by Sadaf Farooqi

Created on: August 20, 2008

All of us, being human, experience fluctuations in our level of faith - denoted by the Arabic word "imaan" - during the course of our day-to-day lives. It is perfectly normal to experience this. For Muslims, what is faith or "imaan"? It is the belief that resides in our hearts regarding Allah, His revealed Divine books (Quran, Bible, Torah, Abraham's scriptures), His Prophets, His angels, His Divine Decree (or what is more commonly knows as "fate"), and the Last Hour or Last Day (when all humans will be resurrected for account-taking of their actions).

There are times when certain events in our lives make us doubt the existence or omnipotence of any of the above epicenters of belief. For example, someone might challenge our knowledge, especially if it is lacking, about why bad things happen to good people if God really exists; why criminals roam scot-free in this world after committing heinous injustices; why some people die of starvation while others have so much wealth that they can live 20 lifetimes on it, etc. At other times, questions about the Unseen (known in Arabic as "ghaib") pop up in our minds, and when we do not find answers, we follow our doubts and slowly move away from firm conviction of imaan to dwindling, half-hearted faith. That is the code red.

Before a Muslim moves towards the danger zone, in which the level of their imaan becomes so low that they start committing major sins, they should follow the steps below to restore their faith to higher levels:

Gain knowledge of the Quran consistently:

Just like you cannot know someone until you communicate with them, you cannot be close to Allah without reading and understanding His spoken word, the Quran. It is His message to all mankind, Muslim and non-Muslim. It is normal to have questions, and the Quran has all the answers. Therefore, it is not enough to read and understand this book once or twice, but it must be studied consistently throughout our lives. Maybe a few times a week, it can be recited, read, and studied/discussed with a group of Muslims. The Quran should never be put away to gather dust. The greater a Muslim's knowledge of the Quran, the closer he is to Allah. A point to note is that the Quran cannot be completely understood solitarily. There are some passages that are deep in meaning, and have to be understood in the context of revelation, backdrop, historical perspective, narrations of the Prophet Muhammad [Allah's peace and blessings be upon him] and other Quranic passages. That is

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