Question(16):

Briefly, what is the meaning of Eemaan [faith] and its pillars.

Answer:

Eemaan has two meanings:

1- A linguistic meaning which is: The attestation to and the belief in a thing (al-Iqraar wa-Tasdeeq).
2- A legal (Shar’ee) meaning that is: The attestation that necessitates acceptance and submission. Legally, therefore, a person’s attestation to whatever is obligatory from faith is not sufficient unless he accepts and submits. For example, if a person attests and acknowledges that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah, but he neither accepts that which he
brought, nor submits to his commands, then he is not a
believer. For this reason, there was amongst the Mushriks those who acknowledged and attested to the Prophet’s (صلى الله عليه وسلم ) Message, but they did not obediently yield and submit to him, rather, they remained on the religion of their folk. Hence, their mere attestation, without acceptance and submission, was of no avail to them. So, the legal meaning of belief is more specific than its meaning in the Arabic language. Also, it may be that the legal meaning is more general than the linguistic one. Consider, for example, the prayers; it is from the Eemaan in its legal sense, as Allaah, The Most High, Says:

meaning, “Your prayers towards Jerusalem [to which they were used to face in prayer before Allaah commanded them to turn their faces towards Makkah]. Linguistically, however, Salaat is not called “faith,” because it is an outward act, whereas faith (Eemaan), in the [Arabic] language is from the matters of the inward [i.e. pertaining to the heart]. So, if we want to define the legal Eemaan (al-Eemaan ash-Shar’ee), then we say that it is: The attestation which necessitates acceptance and submission, and if it does not necessitate this, then it is not considered a legal faith.