This document provides practical tips for recognizing and building a fundamental state of faith or Imaan based on the Quran and Sunnah. It discusses signs that indicate strong or weak Imaan, such as consistency in praying salah and avoiding distractions. It recommends focusing on salah, creating an environment free of Satan's influence by removing distractions, and filling one's environment with reminders of Allah to strengthen Imaan. Building Imaan requires intense desire and effort through salah, choosing environments that support faith, and sincere prayers to Allah.

1. Abdul Jaleel Tharayil
Farwania - Kuwait
FAITH OR IMAAN
How to recognize and build a fundamental state of Imaan
Practical tips in the Light of Quran and Sunnah

2. Discussion Trigger!
 How many of us who pray Maghreb in the
Masjid knew the benefits of praying Faj’r in
Jama’at? But give-in to the desires of sleeping
and loose the golden opportunity to Pray Faj’r
in the Masjid?
 What do you think is the reason?
 why some people can and why some
people can’t?
 Key Point : The difference is the difference
between people who have Imaan and people
who have weak Imaan

3. Imaan – What does it look like?
You have it when you know (that):
 You develop real tension between your current state
of Imaan and vision state of Imaan. And this
tension takes you to a different level and you start
praying for guidance from Allah! [as you seem to have lost
trust in the ‘Party Daees’]
 You start getting new insights or inspiration from
the same information (Hadith) that you may have
heard a 100 times before, but didn’t help
 You start meeting people who speak the same
language you wanted to hear on Faith and Islam.

4. Imaan – What does it look like?
 You have it when you know (that):
 You start building a habit of praying to
Allah for everything or every problem you
face, before seeking any worldly
interventions
 You develop a habit of making Wuzu
/Ablution immediately after you broke
your Wuzu (especially returning from
Toilet)

5. Imaan - what does it look like?
 You have it when you know that :
 When you start talking about someone, even
if it’s about his/her Imaan, you tend to feel
your Imaan is decreasing suddenly and you
can feel it (as you might get late to Masjid or
Even you loose the Jama’t prayer) the same
day and same time, immediately after the
conversation.
 You feel like you have slept for 8 hrs
(sufficiently enough), even though you may
have slept only 3 of 4 hrs – You get ‘Baraka’
in time

6. Imaan – How can you feel it?
 You tend to feel sad for the time you are
spending on worldly events – Even attending
so called ‘Islamic’ Lectures devoid of Hadith
and Quran
 You don’t loose a Jama’t Prayer (Especially
Fajr and Isha)
 You don’t pass a day without reciting the
Tasbeeh (100 times) in the morning and in
the evening

7. Imaan – How can you feel it?
 When you feel unhappy about going to Fajar Prayers,
you seek Allah’s help to take you to Masjid and you
win over the Satan.
 Unknowingly, you develop a habit of praying to Allah
for everything or every problem, either - small or big,
before seeking any worldly interventions
 Any non-engaged time (waiting time/taxi/program
start) is very constructively used for reciting Tasbeeh

8. Imaan – How can you feel it?
 You develop a habit of making Wuzu /Ablution
immediately after it has been broken
 Honestly, you start attributing your small gains
to the deeds that you perform for the sake of
Allah!
 You feel like you have slept for 8 hrs, even
though you may have slept only 3 of 4 hrs
-you get ‘Baraka’ in time

9. Imaan – How can you feel it?
 You tend to feel Baraka in your earnings – You are
able to meet increased demands at home with the
same amount of money or even less.
 Honestly, when you start really praying for your
brethren, you start getting the benefits that you wish
for your brethren and start attributing it to your
prayers.

10. Imaan - what are the poor signs
 You don’t really benefit from Salah
 In the first Raka’a
 You find yourself yawning during the prayers
 You find yourself thinking about worldly affairs
immediately after Takbeerathul-ehraam
 In the consecutive Raka’aths
 You are unsure of whether you recited the Fatiha
or not
 You get calls on the phone

11. Imaan - what are the poor signs
You find yourself using your logic quite often as
against Hadith as a means to convince yourself in
the affairs of Imaan
You keep hearing Hadith and Quran from all
directions but nothing happens to you – Dangerous
State.
You find it tough to get to Faj’r /Isha prayers
You don’t get a chance to read Quran (You seem to
have lost Baraka in time)

12. Imaan - what are the poor signs
 You carry your mobile to Masjid quite frequently
and forget to switch it off even during the prayers,
especially Faj’r
 You find yourself sleeping late night, but you don’t
consider this as a reason for your delayed/ Late
Fajr prayers
 Your mobile ring tones are music or cinema songs

13. Imaan - what are the poor signs
 You enjoy watching TV in the pre-text of watching
news channels, but all the time you end-up
watching half-naked men/women in between and
that is what sticks to your brain
 The first thing you do in the morning is reading
newspaper, even before you read Quran after Faji’r,
especially when you are a Keralite!

14. How can we work towards building
a basic state of Imaan?

15. Who can build it ?
What kind of people are they?
 Must have the intense desire for Imaan
 Must be praying to Allah with an extreme desire to gain that state
of Imaan.
 Must be absolutely unhappy about your current state of Imaan. If
you are not, it’s extremely difficult to get it.
 Must be willing to take extreme and concrete steps towards
achieving it [Example, Remove TV from home or cut cable connection]
Key Point: Ask yourself, are you one among them?

16. How do you build a fundamental state of Imaan
Co-creating approaches to deal with that change!

17. 1. Salah – The most important pillar!
 Have intense desire to improve Salah!
 Have the intention in the mind that you are
making Wuzu to improve the current state of
your Salah
 Do Wuzu properly – Wash all the prescribed
area properly and then take a couple of minutes
to pray and seek Allah’s help to improve your
Salah (i.e. to ask Allah’ not to have any
presence of Satan during your prayers)
 Avoid any situations like, just get up from
watching TV and go to Masjid in a fraction of a
second.

18. 1. Salah – the Most important pillar
 Make sure you Pray prescribed Sunnah
Before Salah (you have to enforce)
 Seek Allah’s help before Pray to have
Malaika’s presence
 Immediately after prayer, Seek Allah’s help
for any shortcoming that may have on your
prayers
 Pray Sunnah after and seek Allah’s help to
bring you the next Salah in Jama’at and
much better form and shape.

19. 2. Environment - Avoid environments of
Satan’s presence
 Avoid items like Shapes and statues of
Living things at home, Hanging on the wall
or somewhere.
 Not to have TV/Music at home
 Avoid having photo albums and things like
your wedding Albums

20. 2. Environment - Avoid environments of
Satan’s presence
 Avoid Literature consisting of Haraam
 Avoid people visiting your home after Zuhar
and before Asar on weekends
 Don’t entertain any worldy conversation
after Isha Prayers [except the ones that you
have with your life partner ]

21. 3. Environment - Create environments
of Malaika’s presence
 Read and recite Quran at home Daily
 Read Tasbeeh in the morning and evening
 Just Before Maghreb close the doors and
keep your children inside home until
Maghreb prayer is over (at the least)
 Throw away TV/Music instruments

22. 3. Environment - Create environments
of Malaika’s presence
 Think about people who don’t have many of
the things you have. Think about people
who earn 10 times less than you even when
they were 10 times better than you in your
college/school
 Review your showcase, and throw away any
of the statues and shapes of Living things
kept at home for decoration or whatever

23. 3. Environment - Create environments
of Malaika’s presence
 Ensure your prayers are in adherence to the
principles stated i.e. you don’t feel the presence
of Satan when in prostration
 Unintentionally or intentionally you don’t get
the feeling of weariness/tiredness/exhaust
 Nothing of worldly affairs should be allowed to
get into your mind during prayers

24. Environment - Create environments of
Malaika’s presence
 Constant and continuous intensive desirous
prayers for everything
 It can’t be coming out of the mouth, it
should be coming from your heart.
 Must believe that every Problem/Solution
comes from Allah

25. Jazakallah
Khair!
Provide your comments &
mail me back at
abdul.tharayil@gmail.com