Likewise, the view that someone who willingly manifests disbelief is not a disbeliever inwardly entails that a person who acknowledges the Messenger’s truthfulness inwardly—and even outwardly—but says, “I will not follow him; rather, I will oppose him and fight him, because I cannot go against the people of my religion,” is not considered a disbeliever inwardly. This is the position of the extreme Jahmī Murji’ah, and it is the most unsound of the Murji’ah’s positions. Its falsehood is known as a matter of necessity in Islam.

If matters were as they claim, those who deny the truth would not have disbelieved, although Allah said of them:

“It is not you they deny, but it is the signs of Allah that the wrongdoers reject.” [Al-An‘ām: 33]

Shaykh al-Islām said: “And [love] necessarily entails the will to act, and a firm will, coupled with ability, necessarily entails action. It is therefore impossible for a person to love Allah and His Messenger and firmly will to do what Allah and His Messenger love, while being able to do it, yet not do it. Thus, if a person does not profess faith despite being able to do so, this indicates that his heart lacks the faith that Allah has made obligatory upon him.

“This reveals the error of Jahm ibn Safwān and his followers: they supposed that faith consists merely of the heart’s assent and knowledge, and did not include the deeds of the heart within faith. They supposed that a person could be a believer with complete faith in his heart, yet revile Allah and His Messenger, show hostility toward Allah and His Messenger, and show hostility toward