The Qur’an and Prophetic traditions (hadees/sunnat) use the word qurb to describe the desired relationship of man with Allah. It means closeness, contact and intimate relationship with Him. Allah is always available for a person to come in contact with Him without the need for an intermediary. The moment a person reaches Him out, He responds. It is man who forgets this grand facility. Man remains engrossed in other things unmindful of the opportunity to call his Lord. Allah has made this announcement very explicitly; “(O Muhammad), when My servants ask you about Me, tell them I am quite near; I hear and answer the call of the caller whenever he calls Me. Let them listen to My call and believe in Me; perhaps they will be guided right.” (The Qur’an 2:186). In other words, every person who believes in Allah and is mindful of his duties towards the call of the Lord is free to call Him and get a positive response. Obviously, the level of dutifulness towards the faith in Allah is not equal for all men. This would depend on their respective qurb to Allah. The Qur’an uses various words to describe the degree of qurb. These are stages of the depth of relationship of man with Allah and hence it signifies the quality of perfectness of man. Three such words used by the Qur’an are Khashi’at, Taqwa and Ihsan.

KHASHI’AT:  It refers to the awe and concern felt in the presence of any great person.  The consciousness that Allah is watching leads to a feeling of seriousness and accountability and the person becomes mindful of whatever he is doing. Literally, this means fear but it is not the dread of an enemy or unseen event but the apprehension owing to the relationship with Allah. That is why the Qur’an uses expressions like kash’iah-rabbah (fear of the Lord) and khashi’h-tur-rahman (fear of the Compassionate) and says that only knowledgeable/learned servants of Allah fear (stand in awe of) Him [The Qur’an 35:28]. Higher this awareness of the presence of Allah, higher will be the quality of behaviour and actions of a man, resulting in better depth in relationship (qurb) with Him. This awareness of the Ever-Seeing, Ever-Hearing and Ever-Watching Lord leads to the second level of this relationship which is called taqwa.

TAQWA:        Literally, it means carefulness, keeping harmful things at bay, forbearance, abstinence and protection. It translates into action in the form of Allah consciousness, fear and love of Allah, and self-restraint. In other words, it is a high state of feeling, which keeps one conscious of Allah's presence. It results in responsible behaviour in view of the consequences of any action. A person

possessing taqwa always considers the outcome of any deed, whether it would please or displease Allah, and would keep away from anything that is not approved of by the Lord. An apt definition of taqwa was given by Ubayy ibn Ka’ab, a young companion of the Prophet, who was asked by Umar bin Khattab, the Caliph, as to what is taqwa. [May Allah be pleased with both of them].

He replied, "Have you ever walked on a path that has thorns on it?"

Umar said, "Yes."

Ubayy asked, "What did you do then?"

Umar replied, "I rolled up my sleeves and proceeded."

Ubayy said, "That is taqwa, to protect oneself from sin through life's dangerous journey so that one can successfully complete the journey unscathed by sin."

Another, rather the highest, level of relationship with Allah (qurb), which basically emanates from Allah-consciousness, is ihsan.

IHSAN:          It means to do things beautifully, in a perfect manner to achieve excellence. This Arabic term was defined by the Prophet in a very popular tradition known as Hadees of Jibril (Gabriel), when the angel came in human form and asked some basic questions of faith and the Prophet replied. The angle was not recognised by the companions of the Prophet who were present at that time. The Prophet informed them after the angel left that he had come to teach them. One of the questions was what is Ihsan to which the Prophet replied, "To worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you cannot see Him, then indeed He sees you." 

The excellence in deeds is accomplished by doing more than what is required in taqwa. For example, in any transaction with another person, both parties are required to perform their part judiciously. This would be taqwa. However, if one party does better than what he was required to do, it is a case of ihsan. We can take the case of a transaction involving deferred payment for a week. If the debtor pays the amount on the specific date, he has performed his role properly. However, if he pays early and pays more, it would be a beautiful action, that is ihsan. Further in this example, if the debtor is not in a position to pay back in time, the creditor provides him extended period or takes less amount, it would be an act of ihsan. The same is the case of performing more prayer than the obligatory part, or doing charity with the sole aim of pleasing Allah, and so on. Ihsan may be understood as “Taqwa Plus”, which implies going a step ahead than meeting the requirement of accountability before Allah. It is thankfulness. If taqwa is to avoid the displeasure of Allah, ihsan implies pleasing Him. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) was asked as to why he undertook extraordinary hardships in prayers, despite the fact that Allah had announced His pleasure with him, he replied, “Should I not be thankful to Allah?” 

It may be noted that many learned persons have expressed the opinion that Sufism is simply a name for ihsan. Both imply the same thing of highest possible qurb (nearness and relationship) with Allah.