And the Quran commentators agree that these verses were revealed concerning people who outwardly professed Islam but had a disease in their hearts. They feared that the Muslims would be defeated and therefore allied themselves with disbelievers among the Jews, Christians and others because of the fear in their hearts—not because they believed that Muhammad was lying and that the Jews and Christians were telling the truth. The best-known report concerning this is:

“‘Ubādah ibn al-Sāmit said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have allies among the Jews, but I declare before Allah that I renounce allegiance to the Jews.’ ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ubayy then said, ‘But I am a man who fears reversals of fortune, and I will not renounce allegiance to the Jews.’ Then this verse was revealed.”

Among the Murji’ah, who said that faith consists of affirmation in the heart and profession with the tongue, and that deeds are not part of it, were a group of jurists and devout worshippers from Kufa. Their position was not like Jahm’s: they recognized that a person cannot be a believer without verbally professing faith when able to do so. They also recognized that Iblīs, Pharaoh and others were disbelievers despite the affirmation in their hearts. Yet if they exclude the actions of the heart from faith, Jahm’s position necessarily follows from theirs; and if they include them in faith, they must also include bodily actions, since these necessarily follow from the actions of the heart.

These people, however, had scriptural arguments that made the matter unclear to them. They observed that Allah distinguished between faith and deeds in His Book, saying in several places:

“Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds”.

They also observed that Allah addressed people as believers before they had performed the deeds, saying:

“O you who believe, when you rise to pray, wash your faces and your arms up to the elbows.”

“O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday”.