This is true, for religion and faith consist of word and deed, beginning with the affirmation and action of the heart. Whoever does not submit inwardly and humble himself before Allah is neither a believer nor someone who has entered Allah’s path. Thus, unlike others, the spiritual masters did not dispute that faith increases and decreases, that people differ in their degrees of faith, and that the deeds of the heart are part of faith.

Abū al-Qāsim then quoted some admirable statements from the spiritual masters. He said: “Muhammad ibn al-Husayn informed me: I heard Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh say: I heard Abū al-Tayyib al-Marāghī say: ‘Reason provides guidance, wisdom offers indications, and knowledge bears witness. Reason thus guides, wisdom indicates, and knowledge bears witness that purity of worship can be attained only through purity of tawhīd (monotheism).’”

He also related, without a chain of transmission, that al-Junayd was asked about tawhīd and replied:

“To single out the One whose oneness is affirmed by truly acknowledging His oneness and His perfect uniqueness: He is the One who neither begets nor is born, and who has no opposites, equals, or likenesses. There is no likening Him to creation, no specifying how He is, no picturing Him, and no assigning Him a counterpart. ‘There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.’” [Surah al-Shūrā 11]

He also said: “Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahyā al-Sūfī narrated to us: