Three Levels of Faith: Islam, Iman, and I'hsan

Three Levels of Faith:

Islam, Iman, and I'hsan

Thus, to be a Muslim, a person has to proclaim (or testify) that there is no other god but Allah (praise to Him) and that Muhammed (pbbuh) is His Messenger.

Once a person pronounces the Islamic proclamation, then he/she proceeds to observe the Islamic obligations, namely to perform the five prayers, pay the Zakat, fast during the month of Ramadhan, and make the pilgrimage to the House of God in Makkah, if he/she is able to do so (for more details about these obligations, see Islam: A Brief Introduction).

Iman:

By being a Muslim, as explained above, a person is promised God's rewards in this life and in the hereafter. However, for those who are more ambitious to be closer to God, and to gain a higher level of his rewards, they need to reach a higher level of faith than Islam, which is Iman.

Iman is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in divine destiny, both the good and the evil thereof. This level is more theoretical than the first level of Islam. In the first level, Islam, a person is saved by worshipping God through actions, that is through performing the five obligations mentioned above.
I'hsan:

I'hsan is the highest of the three levels of faith and the closest to God. It is to worship Allah as if you are seeing Him. While you do not see Him, He truly sees you. Then, Ihsan means that a Mu'hsen is sure that Allah is seeing him/her in everything he/she says or does. Therefore, a Muhsen does his/her best to say and do only what pleases God and conforms to His commands. This is the level of righteousness, the level of perfection, the level of doing and saying the ultimate good, the level of I'hsan.

The word "I'hsan" in Arabic is a derivative of the verb "ahsana," which means doing things better. Thus the literal linguistic meaning of I'hsan is doing the best, which is doing what God commanded us to do.