The Khawārij may be told:

The one who denied faith to the thief, the adulterer, the wine-drinker and others did not regard them as apostates from Islam. Rather, he punished one by flogging and another by amputation. He executed none except the adulterer possessing the requisite marital status, and even then he did not execute him as an apostate. An apostate is executed by the sword after being called upon to repent, whereas this offender is stoned without being called upon to repent. This shows that, although he denied them faith, he did not regard them as apostates from Islam, despite their manifest sins. Nor were they like the hypocrites who outwardly professed Islam while inwardly concealing disbelief: those people he punished only for an outwardly manifest offence.

Discussion of the “question of faith” led people to dispute whether there are religious terms in the language that the Lawgiver transferred from their original linguistic meanings, or whether these terms retain their linguistic meanings in religious usage, with the Lawgiver adding to their associated rulings rather than to the meanings of the terms themselves. They likewise said that the terms “prayer,” “zakah,” “fasting” and “pilgrimage” retain their linguistic meanings in the Lawgiver’s speech, but that he added to their associated rulings. Their point is that faith is nothing more than affirmation, which takes place in the heart and on the tongue. A third group held that the Lawgiver modified the usage of these terms as people do in establishing customary usage: they are figurative in relation to the language, but literal in relation to the Lawgiver’s customary usage.

The correct analysis is that the Lawgiver neither transferred these terms to new meanings nor altered them. Rather, he used them with qualification, not without qualification, just as he uses comparable terms. Thus, Allah Most High says:

“Pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to Allah by mankind.”

He thus mentioned a particular pilgrimage: pilgrimage to the House. Likewise, He says:

“Whoever makes pilgrimage to the House or performs the lesser pilgrimage.”

Thus, it was not the case that