Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said, “When the choice lies between attributing a false doctrine to Ahl al-Sunnah or attributing some personal alteration in the transmission (1) to the narrator, it is preferable to charge the narrator with alteration than to fasten a falsehood upon the party of truth. Besides, they have stated plainly in several places that gratitude is shown through speech, action, and conviction, and this is too evident to be ascribed to one individual alone.

Moreover, we know with absolute certainty that it is not among the principles of the people of truth to exclude deeds from being acts of gratitude to Allah; indeed, the jurists have expressly affirmed that zakāh is gratitude for the blessing of wealth, and the proofs for this are too numerous to require citation.

The explanation that gratitude is expressed by both word and deed is found in the works that discuss the terms ḥamd and shukr (2)—books of Qur’anic exegesis, lexicography, and hadith commentary. Even ordinary people are aware of this, and both the Book and the Sunnah attest to it.

Ibn al-Murraḥḥil then turned to something else and said, ‘Al-Ḥasan (3) calls the open sinner a hypocrite, whereas your companions do not call him a hypocrite.’

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn replied, ‘On the contrary, they do call him a hypocrite—hypocrisy of the lesser sort, not the greater. The term hypocrisy is applied to the greater hypocrisy, which is the concealment (4) of disbelief, and to the lesser hypocrisy, which is the disparity between one’s inner state and outward fulfilment of obligatory duties.’