to declare its speaker a disbeliever is disbelief, whatever bodily member is involved in the act.

The third group among them maintains that disbelief in Allah consists in disbelieving Him, denying Him, and rejecting Him with the tongue, and that disbelief pertains only to the tongue, not to any other bodily member. This is the view of Muhammad ibn Karrām and his followers.

The fourth group among them maintains that disbelief consists in denial, rejection, concealment, and covering up, and that disbelief can occur in the heart and on the tongue.

The fifth group consists of the followers of Abū Shamir. Their position that anyone who rejects their views on monotheism and divine decree is a disbeliever has already been related.

The sixth group consists of the followers of Muhammad ibn Shabīb. We have already mentioned their position on declaring people disbelievers when discussing their view of faith.

Most of the Murji’ah do not declare anyone who bases his views on interpretation a disbeliever. They declare as disbelievers only those whom the Muslim community has unanimously agreed to declare as such.

I say: He thus mentioned no position peculiar to the Karrāmiyyah except their view that faith and disbelief pertain solely to the tongue, not to the heart. There is no doubt that this view is an innovation introduced by the Karrāmiyyah, in which no one preceded them, so far as we know. It is false, for including hypocrites under the designation of believers is something that