whether these deeds fall under this designation.”

He also said:

“Whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it as he ought, while being a believer.”

He thus made deeds inseparable from this designation, and this designation inseparable from deeds.

The point here is that praise is established only for faith accompanied by deeds, not for faith devoid of deeds. Once it is acknowledged that abandoning deeds incurs blame and punishment, their dispute serves no purpose; it becomes merely a verbal dispute. Even so, their wording is mistaken and contrary to the Quran and Sunnah. If, however, they say that abandoning deeds does a person no harm, this is outright disbelief.

Some people attribute this view to them, reporting that they say: “Allah has prescribed obligations for His servants, but He did not intend them to perform them, and abandoning them does them no harm.” This may be the position of the extremists who say that none of those who affirm Allah’s oneness will enter the Fire. Yet I know of no particular individual to whom I can attribute this statement. People merely report it in books without identifying who said it. It may be the statement of someone who has no share of good, for many openly sinful people and hypocrites say: “No sin causes harm where there is faith,” or “where there is affirmation of Allah’s oneness.” In some writings refuting the Murji’a, they are described in these terms.

This is also indicated by His words, exalted is He, at the end of the verse:

“It is they who have been truthful, and it is they who are truly pious.”

His words “have been truthful” mean truthful in their claim to have believed. This is like His saying:

“The Bedouins say, ‘We believe.’ Say, ‘You have not believed; rather, say, “We have submitted,” for faith has not yet entered your hearts.’”

And then:

“The believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then do not doubt, and strive with their wealth and their lives in the cause of Allah. It is they who are truthful.”

That is, they are truthful in saying, “We believe in Allah,” unlike the liars of whom Allah said:

“When the hypocrites come to you, they say, ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah’