The information grasped by sense organs and mind are helpful to attain iman. Scientific knowledge helps one understand and know that the orderliness, the regularity of the universe is not accidental and there is one creator. Thus it helps one attain iman. iman means to learn the knowledge brought by the last prophet Hadrat Muhammad ’alaihis-salam from Allahu ta’ala and to believe them. It is to disbelieve in the Prophets if one says, “I will believe them on the condition that they are in accordance with the mind.” The religious knowledge are not the findings of the possessors of reason. What our Prophet Hadrat Muhammad ’alaihis-salam communicated must be learned from the books of the Ahl as- Sunnat scholars and they must be believed accordingly. To have a correct and acceptable belief, it is necessary to abide by
the below mentioned conditions as well:
1- Iman must be continuous and steadfast. We must not intend to abandon it even for a moment. Anyone who desires to become a disbeliever three years later becomes a disbeliever as soon as one wishes that.
2- The faith of the believer must be between hawf (fear) and raja (hope). We must fear the torment of Allahu ta’ala, however, we must not give up hope of His rahmat (Allah’s Mercy). We must beware of each and every sin; we must fear that we might lose our iman due to our sins. Even if one has committed every sinful deed, one must not be destitute of hope of being forgiven by Allahu ta’ala. We must repent of our sins. For, those who repent of sins are like as if they never committed them.
3- One must have faith before his soul reaches the throat (during his death). When the soul reaches the throat, one is shown all the events of the Hereafter. At that time, every disbeliever wants to have the faith. However, iman must be in the unseen. It is necessary to believe before seeing it. After you have seen it, it is not iman any more. However, the repentance of the believers is acceptable at that moment.
4- One must have iman before the sun rises in the west. One of the major symptoms of Doomsday is that the sun rises in the west. All people who see this will believe. However, their iman will not nbe accepted. The gate of repentance will have been closed then.
5- One must believe that no one except Allahu ta’ala knows the ghayb, the hidden things. That is, only Allahu ta’ala knows the ghayb. Those who are informed by Him of the hidden things know them as well. Angels, genies, devils, even Prophets cannot know the ghayb. However, if Allah informs His prophets or His dear slaves, then they also know it.
6- One must not deny, without having been forced or doing so deliberately, any rule of the religion pertaining to the belief or the worships. It is disbelief to slight the Ahkam-i islamiyya, that is, one
of the commands or the prohibitions of Islam, to make mockery of the Qur’ân al-karim, angels or one of the Prophets, or to deny – without having been forced – anything communicated by them. He who verbally denies the existence of Allahu ta’ala, angels, the fard, quality of ghusl or namaz, due to a strong necessity such as being threatened with murder, does not become a disbeliever.
7- One must not doubt or hesitate about the indispensable knowledge openly communicated by the Islamic religion. It causes disbelief if one doubts whether namaz is fard, or whether drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages, gambling, interest (riba’), bribery are haram (forbidden). To say haram about a well known halal or to say halal about a well known haram causes disbelief
8- Iman must be in accordance with what Islam communicated (The faith must be based on Islam). To believe in the things understood by mind, or to believe the religion according to statements of philosophers or false scientists is not iman. One must believe in the manner communicated by Muhammad ’alaihissalam.
9- Those who have faith must love only for the sake of Allahu ta’ala and they must feel enmity only for the sake of Allahu ta’ala. It is necessary to love Muslims who are loved by Allahu ta’ala and to dislike people who commit animosities toward Islam by hand or by pen. This enmity must take place in the heart. [We must treat non-Muslim citizens or foreigners with a smiling face and gentle words. With our beautiful ethics, we must make them love our religion.]
10- It is necessary to believe in the manner which true Muslims who do not leave the right path shown by our Prophet ’alaihissalam and his Companions. To have a correct belief, one must believe according to the tenets of the creed of Ahl as-Sunnat waljama’at. [A person who adheres to the true religious books written by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat will attain thawab (blessings, rewards in the Hereafter) equal to the total sum of the thawab that will be given to a hundred people who have attained martyrdom.
The scholars affiliated in any one of the four Madhhabs of Muslims are (scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat). Imam a’zam Abu Hanifa is the leader of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. Rasulullah ’alaihissalam stated to his Sahaba the facts which Allahu ta’ala dictated to him. And the Sahasaba, in their turn, conveyed those facts to their disciples (the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat), who in their turn wrote them in their books.]