IMAN
WAVE EQUATION
In physics, a wave is a disturbance that travels through a
medium, transporting energy from one location (its source) to another location
without transporting matter. A wave is characterised by its frequency, wavelength
and amplitude. Full disclosure: I absolutely cherished the moments I studied waves
during my secondary school days.
Waves can be defined by the wave equation, Asin(kx-wt), where A stands for the
Amplitude of the wave which is the distance of maximum displacement. From the angular velocity (w), the frequency of
the wave can be determined. The frequency and wavelength are related by the wave
speed. Frequency refers to the number of cycles a wave goes through per unit
time (second) and the wavelength refers to the distance between two successive
peaks of a wave. There is another characteristic, Period, which refers to the
time it takes the wave to complete one circle.
Well, for those who aren’t fans of physics jargons, the point
is that one equation can completely describe a wave. And the resulting wave
graph is a sine curve starting from zero, to a maximum of one then back to zero
then to a minimum of minus one and back to zero. It is continuous like the regular
sine curve. The disturbance changes with time.
This is why the first time I pondered on the fact that Iman
increases and reduces, it just clicked that Iman is like a wave.
So many evidences can be gotten from the Qur’an and the
sunnah to support the fact that Iman rises and fall. In Quran 4:136 Allah says:
“O you who believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger…”Also in Qur’an 48:4
Allah says: “It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers
that they would increase in faith along with their (present) faith…”
The Prophet SAW said: “A fornicator who fornicates is not a
believer while he fornicates…” (Sahih Musllim 57). The three evidences above
give the following conclusions:
1.
Iman can increase, based
on the first two proofs
2.
Iman can reduce, since a
fornicator is not a believer (zero Iman) while he fornicates
3.
Iman increases with good
deeds and reduces with bad deeds
Since it has been established that Iman is not an all or none
phenomenon, but it increases and decreases, next is to show the similarities
between Iman and the wave. And to do this, it would be more practical to disregard
the negative side of the graph, though it can also be explained away.
A person who reverts to Islam starts from zero to any where
between zero and one, ie a positive value for Iman. As the person increases in
good deeds, Iman increases. Bad deeds decrease the Iman. The default is for a
believer to be in between zero and one depending on the deeds performed. When a
person leaves Islam, he goes back to zero. In addition, like the example given
above of a fornicator, some sins return a person to zero Iman while the action
is ongoing. Afterwards, a person would then move back to a position on the positive
side lower than that before the sin. The more reason Iman is like a wave is because
it keeps changing and is never constant. All the states described above can be
attained within a day. A person can wake up a muslim at the beginning of a day
and by nightfall, the person has left Islam. Iman is that volatile. The peaks
and troughs of a wave apply perfectly to our states of Iman.
Now what’s the call to action? One may ask. Identifying that
we are always at risk of losing our Iman or at the very least our Iman reducing,
should keep us on our toes. We should always strive to make sure we have a
sufficiently high ground-state, our base-level of Iman. A level we find
ourselves in most of the time. This is a way to give ourselves some level of
protection. Most importantly, we should understand and remember that the hearts
belong to Allah. We should then seek his aid as we strive to be better. Furthermore,
we should avoid judging and looking down on others just because we feel that we
are better than them in good deeds or Iman. In fact, an attribute of a good believer
is that he never assumes he’s better than others just because of his good deeds.
May Almighty Allah increase us all in faith and may we die in a state where He’s
most happy with us.
