The Arabic word ihsan comes from the root letter husn meaning beauty, excellence or perfection. Ihsan is the highest culmination of spiritual devotion in Islam. In the prophetic tradition, ihsan implies excellence of the belief and beauty of the heart. Prophet Mohammad said: “Surely there is a small piece of flesh in the body; if it is perfect, the whole body is sound. But if it is polluted the whole body is contaminated. That is the heart.” Ihsan evokes in us a sense of social responsibility borne from deeper spiritual conviction. It strengthens one’s inner faith and precepts (iman) as well as the outer practices (islam). While islam relates to the exterior behaviour of a believer, iman enhances his/her faith and beliefs. Beyond all this, ihsan connects to the heart and soul uplifting their spiritual state.
Ihsan has been beautifully exemplified in a prophetic tradition popularly known as “hadith Gibrail”. The hadith goes like this: “One day, while the Prophet was sitting in the company of some people, the angel Gabriel came and asked: ‘O, Prophet, what is iman?’ The Prophet replied: ‘Iman is to believe in God, His angels, His apostles, and to believe in the meeting with God and in resurrection.’ Gabriel further asked: ‘What is islam?’ The Prophet answered: ‘To worship God alone and none else, to offer prayers perfectly, to pay the obligatory charity (zakat) and to observe fasts during the month of Ramzan.’ Then the angel further asked, ‘What is ihsan?’ The Prophet said: ‘To worship God as if you see Him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that He is seeing you.’” .
The Prophet has defined ihsan in a way which makes one strongly believe in the presence of God. Therefore, he urged people to pray to Allah as if they see Him, and even if they are not able to physically see Him, they must be sure that that Allah sees them. Thus, the Prophet, through the beautiful spiritual notion of ihsan, exhorts us to attain the beauty of heart and excellence of behaviour. One has to be excellent with all other creations with a firm belief in the presence of the Creator, the all-seer and the omnipresent. The universal Sufi concept of wahdatul wajud (unity of the being) also drives inspiration from the core of ihsan. When this state of spiritual devotion is attained, one acquires the excellence in his/her behaviour with all other beings. Inspired by this spiritual notion of ihsan, one does not offer an invocation to God merely as a ritual obligation. But rather, one worships God because s/he sees Him, and even if s/he does not, then God sees him for sure.
