How to increase our faith ?

 From time to time, the levels of our faith do tend to dwindle. This weakness of faith manifests itself in degraded quality of acts of our worship, negligence in remembering Allah, feeling indifferent to His commands and, in general, us having a doubtful heart. Experiencing any of these symptoms or others akin to them is an indication of a weakness of faith that in turn may be depriving us of peace, tranquility, and closeness to our creator and sustainer.
This weakness or weariness of faith (Eeman), whether due to a weak understanding of truth, or the strength of external negative forces, is to be expected. Consider what the Prophet (SAWS) said in this context:
“Faith wears out in your heart as clothes wear out, so ask Allah to renew the faith in your hearts.” (narrated by al-Haakim in his Mustadrak and al-Tabaraani in his Mu’jam with a saheeh isnaad).
Here are a few steps that we can take immediately to renew our faiths.

Seek Allah’s Help

As the prophet mentioned in the aforementioned hadith, we should first and foremost ask Allah to renew and reinforce the faith in our hearts. We should make this call part of our regular Duas. In doing so, we should also be mindful of why we believe in the message of truth in the first place. We believe because we can relate the message of truth revealed in the Quran to the realities of this universe and what we find within ourselves and our hearts. We believe because as humans, a deeper intellectual and spiritual introspection has caused our hearts to resonate with the message of truth. We believe because after having pondered over the messages of the Quran, we comprehend them and have internalized them in our psyche. But more importantly, we believe in the truth of the Quran and Islam because of Allah’s unchallengeable, unequivocal and logical assertion as the creator, sustainer, and sole power of this universe. Thus, being convinced of His deity and majesty and the nobility of His Messenger and Prophet, we have consciously chosen to believe and live that message of truth.

Reinforce truth with knowledge

Next, let’s get clear about the meaning of truth as Islam has defined it. The clearer the message of truth in our hearts, the stronger our faith will be. Part of the renewal is therefore to actively engage in understanding the message of truth in our hearts and minds through studying the Quran, studying the traditions of the Prophet (SAW) as documented in the books of hadith and poring over the knowledge of known scholars who have helped elaborate on that message. The process of renewing our faith thus requires an active and personal effort to reach out to learn the various truths defined in Islam. The more we strive for it, the more we will increase our levels of awareness and faith.
Remember, the longer you keep your heart locked up from learning more, the less you will be able to reason and comprehend the message of truth, and the more you will rely on blind faith alone to live the message of truth.
As Allah says in the Quran,
“Will they not then ponder over the Qur’an, or is it that they have their locks on (their) hearts (which bar them from reason).” [47:24]

Beware of symptoms of rejection

Finally, be wary of what in your heart could be blurring your view of the message of truth. Imaam ibn Katheer, in his famous Tafseer ibn Katheer, mentions the reasons that prevent people from believing the message of truth. If any of those reasons are seeping into your psyche and have started to blur your vision and impacting your faith as a result, you need to actively step in and cleanse yourself of those symptoms. The reasons that ibn Katheer had mentioned included:

• Kufrul-’Inaad (Disbelief out of stubbornness)
• Kufrul-Inkaar (Disbelief out of denial)
• Kufrul-Kibr (Disbelief out of arrogance and pride)
• Kufrul-Juhood (Disbelief out of rejection)
• Kufrul-Nifaaq (Disbelief out of hypocrisy)
• Kufrul-Istihaal (Disbelief out of trying to make HARAM (illegal) into HALAL (legal)
• Kufrul-Kurh (Disbelief out of detesting any of Allah’s commands)
• Kufrul-Istihzaha (Disbelief due to mockery and derision)
• Kufrul-I’raadh (Disbelief due to avoidance)
• Kufrul-Istibdaal (Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allah’s Laws)

In Summary

Living the message of truth, therefore, requires us to abandon stubbornness (an attitude when we know deep in our hearts that we are wrong), denial (blindly ignoring facts), arrogance (thinking that accepting truth will demean us), hypocrisy (pretending to be someone while concealing the truth), mockery and derision (we mock truth and the righteous to go along with others) and avoidance (for one reason or another we try to avoid the message of truth). Once we eliminate these negatives that may have stained our hearts and open our minds to the message of truth, we will be on our way to renew our faith. In that process, we will also sense Allah in our lives and we will feel the sweetness of faith.
Let’s remember the saying of the Prophet as reported by Anas (May Allah be pleased with him):
“Allah says: ‘ When a slave of Mine draws near to Me a span, I draw near to him a cubit; and if he draws near to Me a cubit, I draw near to him a fathom. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.” [Al-Bukhari].

How to Strengthen and increase our Iman?

How to strenghten our faith

Let’s start by first relying on the sparks of your belief in Allah, the Quran, and our prophet. Let’s remember that one of the main Dua’s (prayer and supplication) that we are told about in the Quran and Hadith is to seek true “guidance.” Getting this guidance (on the right path) alone can enable us to strengthen our belief in Allah and His prophet’s teachings. For example, one of the primary Dua’s in Surah Al-Fatihah (the first Surah of the Quran) is the following:

“Guide us to the Straight Way” (Surah Al-Fatihah, 1:6).

Logically speaking, this Dua can be made by anyone (Muslim or non-Muslim) seeking truth and the right guidance from the “Supreme Being”. After all, who wouldn’t want guidance on the “Straight Way?”

According to the interpretation of the verse given in “The Noble Quran”, “guidance” can be of two types: “. . . (a) Guidance of Taufîq, which is totally from Allah, i.e. Allah opens one’s heart to receive the truth (from disbelief to Belief in Islâmic Monotheism), and (b) Guidance of Irshad, i.e., through preaching by Allah’s Messengers and the pious preachers who preach the truth in Islâmic Monotheism.”

As Muslims, we, therefore, should constantly (a) pray to Allah to open our heart for true guidance, and (b) seek knowledge that can clarify our suspicions.

Who is the true Deity / God? What is the “truth”?

What follows assumes that your belief system lies within the boundaries of what’s referred to as “Theism”, meaning that you not merely believe in a “Supreme Being”, but you refute any anti-theistic theories of Atheism, Polytheism, Hylozoism, Materialism, and Pantheism. That is so because if you lean to any such anti-theistic theories, then the discussion would need to tread a different path altogether.

So, given that you believe in a higher Deity that created everything and controls all aspects of this creation, and to whom we will all return, wouldn’t that make it our solemn duty to find more about that deity?

And if you do believe in the existence of a “supreme God”, wouldn’t you associate “truth” to that God alone?

Since time immemorial man has sought to find the truth – the truth about creation, the creator, our soul, morality, etc. Philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle wrote volumes exploring the need for the right laws and the role of intelligence in law-giving, philosophy, religion, politics, education, distinction between right and wrong, and so on. That all happened because we humans are curious beings with our DNA programmed to explore, search, investigate, ascertain, and at the end, to formulate our own conclusions about various truths.

So, thinking along the same lines, given that we recognize a supreme God, why not then commit ourselves to find the truth of that Supreme God? If we believe that God is indeed powerful, wouldn’t it behoove us to investigate what He has commanded, what He likes, dislikes, etc.? How can we put our innate desires to sleep by simply ignoring our curiosities to know who that God is and what that “truth” is? More than that, how can we take the risk of ignoring what He may have said about what our purpose in life is and what we as humans need to do during our short stay on earth?

About Allah, Islam, and Quran

To address some of your questions, the following are some of the points that Islam and the Quran has defined. Each of these can be a topic for further elaboration but can’t be fully elaborated here due to constraints of time and space.

• The Quran and Islam have defined the rules of “humanity” more than any other religion. The followers of Islam follow those rules and truths because they are part of the very core of Islam. Although most of such rules are commonly accepted by the general humanity, not all of such rules are included in the divine revelation of other religions in such detail and substance as Islam defines them. These rules encompass protecting the rights of individuals fulfilling various roles, justice, poverty, equal rights, peace, and so on.
• God in Islam (Allah) has provided for us channels and ways to communicate with Him to enable us to build a personal relationship with Him and to reinforce our conviction in Him. Regarding the statement, “religion is our personal affair, so there isn’t any need for any specific worship practices,” how then would you engage with God to build that relationship? If you are going to devise your own ways (rituals), then why not instead follow His prescribed ways to reach out to Him? Why should there be any resistance to such prescribed worship and practices?
• It is a fact that some people (a minority) engage in objectionable behavior in the name of religion or as the followers of that religion but we should recognize that those so-called followers of the religion are driven more by their selfish motives and interests rather than by the convictions in the divine that they should have nurtured within themselves in the first place. Such people, therefore, shouldn’t make us lose hope and abandon the pursuit of the truth.

As Muslims, we believe in the truth of Islam not only because of our belief in Allah and His teachings, but also by reading and understanding what is in the Quran. For example, we see in the Quran, (1) how Allah explains why is He the One God, (2) various teleological, moral, cosmological, and other arguments about the existence of Allah, the one God, (3) how Allah directly addresses other major religions (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.) and challenges those beliefs by providing counter arguments, (4) how Allah provides truths that make perfect sense and provides arguments to disprove people’s doubts, (5) how Allah, rather than simply providing the truths, provides a framework to implement those truths (through certain practices), (6) the challenge to find discrepancies in all of the presented truths in the Quran, (7) the use of an active language to “speak” to humans which persuades us to listen to what the message is, (8) a man’s innate need to find the truth and how the truth that He is asserting is the answer, (9) assertion of the self-evident truths that some humans may ignore and reject simply to prove the idea of God, religion, and Islam wrong, (10) challenge to humanity to use their faculties of intellect and other skills to counter arguments that surface in one’s mind, (11) stories of nations that the world is beginning to find out for the first time in history, (12) scientific facts of about 1500 years ago that are being brought to light only now, and (12) the picture of a Deity clearly asserting His role as The God.

The above provides only a small glimpse of what is in the Quran. Reading the accounts of many who have converted to Islam, we see that they recount the above reasons and more. These are good reminders for us too as Muslims to reinforce our beliefs and also should also serve as food for thought for those who want to pursue their personal efforts in finding the truth.

Conclusion

The weakness in our faiths can cause us to stumble and to question the “truth”. During that process, let’s constantly remind ourselves that within the Quran, Allah has taken the direct responsibility of being the sustainer of the world and to provide His help. But that also comes with a condition. So long as we humans don’t engage in behaviors and practices that disrupt the overall order, peace and His underlying laws, we can expect to have that helping hand sail us through our voyage on this earth. God will provide us calmer seas and tranquil waters but that will work only if we humans use our faculties to build strong ships without drilling holes in our own ships.

No one has said that finding the “truth” is that simple. Understanding the truth and ascertaining its foundations does require motivation along with a logical intellect that can help us to sort through the philosophical, moral, and other arguments. We shouldn’t, therefore, relinquish our efforts to gather all the facts and evidences for finding the truth. In the end, however, the real answers will have to come from within you. Yes – you may have to dive deeper to find those answers but that will be more rewarding than forming quick conclusions. Remember, we can’t find out more about the deep sea fish by merely staying in shallow waters.

Finally, let’s pray that Allah provides us the ability to see “truth” as the truth, and “falsehood” as falsehood.

Essential Condition for Iman

"Say: We believe in Allah and in that which has been sent to us and in that which was sent to Ibrahim, and Ismail and Ishaq and Ya'qub, and the tribes and that which was given to Moosa and Isa and that which was given to the Prophets form their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them, and we submit to Allah. And so, if they believe in that which you believe, they have achieved guidance, but if they turn away, they are surely in rebellion. Allah will suffice you against them and He is the all-hearing, the all-knowing." [Soorah al-Baqarah (2): 136-137]

"The Prophet has believed in that which is sent to him from his Lord as have the believers. All of them believe in Allah, His angels, His books and His Messengers. We do not differentiate between any of His messengers, and they say: "We hear and we obey. (We seek)Your forgiveness, our Lord to You is the return (of all). Allah does not burden any soul beyond his scope. He gets reward for that (good) which he has earned, and he is punished for that (evil) which he has earned." [Soorah Baqarah (2): 285-6]

"This is a book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who are pious. Those who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them. Those who believe in that which was sent down to you and that which was sent down to those before you, and certainly of faith in the existence of the Hereafter. Such are on a true guidance from their Lord, and such are the successful." [Soorah al-Baqarah (2): 1-5]

Thus, a necessary component of faith (eeman) is to believe that Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is the seal of the prophets, and there is no prophet after him, and that Allah sent him to all of the two possessors of free will: humans and jinns.

Who has complete Iman?

Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said "The most dependable handhold on faith is: love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah." [At-Tirmidhee]

Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said "Whoever loves for Allah, hates for Allah, gives for Allah, and withholds for Allah, has sought the completion of his faith." [Abu Dawood]