What does faith (Iman) mean in Islam?

Iman is a firm conviction in the heart about something one has not seen oneself, based on sound evidence. What one observes with one’s own eyes is knowledge, not Iman.

There are two ways of holding something to be true. One rests on our own observation. If I see a person sitting in front of me, I do not believe in him, I see him. That is knowledge.

The other rests on testimony. Someone tells me something I have not seen myself. I have reasons to trust him, and I accept it. When this conviction is firmly rooted in the heart, it is called Iman. So Iman is not blind acceptance but trust that rests on evidence.

That is why the Holy Qur’an, right at its beginning, describes believers as people who believe in the unseen. God, His angels, His books and His messengers, which the second verse above names, are not seen like an object on a table. They are recognised through their signs and through the testimony of those who can be trusted.

The third verse points to an important difference. A person can accept Islam outwardly before faith has entered the heart. Iman is more than a profession of the lips. It is a certainty that sits deep within.

The hadith above sums up what a believer believes in. Iman, then, is the heart’s firm conviction about what cannot be seen, carried by reasons that make it reliable.