The Meaning of Worshipping Allah as If You See Him and the Ranks of Ihsan
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
And so, Islam is that you worship Allah as if you see Him, and that Allah sees you, and that you pray upon Him. But what does it mean to worship Allah as if you see Him, and is this rank higher than the rank before it?
The Shaykh:
Yes, "as if you see Him" refers to the strength of certainty in Allah and faith in Allah, to the point that it is as if you see Allah (Mighty and Majestic). If you do not reach this rank, then you know that He sees you; you know that He sees you, so you avoid what He hates and what He dislikes, because He sees you always and forever. This is also a high rank called the rank of muraqabah (watchfulness of Allah), watching over Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He).
The questioner:
First.
The Shaykh:
Ihsan is of two types: one type is as if one sees Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), and the other type is knowing that Allah sees, and believing in that. Yes.
And so, Islam is that you worship Allah as if you see Him, and that Allah sees you, and that you pray upon Him. But what does it mean to worship Allah as if you see Him, and is this rank higher than the rank before it?
The Shaykh:
Yes, "as if you see Him" refers to the strength of certainty in Allah and faith in Allah, to the point that it is as if you see Allah (Mighty and Majestic). If you do not reach this rank, then you know that He sees you; you know that He sees you, so you avoid what He hates and what He dislikes, because He sees you always and forever. This is also a high rank called the rank of muraqabah (watchfulness of Allah), watching over Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He).
The questioner:
First.
The Shaykh:
Ihsan is of two types: one type is as if one sees Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), and the other type is knowing that Allah sees, and believing in that. Yes.
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية [ صالح الفوزان ] [ الشرح القديم ]، بداية من قوله : وقوله : ( ألا تأمنوني وأنا أمين من في السماء ) — islamhouse.com (1:06:44)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.