01. What Is Im'aan

**Definition from Muntakah-e-Hadith…

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**Ima’an is to negate basar and to affirm khabar,

**To negate what you see and perceive with your own eyes and affirm what Allah swt has informed you in the Quran.

**Everything in this world is a curtain or cover for the Qudra or power of Allah.

Behind all the means of this world is God’s infinite power doing everything. The cover is there to test you. Will you believe in what you see and perceive or what you’re told by Allah.

Ima’an is to negate basar and to affirm khabar, to negate what you see with your own eyes and affirm what Allah informed you in the Quran.

Take for example how we believe that medicine cures. This is met with the verse in the Quran where Allah informs us. And he alone heals me when I am sick. We believe that medicine cures, but Allah tells us he cures. So which is it? And if Allah cures, then what’s the role of medicine?

Many Muslims, in my humble opinion, have the role and purpose of Allah creating asbab or the means of this world confused. Not because they’re bad or even mistaught. Although many Muslims haven’t received a proper education in theology where these matters are usually discussed, the real reason for the confusion is due to what scientists call classical conditioning.

=== Thus, at their core, all means are nothing but transient appearances—thoughts and perceptions shaped by the mind and contingent upon Allah’s command. Understanding this leads to a higher conviction that we should not rely on these fleeting forms but rather on Allah swt, who is the true source behind every perception and every event.

The Goal of Tawheed: La Ilaha Illa Allah

The central message of La ilaha illa Allah is that there is no deity, no power, and no source of benefit or harm except Allah. The instruments of the world are contingent and dependent; they have no independent reality. Our attachment to them is a distraction from the ultimate truth that Allah alone is the doer of all things. The means we see in the world—whether financial, astronomical, biological, or psychological—are nothing but veils that obscure our understanding of Allah’s direct and unmediated power.

“And whatever strikes you of disaster, it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much” (Quran 42:30). Here, Allah reminds us that even the calamities we face—whether through financial loss, natural disasters, or personal hardship—are part of His divine decree. The world, with all its complexity and appearances of independent mechanisms, is merely an arena in which Allah’s will is being carried out.

The aim of life and of La ilaha illa Allah is to rid the heart of reliance on anything other than Allah.

When we perceive the world with the conviction that all things — be they wealth, power, celestial bodies, or personal emotions—are only instruments of Allah’s will, we free ourselves from false attachments.

We begin to see that everything is an opportunity to witness the divine power of Allah’ swt.

It is He who provides, He who takes, He who gives life, and He who causes death. Allah is the ultimate doer of all things.