constitute the foundation of faith, is disbelief in Allah and what He has said, and ceasing to believe in Him and affirm His truthfulness. The opposite of faith that consists of deeds, rather than acknowledgment, is a disbelief that does not amount to disbelief in Allah that takes one outside the religion. Rather, it is disbelief consisting in the neglect of deeds, just as deeds themselves constitute faith, though not the faith that consists of acknowledging Allah.

Since someone who abandons the faith that consists of acknowledging Allah is a disbeliever who must be called upon to repent, whereas someone who abandons the faith that consists of deeds—such as zakat, Hajj, and fasting—or abandons restraint from drinking wine and unlawful sexual intercourse has lost only part of his faith, we do not hold that the latter must be called upon to repent. Nor do those who disagree with us among Ahl al-Sunnah and the people of innovation who say that faith consists of affirmation and deeds, with the sole exception of the Khārijites. Likewise, our saying that he is a disbeliever with respect to his neglect of deeds does not require that he be called upon to repent, nor does it exempt him from the prescribed punishments.

Just as the loss of faith that consists of deeds does not require calling him to repent or exempting him from the prescribed punishments and legal rulings, since the foundation of his faith remains, likewise our applying the designation of disbelief to him with respect to his deeds does not require us to call him to repent or exempt him from those punishments and rulings. For he has not committed the fundamental disbelief that consists of denying Allah or what He has said.

They said:

Knowledge of Allah is faith, and ignorance of Him is disbelief. Performing the obligations is also faith, yet ignorance of them before they were revealed is not disbelief. This is because the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, acknowledged Allah when He first sent His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to them, although they did not know the obligations subsequently imposed upon them. Their ignorance of those obligations was not disbelief. Then Allah revealed the obligations to them, and their acknowledgment and observance of them constituted faith. Whoever denies them disbelieves only because he rejects what Allah has conveyed as false. Had no communication come from Allah, ignorance of them would not have made a person a disbeliever. Even after that communication had come, any Muslim whom it had not reached would not be a disbeliever because of his ignorance of them,