الْمُؤْمِنُ

أصلُ الإيمان في اللغة التصديقُ والثقة؛ يقال: ما آمنتُ أن أجد صحابةً، أي ما وثقتُ، والمؤمنُ من الخلق هو الواثقُ بما يعتقده، المستحكمُ الثقة. وله في صفة الله وجهان جامعان: أحدُهما من الإيمان بمعنى التصديق، فهو الذي يصدّق وعدَه لعباده، ويصدّق ظنونَ المؤمنين به فلا يخيّب آمالهم، ويشهد لنفسه بالوحدانية؛ والآخرُ من الأمان، فهو الذي يُؤمِّن عبادَه المؤمنين من عذابه، ويُؤمِّن خلقَه من ظلمه، كما يقال: آمن فلانٌ فلانًا، إذا أعطاه أمانًا يسكن إليه. وقد أقسم النابغة بـ«المؤمن» الذي آمن الطيرَ العائذات بالحرم.

The root of īmān in Arabic is confirming as true, and trusting: mā āmantu an ajida ṣaḥābatan means “I did not trust that I would find companions”, and a believer among creatures is one who trusts firmly in what he holds. Said of Allah, the Name gathers two meanings. From īmān as confirmation: He is the One who makes His promise to His servants come true, who confirms the good hopes the believers place in Him and never disappoints them, and who bears witness to His own Oneness. From amān, safety: He is the One who makes His believing servants safe from His punishment, and all His creation safe from any wrong from Him — as one says āmana fulānun fulānan when he grants someone protection to rest in. The poet an-Nābighah swore by “the Muʾmin who made the birds that take refuge in the Sanctuary safe”.

هو الذي يُعزى إليه كلُّ أمنٍ وأمان، لأنه المُفيدُ لأسبابه، السادُّ لطرق المخاوف. والعبدُ ضعيفٌ في أصل فطرته: عُرضةٌ للمرض والجوع والعطش من باطنه، وللآفات المُحرقة والمُغرقة والجارحة من ظاهره؛ فالذي أعدّ الأدويةَ لأمراضه، والأطعمةَ لجوعه، والأشربةَ لعطشه، والأعضاءَ دفاعًا عن بدنه، والحواسَّ جواسيسَ تنذره بما يقترب من مهلكاته، هو المؤمنُ حقًّا. ثمّ أعظمُ خوف العبد من هلاك الآخرة، ولا يحصّنه منه إلا التوحيد، واللهُ هاديه إليه ومرغّبُه فيه. فلا أمنَ في العالم إلا وهو مستفادٌ بأسبابٍ هو المتفرّدُ بخلقها، والهدايةِ إلى استعمالها. فإن قيل: هو الذي يُخيف عبادَه، فكيف يُنسب إليه الأمن؟ قال الغزالي: الخوفُ منه والأمنُ منه، وكونُه مَخوفًا لا يمنع كونَه مؤمِّنًا، كما أنّ كونه خافضًا لم يمنع كونه رافعًا.

He is the One to whom every safety and security is traced, for He supplies their means and bars the roads of fear. The servant is weak in his very making: exposed within to sickness, hunger and thirst, and without to burning, drowning and wounding. The One who readied remedies for his illnesses, food for his hunger, drink for his thirst, limbs to defend his body and senses as scouts to warn him of what draws near to destroy him — He is al-Muʾmin in truth. And the servant’s greatest fear is of ruin in the Hereafter, against which nothing fortifies him but tawḥīd; Allah guides him to it and makes him long for it. So there is no safety anywhere in the world but it is drawn from means that He alone creates, and that He alone guides us to use. If it is said, “But He is the One who makes His servants afraid — how can safety be traced to Him?”, al-Ghazālī answers: fear is from Him and safety is from Him; that He is to be feared does not stop Him being the Giver of safety, just as His abasing does not stop Him from raising up.

حظُّ العبد من هذا الاسم أن يأمنه الخلقُ كلُّهم، بل يرجو كلُّ خائفٍ أن يعتضد به في دفع الهلاك عن نفسه في دينه ودنياه؛ وقد قال سيّدُنا رسولُ الله ﷺ: «المؤمنُ من أمِنه الناسُ على دمائهم وأموالهم». وأحقُّ العباد بهذا الاسم من كان سببًا لأمن الخلق من عذاب الله، بالهداية إلى طريقه والإرشاد إلى سبيل النجاة، وهذه حرفةُ الأنبياء والعلماء؛ وقد مثّل ﷺ نفسَه برجلٍ يأخذ بحُجَز الناس وهم يتهافتون في النار تهافتَ الفراش. ومن معاني هذا الاسم في حقّ العبد أن يُحسن الظنّ بربّه، فإنّ الله عند ظنّ عبده به، فمن ظنّ به الأمانَ أمّنه.

The servant’s share of this Name is that all creatures feel safe from him — more, that everyone who is afraid hopes to find in him a support against what threatens him in his religion and his world. The Prophet ﷺ said: “The believer is the one whom people trust with their lives and their wealth.” The servant most deserving of this Name is the one who becomes a cause of people’s safety from Allah’s punishment, by guiding them to His road and showing them the way of rescue — the craft of the prophets and the scholars. The Prophet ﷺ likened himself to a man catching people by their waist-wraps as they rush into the fire like moths. And part of this Name in the servant is to think well of his Lord: Allah is as His servant thinks of Him, and whoever expects safety from Him, He makes safe.

قال القشيري: العبدُ يؤمن بالله، واللهُ يؤمّنه. فمن صدّق ربَّه صدّق اللهُ ظنَّه، ومن استجار به أجاره. وحكى عن أبي يزيد البسطامي أنه قال: هممتُ أن أدعو الله أن يكفيني شهواتِ نفسي، ثمّ قلتُ: إنّ رسول الله ﷺ لم يسأل ذلك، فتركتُ هذا الدعاء، فكفاني الله شهواتِ نفسي ببركة اتّباع السنّة. فأعظمُ الأمان أمانُ القلب من نفسه، ولا يُنال إلا بالاتّباع؛ ومن دخل حصنَ السنّة أمِن. واعلم أنّ المشابهة في الأسماء لا تقتضي المشابهة في الذوات: فالعبدُ مؤمنٌ بإيمانٍ مخلوقٍ أُفيض عليه، واللهُ هو المؤمنُ الذي أفاضه.

Al-Qushayrī says: the servant believes in Allah, and Allah makes him safe. Whoever holds his Lord true, Allah makes his good thought come true; whoever seeks His shelter, He shelters. He tells of Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī, who said: “I was about to ask Allah to spare me the cravings of my self; then I said, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never asked for that — so I left that prayer, and Allah spared me the cravings of my self through the blessing of following the Sunnah.” The greatest safety is the heart’s safety from its own self, and it is reached only by following; whoever enters the fortress of the Sunnah is safe. And know that sharing a name does not mean sharing a nature: the servant is a muʾmin by a faith that is created and poured into him, and Allah is al-Muʾmin who poured it.