Beautiful Art work found on www.deviantart.com

Tuqwa, Iman & it's relationship to character

I could be totally wrong; I just do a lot of theorizing and I test it by asking my friends and scholars many questions, I look into different texts, ask Allah to guide me to see if my theory is correct and eventually, putting it into practice.

Allow me to explain the terms Tuqwa and Iman in laymen terms. Tuqwa can be understood as God consciousness. It can also be defined as fear of God; the type of fear from punishment, and the fear of wronging someone you really really love (if you truly love someone so much, you are conscious of every move you make and every word that you say, just so you may not disappoint them).

Iman is you confidence in Allah. How you trust him, your relationship with him and your ability to genuine see and feel his presence around you and inside your heart. People see Allah not with their physical eye, but the eye of their heart - in Arabic it is referred to as Haqq-ul-Yaqeen.

I do not know if everyone senses this or understands themselves in light of their relationship to Allah, but I do. I've pondered the universality of this and frankly, I know it is universal, but just because it is so, does not mean everyone can confirm or sense it. This is what I am growing to believe:::

That if you have characteristics, skills, and attributes that are grand, than your iman and tuqwa must be strong enough, in quantity and quality - to satisfy the capacity of the capacity you have. If your iman and tuqwa are weak, your great and unique abilities will never manifest.

First of all this is what you need to do:
You need to confirm and acknowledge the characteristics you have in you without fear of arrogance. You must do this; if you ever deny your truest potential and abilities - you have wronged yourself, Allah and those who you are benefit from your responsibility to them (side note: never view responsibility as a burden, it is a sincere honour to be given responsibilities).


There are many ways of acknowledging how amazing the characteristics you have and I am only sure of one way to do it without arrogance - by thanking Allah for them and asking him to help you use them in servitude to him.

You must search your inner most self; you must disassemble all that you have ever know about yourself and analyze everything from a logical point of view.

You must have a sufficient amount of knowledge to know what borders to cross and which ones to avoid

you must tour the depths of your mind with the vessel that is your heart. Knowing your heart may not be able to take the burden; it is not mechanical and it does adapt to harsh situations - so fear not and just embark on the journey.

There are other ways of humbly acknowledging your greatest characteristics and are necessary to do so for you to genuinely explore their potentials. I am not sure of them yet.


So back to my theory - These characteristics are unique or "high performance"; they might be rare and quite possibly, revolutionary (or at least the cause of one). In order for these characteristics to be truly manifested for the good of yourself and humanity - than you need to have Tuqwa and Iman that would shake the very foundation of the people who make eye contact with you.

Some people will see your potential without you having a strong Tuqwa or Iman. These are the people who will are heavenly appointed savior's, guides and, mentors. If they come across you, turn them not away, for you will be the loser.

If you ask me, these are the seeds of genuine self confidence and confidence in Allah. I think everyone has high potential - its just a matter of spirit and optimism.

I could be wrong, I don't know - I haven't confirmed anything, these are just thoughts - tell me what you think.

May Allah forgive me if I said anything wrong.

The Negative Thought Process

The awful yet deceiving burn of pessimism never ceases to cause harm. It is the epiphany of weak confidence and low self-esteem; working ever so tirelessly to lower the priceless value of the human individual. It garners its energy and strength from the natural chemicals that react when a negative situation arises; than your little fiend take advantage and pours fuel to further intensify the chemical reaction. It leads you to believe you have little or no worth, it guides you to think you have almost no value in the eyes of those who matter. When this happens, you back away from the people, convinced that they care not about you. It sickens your soul and forces you to think selfishly.

It is a genuine intellectual burden - one that has brought down individuals that could have towered over the masses in sincere servitude to God and his glorious creations. It eliminates love and poisons the heart with numbness - making it forget the blissful beauty of love and the sheer magnitude of intellect. It fools the person making them believe that everything is designed to falter and that nothing has the capacity to love them or care for them because they doubt the blessings God has given them. They question "why would God bless me? I am nothing worthy of blessings, I am just a person with little or no worth."

Pessimism is what breaks the backs of individuals, low self-esteem and poor confidence is the way to a deep black hole - one possibly designed to eat away at the fundamentals the person once held true.

Weak self-esteem, low dignity and weak confidence are not reflected in the persons ability to be extro- or intro-verted; but their ability to hold tight and honor what they genuinely believe in. For me, as a Muslim my principals are as follows:

- a strong belief that justice will prevail and God's wisdom is above all, it may not always be easily understood and one must be patient in pursuing it

- holding true that God does love those who have good intension's and do good deeds and believe in his absoluteness; whether they sin heavily or avoid it - they must be confident that God is guiding and protecting them from what yields no benifit

- holding true to yourself, believing you are someone created for a purpose and that purpose will affect your environment

- holding on to high-spirit, whether the times are Amazing or Miserable, high-tide or low-tide, or if they themselves have messed up chronically for the millionth time

and obviously, the fundamental belief of there is only on God, Allah; Muhammad is his mercy to earth and his messenger, Ali is the one endowed with the responsibility to carry the message forward and that Mohammad al-Mehdi will be the one to bring it back to its genuine path.

these must be held as fundamental truths, not because you are told they are, but you are convinced that they will prevail.

Genuine belief in yourself and genuine confidence is a reflection of those fundamentals you honor and hold true to - if you hold on to them weakly, than you yourself are weak.

Never abide by the laws of pessimism - forever remember by the wisdom of optimism; as unrealistic as it might seem when you've been conditioned to think negatively - it is the only real way to spiritual freedom.

May God forgive me if I've said anything contrary to the Quran and Sunnah.