when disbelief is the opposite of faith. Thus, the designation of faith cannot cease to apply to him without the designation of disbelief necessarily applying to him, because disbelief is the opposite of faith. Disbelief, however, is of two kinds:

One kind consists of denying Allah and what He has said. Its opposite is acknowledging Allah and affirming Him and what He has said. The other kind consists of deeds, and is the opposite of faith that consists of deeds. Consider what is narrated from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“He whose neighbor is not safe from his harm has no faith.”

They said: If he has no faith, then he has disbelieved; no other conclusion is possible. However, his disbelief concerns his deeds, since his lack of faith concerns his deeds. He neglects his obligations and commits major sins only because his fear is slight. His fear is slight only because he has little reverence for Allah and His warning of punishment. He has thus abandoned an aspect of faith: the reverence from which fear and restraint from sin arise. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, therefore swore that a person has no faith if his neighbor is not safe from his harm.

A number of people have also narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Reviling a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is disbelief.”

And that he said:

“If a Muslim says to his brother, ‘You disbeliever!’ and he is not as described, the disbelief returns upon the speaker.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thus called him a disbeliever for fighting his brother, and a disbeliever for saying to him, “You disbeliever!” Yet this utterance is less grave than unlawful sexual intercourse, theft, and drinking wine.

They said:

As for the argument of those who dispute with us, claiming that if we call him a disbeliever, we must apply to him the ruling applicable to those who disbelieve in Allah, call upon him to repent, and exempt him from the prescribed punishments—because, once he disbelieves, the rulings and prescribed punishments applicable to believers no longer apply to him, which would mean exempting everyone who commits a major sin from those punishments and rulings—we have not understood the matter as they have. Rather, we say:

Faith has a foundation and a branch, and disbelief is the opposite of faith in every sense. The foundation of faith is acknowledgment and affirmation, and its branch is the full performance of deeds with the heart and body. Thus, the opposite of acknowledgment and affirmation, which