worship—all these cannot be directed toward something unknown in every respect, for that is impossible.” Yet one’s knowledge of the One worshipped and loved need not equal His knowledge of Himself. Indeed, there is no one in existence whom we love or hate and whom we know as Allah knows them. Knowledge may also be attained through inference and reflection. Undoubtedly, believers know their Lord in this world, though they differ in their degrees of knowledge, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, knows Allah better than any of us. Yet he said:

“I cannot adequately praise You; You are as You have praised Yourself.”

This relates to understanding how knowledge increases and decreases, which is connected with the question of faith increasing and decreasing—a major question.

The position upheld by the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars is that faith itself, which resides in the heart, admits of degrees, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Bring out of the Fire whoever has an atom’s weight of faith in his heart.”

As for the increase and decrease of righteous deeds performed by the limbs, this is agreed upon, although there is disagreement over whether such deeds are included in faith as such. Some of this disagreement is merely verbal. Nevertheless, the position of the leading scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah and hadith—which is also the school of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and others—is that faith consists of words and deeds, and increases and decreases.

The leading Muslim scholars of the four schools and others, together with all the Companions and those who followed them in righteousness, agree that a believer does not become a disbeliever merely by committing a sin, as the Khawārij maintain, nor is he stripped of all faith, as the Muʿtazilah maintain.

Some people, however, have said that everyone’s faith is equal, so that the faith of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar does not differ in degree from the faith of the openly sinful. They base this on the premise that faith is assent in the heart and on the tongue, or in the heart alone, and that such assent does not admit of degrees.