IMAN WAVE EQUATION

Iman, like a wave, is a concept that can be characterized by its ups and downs. A wave is a disturbance that travels through a medium, transporting energy from one location to another without transporting matter. Similarly, Iman is a concept that can increase and decrease. The Qur'an and the Sunnah provide numerous examples that support the fact that Iman can rise and fall. For instance, Quran 4:136 urges believers to believe in Allah and His Messenger, while Quran 48:4 mentions that Allah sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers, increasing their faith along with their present faith. On the other hand, the Prophet SAW said that a fornicator who fornicates is not a believer while he is committing the act.

Just like a wave can be defined by an equation, Iman can be defined by its characteristics. The Iman wave can be described as a positive sine curve that starts from zero and goes up to a maximum of one before coming back down to zero and then dropping to a minimum of minus one before returning to zero. The disturbance in Iman changes with time, just like a wave.

A person who reverts to Islam starts with zero Iman and can increase it through good deeds. Conversely, bad deeds can decrease Iman. The default position for a believer is between zero and one, depending on the deeds performed. However, some sins can return a person to zero Iman while the action is ongoing, and afterward, the person would then move back to a position on the positive side lower than that before the sin. This volatility makes Iman similar to a wave, as it keeps changing and is never constant. All the states described above can be attained within a day, highlighting the peaks and troughs of the Iman wave.

Therefore, it is essential to remember that Iman is not an all-or-none phenomenon, but it increases and decreases. Identifying that we are always at risk of losing our Iman or at least reducing it should keep us on our toes. We should always strive to have a sufficiently high ground-state, our base-level of Iman. This level should be our default state, the one we find ourselves in most of the time. This way, we can 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. 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 pleased with us.