CHAPTER: QUALIFYING ONE’S CLAIM TO FAITH WITHOUT DOUBTING IT

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn (may Allah have mercy on him) said: One characteristic of the people of truth among the scholars we have mentioned is that they qualify their claim to faith—not out of doubt, for we seek refuge in Allah from doubting faith—but for fear of declaring themselves pure by claiming perfection in faith. A person does not know whether he is among those who merit true faith or not.

This is because when the scholars among the people of truth are asked, “Are you a believer?” one of them replies, “I believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, the Last Day, Paradise and Hell,” and other such things. Anyone who professes this and affirms it in his heart is a believer. The qualification regarding faith is only because he does not know whether he is among those who merit what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has ascribed to the believers as constituting true faith. This is the way of