Stages Of Faith In Hadith Jibreel
Iman, Islam and Ihsan are not different stages of faith instead, these are the actual requirements of faith. Iman relates to inner realization of faith and acceptance of that realization, Islam relates to external manifestation of that Iman while Ihsan being an attempt to express that Iman in the best possible way through one’s acts. Regarding Mushriks when it was said that Salah and Zakah are minimum acts required for their acceptance of Islam, is actually a legal requirement, not an actual criteria to judge someone’s true faith, which only God can judge. But at a human level, this demarcation was provided for them to differentiate between Muslims and Non-Muslims from a legal stand point, not from akhirah stand point. But as a principle, expression or external manifestation of faith will of course vary among individuals which also affects the ihsan part. Sometimes it goes high and sometimes it goes low within the same individual. It keeps varying but we as a human being have no yardstick to measure someone’s level of faith at any particular time. You may also find the following response helpful : Discussion 25671 • Reply 25768 Please watch this video as well if you haven’t already : https://youtu.be/2LRzFOpmP_I