2.2.2 Definition of Īmān

Īmān as Belief, Speech, and Action

In Islamic teaching, īmān is far more than a simple inner feeling or a verbal claim. The earliest generations of Muslims understood īmān as a reality that lives in the heart, appears on the tongue, and shows clearly in a person’s actions.

A concise definition used by many scholars is that īmān is belief in the heart, speech on the tongue, and actions of the limbs. This definition is not a human invention, it is drawn from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, which repeatedly connect faith with statements and deeds.

Allah describes true believers as people who believe, then act accordingly.

“Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds, they will have the Gardens of Paradise as a lodging.”
(Qur’an 18:107)

Here Allah does not separate belief from righteous action. Righteous deeds do not exist without īmān, and īmān is not complete without righteous deeds. The two are linked, yet they remain distinct. Belief is the foundation, actions are its fruits.

The Prophet ﷺ spoke of īmān in a way that includes all three dimensions. When the angel Jibrīl عليه السلام came in human form and asked him about īmān, he replied:

“Īmān is that you believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and that you believe in the divine decree, its good and its bad.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

This hadith focuses on what rests in the heart: strong acceptance and certainty regarding these unseen realities. Other hadiths show that īmān also appears on the tongue and in the limbs.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

“Īmān has over seventy branches, or over sixty branches. The highest of them is the statement ‘Lā ilāha illā Allāh,’ and the lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road, and modesty is a branch of īmān.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

In this hadith the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a statement on the tongue, a physical action, and an inner quality, and he called all of these “branches of īmān.” This shows that īmān is a complete structure made of different parts, not a single simple element.

We can now look more closely at each of its main parts.

Belief in the Heart

The core of īmān lies in the heart. It is not enough to know information about Allah or about Islam as facts. Īmān is a deep, firm acceptance and affirmation of what Allah has revealed, along with trust, love, and submission.

Allah describes the believers by what is inside their hearts:

“The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts tremble, and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in īmān, and upon their Lord they rely.”
(Qur’an 8:2)

This verse shows several aspects of īmān in the heart. There is fear and awe of Allah, emotional reaction to His words, and reliance upon Him. These are all inner states.

Another verse describes īmān as something that Allah plants and beautifies inside the heart:

“But Allah has made īmān beloved to you and has beautified it in your hearts, and has made disbelief, defiance, and disobedience hateful to you. Those are the rightly guided.”
(Qur’an 49:7)

So īmān is not a dry idea. It is a love for the truth that Allah sends, a hatred of disbelief and disobedience, and a deep contentment with Allah’s guidance.

This inner īmān includes believing in Allah, His angels, books, messengers, the Last Day, and the divine decree, as mentioned in the hadith of Jibrīl. It also includes sincerity, fear of Allah, hope in His mercy, love for Him, and trust in Him. These detailed parts will be discussed under other titles in the course, so here we only highlight that all of them belong to the heart and form the center of īmān.

Without this inner conviction, outward speech and action are empty. A person may say the right words or perform Islamic acts for worldly reasons, but if the heart does not truly believe and submit, that is not true īmān.

Speech of the Tongue

Īmān must also appear on the tongue. The most important and greatest expression of the tongue is the shahādah, “Lā ilāha illā Allāh, Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh.” By this clear statement, a person shows what is in the heart and enters Islam.

Allah links belief with speech:

“Say, ‘We have believed in Allah and in what has been revealed to us and what has been revealed to Ibrāhīm, Ismāʿīl, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, and the Descendants, and in what was given to Mūsā and ʿĪsā and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.’”
(Qur’an 2:136)

The command “Say” indicates speech that reflects inner belief. The tongue is a witness for what the heart holds. In the hadith of the branches of īmān, the Prophet ﷺ explicitly called the statement “Lā ilāha illā Allāh” the highest branch of īmān.

“The highest of them is the statement ‘Lā ilāha illā Allāh.’”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

Other verbal acts such as reciting the Qur’an, remembering Allah, making duʿā, and enjoining good or forbidding wrong are also connected to īmān. For beginners it is enough to understand that īmān cannot remain permanently hidden inside. It shows itself by the words a believer chooses, what the believer praises, what the believer avoids, and how the believer mentions Allah and His religion.

However, speech alone does not guarantee true īmān. The Qur’an warns about people who said the right words without real belief in their hearts.

“The Bedouins say, ‘We have believed.’ Say, ‘You have not believed, but say instead, “We have submitted,” for īmān has not yet entered your hearts.’”
(Qur’an 49:14)

This verse shows a clear difference between outward submission and real īmān. It also proves that īmān is something that “enters” the heart and then appears on the tongue and in actions.

Actions of the Limbs

Īmān also includes the actions of the body. Praying, giving zakāh, fasting, performing ḥajj, and all other acts of worship and obedience are signs and branches of īmān.

Allah repeatedly describes the believers as those who “believe and do righteous deeds.”

“And those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will surely admit them among the righteous.”
(Qur’an 29:9)

If actions were completely separate from īmān, this constant pairing would lose its meaning. Instead, Allah is teaching that true faith leads to action, and that righteous actions arise from genuine īmān.

The hadith about the branches of īmān gives a simple example of how even a small physical act can be part of faith.

“The lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

This is a very small deed, yet the Prophet ﷺ counted it as a branch of īmān. It springs from concern for others and a desire to please Allah, so it becomes a part of one’s faith.

There is another well known hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ links īmān to modesty, which is partly an inner feeling and partly a visible behavior.

“Modesty is a branch of īmān.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

Actions do not replace belief in the heart, but they complete it. A heart that truly believes will eventually show that belief on the outside. When the heart is strong in īmān, the limbs rush to obey Allah. When the heart is weak, laziness in worship and boldness in sin appear.

It is important to note that not all actions have the same weight in īmān. Some deeds are essential pillars, such as the daily prayers, and others are additional good deeds. The details of the major obligations and how they relate to faith will be covered in the sections about religion and worship, so here we focus only on the general link between action and īmān.

Īmān Is Not Just Claim or Identity

Because īmān has these three parts, it is very different from simply belonging to a religious group by name or family background. Calling oneself a Muslim does not automatically mean that īmān is present and strong. The Qur’an records people in the time of the Prophet ﷺ who claimed faith with their tongues only.

“And among the people are some who say, ‘We believe in Allah and the Last Day,’ but they are not believers.”
(Qur’an 2:8)

Their claim did not match their hearts or their actions. This teaches that īmān is a living reality, not a label. It must be present inside, spoken sincerely, and acted upon.

At the same time, īmān is not perfect or identical in every person. It can be strong or weak, clear or mixed with shortcomings. The discussion of whether īmān increases and decreases and how that works comes under another title, so in this chapter we simply emphasize that īmān is more than a one time statement. It is a continuing state of heart, tongue, and body.

The Prophet ﷺ warned against treating faith as a mere name without substance. He said:

“None of you truly believes until his desire follows what I have brought.”
(Reported in al Nawawī’s Arbaʿīn with supporting chains)

This hadith shows that īmān involves inner agreement and outward conformity to the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ. It is not an empty attachment, but a real commitment that affects how a person lives.

Īmān and the Unseen

Another important part of the definition of īmān is that it is closely tied to belief in the unseen. Human senses are limited, but Allah informs us about realities that cannot be seen directly in this world, such as angels, the hereafter, and the divine decree.

At the very beginning of Sūrah al Baqarah, Allah describes the people who benefit from the Qur’an as:

“Those who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them.”
(Qur’an 2:3)

Belief in the unseen is at the heart of īmān. It is a trust in Allah’s truthful words and in the truthfulness of His messengers. The prayer and spending mentioned in the same verse show again that belief leads to action.

When Jibrīl عليه السلام asked the Prophet ﷺ about īmān, the Prophet’s answer centered on these unseen matters.

“Īmān is that you believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and that you believe in the divine decree, its good and its bad.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

These foundations of faith will each be treated separately in the chapters about the pillars of faith. Here, what matters is to see that īmān is, by definition, acceptance of what Allah has told us about the unseen, based on trust and certainty, not on direct physical observation.

This also distinguishes īmān from mere opinion or habit. A person of īmān chooses to submit to the knowledge that comes from Allah, confident that Allah does not mislead and that His words are completely true.

The Inner Reality behind Outward Islam

In the overall structure of the religion, Islam refers to outward submission, īmān refers to inner belief, and iḥsān refers to excellence in worship. They are closely related, but they are not identical. The detailed relationship between these three is covered in the parent chapter, so here we only mention how īmān fits into that picture.

If Islam is like the visible body of the religion, then īmān is like its heart. The body shows movement, but the heart gives life. Without īmān, outward acts lose their true purpose. With īmān, even small deeds gain great value, because they are driven by love, fear, and hope in Allah.

Allah describes the companions of the Prophet ﷺ in a verse that uses an image of a growing plant, linking inner and outer aspects of faith.

“Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are harsh against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating, seeking bounty from Allah and His pleasure. Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration. That is their description in the Torah. And their description in the Gospel is like a seed that sends forth its shoot, then strengthens it, and it becomes thick and stands upon its stem, delighting the sowers, so that He may enrage the disbelievers through them. Allah has promised those among them who believe and do righteous deeds forgiveness and a great reward.”
(Qur’an 48:29)

Their īmān in the heart leads to visible actions like bowing and prostrating. Over time that īmān grows stronger and more stable, just as a plant grows from a small shoot into a firm stalk. This image helps a beginner understand that īmān is both an inner reality and a growing journey.

A Practical Summary of the Definition

From the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the understanding of the early Muslims, we can summarize the definition of īmān as follows.

The heart knows, accepts, and submits, the tongue declares and remembers, and the limbs act and obey. All three together form the complete picture of īmān for which Allah has promised forgiveness and Paradise.

“But those who believe and do righteous deeds, those are the companions of Paradise, abiding therein forever.”
(Qur’an 2:82)

For someone beginning to learn about Islam, it is enough at this stage to remember these key points. Īmān is more than identity or words. It is a living, growing light in the heart, which shows itself through truthful speech and sincere righteous deeds.