Thus, affirmation is an inward statement expressed by the tongue. Worship is described as affirmation because it gives expression to affirmation.

Some of our scholars said: ‘Affirmation is only realized through both statement and knowledge; together, they constitute a single affirmation.’ Others deemed refraining from obstinate rejection sufficient and did not make verbal acknowledgment one of the two pillars of faith. Such a person says: ‘Faith is affirmation in the heart,’ while holding that religious law requires refraining from obstinate rejection. On this basis, a disbeliever may know Allah and disbelieve only through obstinate rejection, not because he lacks the foremost element of faith.

On this basis, it is said that the Jews knew Allah and knew that Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was a prophet, but disbelieved out of obstinacy, transgression, and envy.

He said: ‘According to our shaykh Abū al-Hasan’s position, we say of everyone whom we judge to be a disbeliever that he does not know Allah at all, nor has he known His Messenger or His religion.’”

His student, Abū al-Qāsim al-Ansārī, said: “The meaning would seem to be that his faith and knowledge have no standing under religious law.”

I say:

Al-Ansārī’s explanation does not apply to this position, but rather to their view that an obstinate rejecter is a disbeliever under religious law. On that basis, disbelief would arise sometimes from the absence of faith in the heart and sometimes from obstinate rejection. Such a person would be deemed a disbeliever under religious law even though he possesses the reality of faith, namely affirmation. This necessarily entails that he is a disbeliever under religious law despite possessing faith like that of the prophets and angels. The most adept exponents of this school—such as Abū al-Hasan, the Judge, and their predecessors among Jahm’s followers—recognized that this was a contradiction that undermined their foundational premise.