that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth sent down these signs as clear proofs.’” Yet he was not a believer. Rather, Moses said:

“Our Lord, destroy their wealth and harden their hearts, so that they will not believe until they see the painful punishment.”

Allah said:

“The prayer of you both has been answered.”

When Pharaoh said:

“I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe,”

Allah said:

“Now? When you had disobeyed before and were among those who spread corruption?”

Thus, He described him as disobedient, not as inwardly lacking knowledge, just as He said:

“But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger.”

Likewise, He said concerning Iblīs:

“So the angels prostrated, all of them together, except Iblīs; he was arrogant and became one of the disbelievers.”

He described him only in terms of refusal, arrogance and opposition to the command; He did not describe him as lacking knowledge. In several places, Allah has also stated that the disbelievers acknowledged the Creator, as in His saying:

“If you ask them who created them, they will surely say, ‘Allah.’”

They should then be asked: When you say that faith is affirmation in the heart, on the tongue, or both, do you mean affirmation in general terms, or must it include the details? If someone affirms that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah but does not know Allah’s attributes, is he a believer or not? If they consider him a believer, they should be told: If he then learns of those attributes and denies them, he is no longer a believer, by the consensus of the Muslims. Thus, some faith is more complete than other faith.

If they say that he is not a believer, their position entails that no one is a believer until he knows in detail everything the Messenger conveyed. Yet it is well known that most of the Muslim community do not know all of that. They hold, however, that faith varies in degree only in its continuity.

Abū al-Maʿālī said:

“If someone says, ‘Your principle entails that the faith of someone engrossed in his sinful conduct is like the faith of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.’