At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Global / Diaspora
- Review
- Completeness 3/5 · Help complete it
Summary
"Ihsan" is what the Prophet defined in Gabriel's hadith, saying: "That you worship God as though you see Him; if you do not see Him, He sees you" 1.
Its place in the hadith
Explaining the word
The editor explains the phrase "as though you see Him" as presence of mind, emptiness of self and gatheredness of heart — as though the worshipper were beholding the divine presence 1.
What is not covered here
Ihsan is connected to Sufism and spirituality in Islamic history; those sayings will be added from their sources in a later batch, and nothing not present in the hadith is attributed to it here.
Connections
- Based on
- Arba'un 2 — the hadith of Jibril· Arba'un 17 — God has prescribed ihsan upon everything· Muslim 8 — The Jibril hadith: Islam, iman, ihsan· Goodness of Islam — leaving what does not concern one
- Mentioned in
- Muslim 8 — The Jibril hadith: Islam, iman, ihsan· Muslim 102 — Whoever cheats us is not one of us· Muslim 1955 — God wrote excellence upon everything
- Basis for
- Iman (faith)
People and things also explored
Islam (the religion and the term)· Iman (faith)· Muhammad· Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Abu Hurayra· Shaddad ibn Aws· Umar ibn al-Khattab· Istiqama (steadfast uprightness)
Sources
- Sahih al-Bukhari , 50
- Tanzil Project, Qur'an text v1.1
- Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali
- Sahih Muslim
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Ihsan (excellence in worship)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ihsan/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-24.