What Is Faith?

​    In the hadith (non-Koranical sayings of the prophet Mohammed, verified by those who knew him) faith is defined as “the knowledge of the heart, the words of the tongue, and the actions of the body.”  In this saying the prophet references three categories that correspond with our modern understanding of the ego, which we understand to comprise the mind (“words of the tongue”), the emotions (“knowledge of the heart”), and the body (“actions of the body”).  In modern parlance then, the prophet is saying that faith manifests itself through the ego.  What exactly does this mean?

"Be aware of false prophets that 
 come to you in sheep's clothing
but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
 You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn
bushes nor figs from thistles, are
they?  Every good tree bears
good fruit but the bad tree
bears bad fruit." - Jesus

    In order to understand this we must take a moment and consider the mystics' understanding of human nature.   The mystics believe that we have both a lower nature and a higher nature; that we are both physical and spiritual beings.   The lower (physical) nature operates through the ego.  The higher (spiritual) nature manifest Divine virtues.  This understanding of human nature is what accounts for the moral struggles we humans face in life.  We feel an inherent tension between our lower (physical) nature and our higher (spiritual) nature, that is, we would like to manifest Divine virtues but our ego often overpowers our best intention.  Thus the moral struggle, which the apostle Paul illustrates so well in his letter to the Romans:

...what I am doing I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do but I am doing the very thing I hate... I find then that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good, for a while I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin...

    The mystics further teach that the spiritual journey is a journey of the transformation of being, from the dominance of lower (physical) nature to higher (spiritual) nature.  Complete transformation of being is the state in which the ego, eventually free from the influence of the lower (physical) nature becomes the vehicle for the manifestation of Divine virtues.  Then one acts with compassion, forgiveness, charity...unconditional love.  This is what the prophet meant when he said that faith manifests itself through the ego, that faith is "the knowledge of the heart, the words of the tongue, and the actions of the body."  It is also what Jesus meant when he said, "you will know them by their fruits."  As for his part, Paul was still ripening at the time he wrote his letter to the Romans, as are we all, in this season of life...