in the report from Ibn ‘Abbās that a murderer’s repentance is not accepted. Yet this misrepresents the Companions, for none of them said that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would not intercede for those who commit major sins, nor that they would remain in the Fire forever. Rather, according to one of the two reports from Ibn ‘Abbās, he said that a murderer’s repentance is not accepted. Two positions are likewise reported from Ahmad ibn Hanbal concerning the acceptance of a murderer’s repentance. Disagreement over repentance, however, is distinct from disagreement over remaining in the Fire forever. Murder involves the rights of another human being, and this is why disagreement arose concerning it.

As for the claim that if any part of faith is lost, all of it is lost, this is not conceded. This is the very premise from which innovations concerning faith arose: they supposed that whenever any part of faith is lost, all of it is lost and nothing remains.

The Khawārij and the Mu‘tazilah then said: “Faith consists of everything that Allah and His Messenger have commanded”—that is, faith understood without qualification, as the people of hadith have stated. They said: “If any part of it is lost, a person retains no faith whatsoever and will therefore remain in the Fire forever.”

The Murji’ah, despite the differences among their groups, said: “Neither major sins nor neglecting outward obligations diminishes faith in any way, for if any part of it were lost, nothing would remain. It must therefore be a single entity in which the righteous and the wicked are equal.”

Yet the statements of the Messenger and his Companions indicate that some faith may be lost while some remains, as in his saying:

“Whoever has an atom’s weight of faith in his heart will come out of the Fire.”

For this reason, Ahl al-Sunnah and the people of hadith hold that faith varies in degree. The majority of them say that it increases and decreases. Some say that it increases but do not say that it decreases, as is reported from Mālik in one of the two reports from him. Others say that it varies in degree, as did ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak. Indeed,