ
3. وَ الَّذینَ آمَنُوا وَ عَمِلُوا الصَّالِحاتِ أُولئِکَ أَصْحابُ الْجَنَّةِ هُمْ فیها خالِدُون
Quiz
1.Which one of the following propositions is right?
a) Nifaq is sub-set of Iman
b) Nifaq is sub-set of Kufr*
c) Nifaq is not a sub-set of Kufr
d) No one
2. According to Quranic verses, who will beg believers to borrow from their lights?
a) Munafiqun*
b) Faithfull people
c) Angels
d) No one
3. About whom this verse is revealed? …. are the inhabitants of the garden; they will abide there eternally
a) those who believe and do Hajj
b) those who believe and do good works*
c) those who believe and don’t lie
d) those who believe and practice Taqwa
4. In the following sentence, what does testimony mean? It is active testimony to what one holds unquestionably to be true
a) Attestation*
b) Betrayal
c) Deception
d) No one
The issue was directly related to the definition of who was a true Muslim, i.e. acceptable as a faithful member of the community, and who was not. Opinions differed widely, and in many cases depended on the understanding of two related matters pertaining to the question of faith: (1) What is the relationship of faith and works? (2) What is the relationship of islām (submission to God) to īmān (faith in God)? Several schools of interpretation, each with its own version of belief in the message of the Qur’ān, refused to separate faith and the accomplishment of good works (a‛māl) . Others who were attempting to understand the meaning of īmān , however, found it important to distinguish between faith and works, including some who were willing to see the performance of good deeds as an overt means of achieving or actualizing faith. The question of the possibility of an increase or decrease of faith will be dealt with below.
The matter of faith and works for some was seen to be integrally related to the question of faith and submission. Islam is the only major religion whose very name suggests a bi-dimensional focus of faith.
On the vertical axis it refers to the individual and personal human response to God’s oneness, often described as the “faith” dimension, while on the horizontal axis it means the collectivity of all of those persons who together acknowledge and respond to God to form a community of religious faith. Muslims agree that the religious response of all those persons throughout the ages who have affirmed the oneness of God in faith can rightly be understood as personal islām.
It was only with the official beginning of the community at the time of the emigration (q.v.; hijra) to Medina (q.v.), however, that there came to be a specific recognition that Muslims together form a group, a unity, an umma, although the term islām itself was not often used to refer to that group until considerably later. Nonetheless it was over the question of legitimate membership in the umma that some of the most serious controversies arose. Implicit in that discussion was the issue of whether there is a distinction between islām and īmān (see islam).
In the Qur’ān there is no clear distinction between these two terms. Among the early traditions of the community, however, is one in which the Prophet is said to have defined islām specifically as distinct from īmān .
Quiz
1.Mark the correct answer (گزینه صحیح کدام است).
a) accomplishment is synonym of performance*
b) performance is antonym of action
c) accomplishment is antonym of punishment
d) performance is synonym of punishment
2.which word is not sutable for the blank (کدام گزینه برای جای خالی مناسب نیست) , Muslims together form a.....
a) unity
b) solidarity
c) membership*
d) group
3.which sentence is different from the others in meaning ( معنای کدام جمله با دیگر جملات متفاوت است)
a) the relationship of faith and works directly related to the definition of who was a true Muslim
b) What is the relationship of faith and works is related to “ What is the relationship of islām to īmān?”
c) The matter of faith and works for some was seen to be integrally related to the question of faith and submission.
d) The matter of faith and works is important to distinguish between faith and works*
4.what is the main idea of this paragraph( بهترین معنا برای این پاراگراف کدام است) On the vertical axis it refers to the individual and personal human response to God’s oneness.
a) اسلام در بعد طولی به واکنش فردی و شخصی انسان به یکتایی خداوند اشاره دارد*
b) اسلام در بعد عرضی به واکنش افرد و اشخاص بشر به یکتایی خداوند اشاره دارد
c)اسلام در بعد طولی به یگانه پاسخ فردی و شخصی بشریت به خداوند بر می‌گردد
d) اسلام در بعد عرضی به واکنش اجتماعی و شخصی انسانها به خداوند یگانه برمی گردد.
