is true, and that faith is one, with all who possess it being equal in that regard. They say further that the Messenger ﷺ acted on solitary reports in many instances. When the new crescent was sighted, for example, Ibn ʿUmar came and told him he had seen it, so he ordered the people to fast; on another occasion a Bedouin reported the sighting of the crescent, and the Prophet ﷺ asked him, “Do you testify that there is no deity but Allah? Do you testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah?” When the man answered, “Yes,” the Prophet ﷺ ordered the people to fast (1). This, too, was a single-narrator report.

Likewise, the Messenger ﷺ would send his emissaries one at a time—not in groups—and those to whom they were sent would act on whatever message they received from him.

This line of reasoning is mistaken, for faith is not a single, uniform entity, nor are its adherents all alike. Faith varies; it rises and falls—except according to the Murjiʾah, who deny that. The inward affirmation of the heart is not the same for everyone: the faith of Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq is certainly not like that of a Muslim who persists in sin. The latter’s faith is extremely weak, whereas the faith of Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq equals that of the entire ummah.