—what is built is not distinct from that upon which it is built. Rather, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—established three levels of religion: the highest is “excellence,” the middle is “faith,” and below it is “Islam.” Everyone who attains excellence is a believer, and every believer is a Muslim; but not every believer attains excellence, nor is every Muslim a believer. This will be explained—Allah willing—through the other hadiths, such as the hadith narrated by Hammād ibn Zayd, from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, from a man of Syria, from his father, who reported that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to him:

“Embrace Islam and you will be safe.”
He asked, “What is Islam?”
He replied, “That you submit your heart to Allah, and that the Muslims be safe from your tongue and hand.”
He asked, “What is the best form of Islam?”
He replied, “Faith.”
He asked, “What is faith?”
He replied, “That you believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and resurrection after death.”
He asked, “What is the best form of faith?”
He replied, “Migration.”
He asked, “What is migration?”
He replied, “That you abandon evil.”
He asked, “What is the best form of migration?”
He replied, “Jihad.”
He asked, “What is jihad?”
He replied, “That you strive against—or fight—the unbelievers when you encounter them, neither misappropriating the spoils nor showing cowardice.”

Then the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Two deeds are the best of deeds, except when someone performs their like”—he said this three times—“an accepted Hajj or an umrah.”

This was narrated by Ahmad and Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazī. For this reason, he mentions these “four ranks,” saying:

“The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe. The believer is the one whom people trust with their lives and property. The migrant is the one who abandons evil deeds. The one who strives is the one who strives against his own soul for Allah’s sake.”

This is narrated from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—through the reports of Abd Allāh ibn Amr, Fadālah ibn Ubayd, and others, with a good chain of transmission. It appears in the Sunan collections, and part of it appears in the two Sahīh collections.