Faith and Belief

Belief and faith as used in 21st-century English, have overlapping meanings. In fact, in the several dictionaries I consulted, each term is used in part to define the other. But I think we can say that to recognize that God exists, that God is “there,” is to believe in.God alone is the Almighty, the Creator, the Sovereign, and the Sustainer of everything in the whole universe. He manages all affairs. He stands in need of none of His creatures, and all His creatures depend on Him for all that they need. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, and the All-Knowing. In a perfect manner, His knowledge encompasses all things, the open and the secret, and the public and the private. He knows what has happened, what will happen, and how it will happen. No affair occurs in the whole world except by His will. Whatever He wills is, and whatever He does not will is not and will never be. His will is above the will of all the creatures. He has power over all things, and He is able to do everything. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and the Most Beneficent. In one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad , we are told that God is more merciful to His creatures than a mother to her child.

God is far removed from injustice and tyranny. He is All-Wise in all of His actions and decrees. If someone wants something from God, he or she can ask God directly without asking anyone else to intercede with God for him or her.What is your faith, asked the person sitting next to me at an airport transit lounge whom I had befriended while waiting for my next flight, that was delayed by several hours. I had started a conversation with him which turned into some kind of metaphysical discussion about the purpose of human life,

when he politely asked me the above question. I, in turn, asked him, What do you mean by faith, he replied, You know, everybody has a faith, except, of course, atheists. I continued, This does not explain what is meant by faith. To this, he gave the following explanation: A Christian's faith is Christianity; a Jew's faith is Judaism; a Muslim's faith is Islam; and so on. It seemed to me that my new friend thought that he had a good deal of understanding in this matter. I interrupted, But you are talking about religion. He continued, Yes, kind of but religion is different from faith. For example, a Christian's faith is Christianity but his religion could be Catholicism, Protestantism, etc.

According to my friend's logic, then, a Muslim's faith is Islam and his religion could be well Sunni or Shia etc. But that is not how most Muslims think, I told my friend; Muslims think that their faith is Islam—which is their religion. I then asked my friend, What do you mean by religion, At this point, he gave a long sermon type lecture: Religion is too complex to understand. It is a private matter between man and God, and your faith is your personal subjective belief in Him in whatever way you prefer. God is merciful, very forgiving. So, He will forgive any mistakes we humans make. It really makes us all feel very good that when we commit sins and pray and ask for forgiveness from God, He forgives. All praise be to Him who is so forgiving. When God is so generous and gracious that, whether or not we really understand the meaning of faith, or any other religious concept for that matter; and since He is going to forgive us anyway, then why bother exploring these concepts in great detail and depth. Let us keep following what our ancestors and scholars have explained. After all, they were great people and great scholars. They traveled long distances, suffered greatly in search of truth and knowledge and took extreme care to preserve and transmit that knowledge to us so that our lives become easier and successful in the sight of God. We will get all the rewards and go to heaven by simply practicing our faiths the way our forefathers told us. It is wrong to question and deviate from what they have passed on to us.