slam is not only a religion, it’s a way of life that can physically, mentally, and spiritually transform a believer. God did not send the Prophet Muhammad to begin a new religion; rather, He sent him to reignite our relationship with the Divine. However, the Qur’an does not just speak to our relationship with God; it also guides and counsels us in our relationship with all that God created. The Qur’an beseeches us to treat ourselves with more mercy, to be kinder to others, to be more compassionate toward all of Allah’s creatures, and to be conscious and intentional in our use of earthly resources.
“Do what is good as God has done what is good to you.”
QUR’AN 28:77
Islam is a journey of lovingly serving God for the blessing of the life we were given, but could do nothing to ever earn. Our life is a
loan from God, which is why the word din, which is often translated as “religion,” is originally born of a root word meaning “debt.” Thus, in essence, by walking the path of Islam we are also seeking to pay our debt to God, who has given us life.1 However, God doesn’t ask us to pray to Him because He is lacking something; rather He is asking us to plug into God-consciousness as a way of recharging the battery of our own souls.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that religion is the means by which human beings seek God. The truth is, Islam is a journey of unveiling the secret that God is and has always been with us. We may not be able to perceive God directly, but He is reflected in everything.
Islam is not a path about obtaining God’s love; it is a path that teaches you to strive, persevere, and unveil what you have already been given. Islam is not just a series of practices and actions; it is a light that helps grow the seeds of our most authentic selves. Islam is not merely outward obedience to Divine Law; it is a cultivation of inner faith. It is not only about celebrating what is right and standing up against what is wrong; it is about bringing mercy, beauty, and excellence to our words, thoughts, actions, and deeds. Islam is the path of showing you how to become who you already are.
We are all born with spiritual wings, Islam simply reminds us how to fly.
You Are Inherently Good
Islam is not limited to solely the outward worship of God, it provides a means of unveiling all the ways you are a reflection of God’s beauty and majesty. The Qur’an says that God has planted within all humankind a seed of innate goodness, known in Arabic as the fitra.2 This primordial nature of goodness, placed in our hearts, inclines us toward actions that are righteous, beautiful, and in perfect alignment with the Divine. On the soul level, all of humankind is in a perfect relationship with God, regardless of what they choose to outwardly believe. This primordial goodness that exists at the soul of
every single person longs to manifest itself the way a seed longs to unfold the hundreds of blossoms hidden in its unseen potential. The path of Islam teaches the seeker how to water the spiritual garden of the soul, which has already been tilled and sowed by God’s abundantly overflowing love.
One of the main purposes of Islam is to unveil this innate goodness. All the prophets were sent by God to remind us that in this very moment we are already everything we seek to become. On the path to God, every step is the destination. The divinely inspired version of ourselves is not found out in the world, but exists beneath the misperceptions of who we think we are. This is precisely why the Qur’an says, “Religion in the sight of God is surrender” (3:19), because it is only when we surrender our subjective perception of reality that we become receptive to what God is choosing to manifest through us in the present moment.
There is a well-known story in the Qur’an, in which God tells the Prophet Moses that he must first surrender his attachments in order to receive divine revelation. Allah says, “Oh Moses, Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed, you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa. And I have chosen you, so listen to what is revealed [to you]” (20:11-13). The spiritual sages say that when Moses is being asked to take off his sandals, it is symbolic not only of removing his attachment to this world—but Allah is also asking him to surrender his attachment to the spiritual path itself.3 After all, we are not called to be “Islam worshippers,” we are called to be worshippers of Allah alone. Our religion is not our destination, but the practices, principles, and teachings of Islam are necessary provisions on the path to Allah.
Islam: To Surrender in Peace
In Islam, the path of self-surrender has three stations: islam, iman, and ihsan. The first station, islam, is primarily focused on the actions of the limbs being in alignment with Divine Law (shari’a).
Since islam is based on the shari’a, it is important to understand that the word shari’a is often used to mean “Divine Law.” However, shari’a more literally translates to mean, “a path to the watering hole.” This implies that the purpose of divine guidance is to guide human beings through the desert of ignorance to the oasis of faith.
The shari’a can essentially be broken into two categories: laws concerning how to practice the pillars of Islam, and laws concerning all other matters in a Muslim’s life. Although there are countless different perspectives when it comes to Divine Law (shari’a), some of the core principles of shari’a are the following: preservation of religion, protection of the holiness of life, fostering and honoring of the intellect, preservation of the sanctity of the family, and protection of property.
It is important to point out that the shari’a is based on the Qur’an or sayings of the Prophet , but it also contains the interpretation of scholars over time, who naturally differed from one another; as a result, there can be vast differences in how people experience specific issues and nuances. Nonetheless, the one main objective that connects the different interpretation of scholars is the call to
“enjoin what is good in all of our affairs, while warding off and protecting against all that is evil.” The shari’a is like a flashlight—
meant to guide us through the darkness of confusion and uncertainty unto the straight path. However, just as we follow maps but do not worship them, we are not meant to worship revelation or the shari’a, but to surrender to the guidance of God and follow the path He paves for us.
Islam begins as an external surrendering of the body to the clearly stated prohibitions and commands of God.
“Islam is to testify that there is nothing worthy of worship except God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God, to perform the ritual prayers, to pay the purifying alms, to fast in Ramadan, and to make the pilgrimage to the Sacred
House if you are able to do so.”4 PROPHET MUHAMMAD
The word islam means “to surrender, to submit” and comes from the triliteral root sin-lam-mim, which also can mean “well-being, completion, freedom, and peace.” Linguistically, then, the word islam can be said to mean “to surrender in peace,” for it is only when we submit as a servant to God that we are liberated from the enslavement of our ego. Similar to how the gravitation of our orbiting moon helps stabilize the Earth as it rotates around its axis, the practices of Islam help to ground us, preventing us from wobbling into temptations that would prevent us from actualizing our true potential.5
To surrender is not to give up, give in, or to lose; rather it means being with what Allah has written for you by embracing, in faith, gratitude, and with complete trust, that “Allah is the best of planners”
(3:54). Submission to Allah begins with acknowledgement that every moment we have been given is a gift from Allah that we can neither ignore nor change.
“What is meant for you, will reach you even if it is beneath two mountains. And what is not meant for you will not reach you even if it’s between your two lips.”
IMAM AL-GHAZALI, 11TH-CENTURY MYSTIC
Surrendering to Allah and believing the supremeness of His decree does not mean we stop striving to better ourselves. The Prophet said, “Trust in Allah, but tie your camel,”6 which means we are called to always trust in God, but we must still use our common sense; we must still struggle with our entire souls for the sake of establishing peace on Earth. The Prophet Muhammad clearly states the importance of standing up and physically doing our part against oppression when he says, “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart, and that is the weakest level of faith.”7
Trusting God’s will does not mean we stop actively enjoining goodness and standing up against injustice. Surrendering to Allah does not mean we stop trying; it means we stop thinking we can control the outcome of the choices that we make. By surrendering,
we let go of how we think things should be, and become flexible, to move with the breeze of Allah’s decree.
As the mystics say, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”8
When we surrender to God we change the flow of intention and energy behind our actions. We do not act from fear of loss or poverty, but from a place of trust in God. The concept of surrender is beautifully described in Taoism as Wei Wu Wei, meaning to “Do without doing.”9 When we surrender to God, we are like a grain of sand surrendering to become the mountain, or like a drop of rain surrendering to become the entire ocean. If we feel resistance in surrendering to God and trusting Him, it is important to not judge ourselves. In fact, the awareness that we feel resistance to surrendering is a blessing, because it brings our attention to the places within us where we struggle to rely on God. This awareness opens the door to repentance and remembrance of God, offering us the opportunity to turn from self-reliance to God-reliance.
The observance of outer laws establishes a uniform moral structure, molding and furnishing a container to foster faithfulness.
Just as everything in existence has a form (body) and an essence (spirit), and the purpose of that form is to carry the essence, the purpose of our obedience to the Divine Law, through islam, is to create the soil necessary for the seed of faith, or iman, to be cultivated.
Iman: Walking in Faith
While islam refers to the realm of activity, iman refers to the intellectual understanding of faith and relates to our perception of God, the unseen, and the Hereafter. While the station of islam is apparent, outward, and can be seen, iman is hidden, inward, and related to the unseen reality of the heart and soul. Iman is when we delve past the surface and into the spirit of revelation. Iman is the
inner reality of worship. It is the cultivation of divine presence and knowledge within the human heart, which brings value and meaning to our outer actions. Iman is the state of allowing God’s love to open our hearts to the light that streams between every word of scripture, the way the petals of a spring flower open to the warm sun.
“Iman is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in destiny both its good and its bad.”10
PROPHET MUHAMMAD
Iman is having faith in the unseen and trusting that God always has our best interests at heart. Faith is about tawakul, or sincere trust that whatever Allah chooses for us to experience, be it a blessing or a trial, is ultimately in service of our deeper witnessing of Him. Since faith blossoms in direct relationship with our trust in God, we can water the seeds of our faith through chanting and meditation.
For example, we may chant or repeat the Qur’anic verse, Hasbuna Allah wa ni’ma al Wakil, which means, “Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best Protector” (3:173). When we practice this powerful chant of remembrance or dhikr while experiencing fear or doubt, it increases our receptivity to the love and light of God, which further nourishes the seeds of faith within us.
At its core, surrendering in faith is the acknowledgment that although we may not have power over the outcomes of our life, we always have the freedom to choose the state of our spirit, in meeting the trials and blessings that are written for us. Some make the mistake of thinking faith is a feeling, when in fact in many ways it is a choice to be open to what Allah has already given us. At its essence, faith is having the trust and patience to hold on to your relationship with God through the changing winds of your feelings and circumstances.
Islamic sages have said, “Faith is comprised of two things: one half is patience and the other half is gratitude.”11 Patience is a necessary element of fostering faith, because sometimes it takes time to unveil the divine purpose behind God’s will. Patience and true reliance on Allah lead to gratefulness, because when we
understand that God always wants better for us than we could ever imagine for ourselves we are naturally inclined toward being grateful.
To have iman is to believe that although the future is unknown, our God is known and forever faithful. To have faith is to proclaim that although we don’t know what tomorrow will hold, we know that God is already there, embracing and protecting our souls.
“If you were to rely on Allah as He should be relied on, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They go out early in the morning hungry and return in the
evening full.”12 PROPHET MUHAMMAD
In the Qur’an, Allah says that He “guides to Himself whoever turns to Him” (42:13). The cultivation of faith begins with praying to God to open our hearts to experience His love. By His wisdom, God guides whom He wills and those who desire to be guided. It is not God but our egos that are the barriers to faith. We find it difficult to trust in God because we are relying on ourselves instead of on God.
To foster faith in God, it helps to reflect on the fact that all of the decisions we make are based on a biased perception of the past, an incomplete view of the present, and an unknown future. Whereas the Qur’an says to us, “You have been given very little knowledge”
(17:85), God sees the past, present, and future completely, as His wisdom is perfect across time and space. When we realize how limited our knowledge is, we are naturally more inclined to trust God’s perfect wisdom over our incomplete vision. Faith automatically blossoms when we remove the walls of the ego, because faith is not something we find, but something that blossoms from the inside.
Our iman often grows when we acknowledge all the good that God has already done for us. The faithful fully submit to God’s will, saying, “God is enough for me. There is no god but He. In Him I have put my trust. He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne” (9:129).
Iman fosters within us as we begin to trust God with the depths of our hearts. In the Qur’an Allah calls out a group of Bedouins who tried to claim they had iman by saying, “The Bedouins say, ‘We have
believed.’ Say, ‘You have not [yet] believed; but say [instead], ‘We have submitted,’ for faith [iman] has not yet entered your hearts”
(49:14). This verse points out that iman is not acquired through robotic submission, but rather it is fostered when we sincerely believe and obey God from the depths of our hearts.13 Obeying God’s command without sincerity or love leads to emptiness, while saying you love God but refuse to follow what He asks of you is a sign of inner conflict and hypocrisy.
Our outer actions are a good litmus test for the reality of our internal state, and vice versa. It is important to understand that our spiritual journey will have ups and downs; just as your breath goes in and out, and ocean waves rise and fall, our faith goes through cycles. Every mountain has both a base camp and a summit, and as long as you are alive your faith will have peaks and valleys. If your faith were never-changing and constant, then you would have no reason to call upon God. In the Qur’an, Allah very clearly states that our faith will be tested.
“Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe’ and they will not be tried?”
QUR’AN 29:2
The first step of being Muslim is to profess your faith, but until you put your beliefs into action you don’t actually possess faith.14 Faith is not something we can put in a bank and lock up. It is not stagnant; it is something that is alive and constantly flowing like a river. Since God is infinite, the journey of faith is endless.
The mystics say that there are only two rules on the path to God: begin and continue.
So long as we are on Earth, there is no finish line that we can reach where we can stop trying or striving toward growth. In the same way that if a bodybuilder stops working out, he begins to lose the muscle that he has gained over time, when we stop doing our practices, our faith weakens. It is important to understand that just as