What is Ihsan?

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ defined Ihsan as: ‘To worship God as if you saw Him, for even if you do not see Him, yet He sees you’ (Bukhārī). Worshipping God as if one saw Him necessarily means remembering Him at all times (or as often as possible) with love, even outside of the formal prayers. Hence Ihsan or virtue means to invoke God as much as possible (if not constantly), and this is precisely the sunnah. It also explains why the main practice of Islamic mystics (sometimes called ‘Sufis’) is the constant remembrance of God: the aim of traditional Sufism is precisely Ihsan, to ‘worship God as if you saw Him.’ Indeed, it is fair to say that no one over the course of the history of Islam has put more energy into trying to constantly evoke God and attain Ihsan than Sufis. So, in a sense the Sufis are the ‘specialists’ of Ihsan, just as the theologians are ‘specialists’ of Iman and the jurists are ‘specialists’ of Islam. Any study of the great mainstream Sufi orders (turuq) (such as the Qadiriyyah, the Shadhiliyyah, the Naqshbandiyyah, the Ba ‘Alawiyyah, the Tijaniyyah and so on) or their writings clearly show this.

— H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad from “A Thinking Person’s Guide to Islam”