and the Sunnah of His Messenger. For Allah, exalted is He, has declared that whoever dedicates his intent solely to Allah and perfects his deed is entitled to reward and safe from punishment.

For this reason the leading scholars of the early generations would invariably join these two principles. Thus al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, commenting on the verse,

“That He may test you as to which of you is best in deed” ⦗al-Mulk 2⦘,

said, “The best deed is the most sincere and the most correct.” He was asked, “Abū ʿAlī, what do you mean by ‘most sincere and most correct’?” He replied, “If a deed is correct but not sincere, it will not be accepted; and if it is sincere but not correct, it will not be accepted—until it is both sincere and correct. Sincere means that it is done for Allah, and correct means that it conforms to the Sunnah.”

Ibn Shāhīn and al-Lālikāʾī report from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr that he said, “No statement or action is accepted without an intention, and no statement, action, or intention is accepted unless it accords with the Sunnah.” They transmit the same from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, though his wording is “is not sound” in place of “is not accepted.”

This refutes the Murjiʾah, who claim that a mere verbal declaration suffices, for he made it clear that both word and deed are indispensable: faith consists of words and deeds, and both are necessary. We have expounded this elsewhere, demonstrating that simple assent of heart and tongue, accompanied by aversion and arrogance, does not constitute faith—by unanimous agreement of the believers—until that assent is joined to action.

The foundation of action is the action of the heart: love and veneration that preclude hatred and pride.

They also said, “No statement or action is accepted without an intention”—and this is obvious, for if a word or deed is not rendered purely for Allah Most High, He will not accept it. Then