2 – “Say: We believe in Allah and in what has been sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus; and in what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.” (2:136)
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This noble verse holds great significance; the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—often recited it in the first rakʿah of the dawn supererogatory prayer.
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It gathers within itself everything that a believer must affirm, for legally-defined faith (iman) is the heart’s complete acknowledgement and assent to these fundamentals, an acknowledgement that necessarily entails the deeds of the limbs and the inward acts of the heart. In this sense, Islam is subsumed under iman, and every righteous work falls under it as well: they are faith, and they are among the fruits of faith.
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Accordingly, when iman is mentioned without qualification, all that has just been named enters beneath it.
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Likewise, when Islam is mentioned unqualified, iman is included within it.
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However, when Islam and iman are mentioned side by side, iman refers to the inward convictions and sound intentions that reside in the heart, while Islam refers to the outward actions.
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The same principle applies when iman is paired with “righteous deeds”: iman concerns what is hidden, and righteous deeds concern what is manifest.
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When iman is left absolute, righteous deeds are included under it, as occurs in many verses.
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His words, “Say: We believe in Allah…” mean: state this with your tongues while your hearts are in full accord, for this is the complete declaration upon which recompense and reward depend. Just as utterance with the tongue, unaccompanied by the heart’s conviction, is not faith but hypocrisy, so too a statement bereft of the heart’s action is ineffectual and of little benefit.