assent of the heart2 and the carrying into practice of what is believed,3 as in this verse: “And those who believe in Allāh and His Messengers, they are the truthful and the faithful ones with their Lord” (57:19).

The word īmān is, however, also used in either of the two latter senses, meaning simply the assent of the heart or the doing of good deeds. Examples of this are: “The dwellers of the desert say: We believe (āmanna). Say: You believe not, but say, We submit; and faith has not yet entered into your hearts” (49:14). Here belief clearly stands for the assent of the heart as explained in the verse itself. Or, “What reason have you that you believe not in Allāh? And the Messenger invites you that you may believe in your Lord and He has indeed made a covenant with you if you are believers” (57:8), where “believe in Allāh” means make sacrifices in the cause of truth, as the context shows. Thus the word īmān , as used in the Holy Qur’ān, signifies either simply a confession of the truth with the tongue, or simply an assent of the heart and a firm conviction of the truth brought by the Holy Prophet, or the doing of good deeds and carrying into practice of the principle accepted, or it may signify a combination of the three. Generally, however, it is employed to indicate an assent of the heart, combined, of course, with a confession with the tongue, to what the prophets bring from God, as distinguished from the doing of good deeds, and hence it is that the righteous, as already remarked, are spoken of as those who believe and do good.

Īmān in Ḥadīth

In Ḥadīth, the word īmān is frequently used in its wider sense, that is to say, as including good deeds, and sometimes simply as standing for good deeds. Thus the Holy Prophet is reported to have said: “Īmān (faith) has over sixty branches, and modesty (hayā’) is a branch of faith” (Bu. 2:3). In another ḥadīth the words are: “Imān has over seventy branches, the highest of which is (the belief) that nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allāh (Lā ilāha ill-Allāh), and the lowest of which is the removal from the way of that which might cause injury to any one” (M. 1:10). According to one report: “Love of the Anṣār4 is a sign of faith” (Bu. 2:10); according to another: “One of