possess a measure of faith by virtue of which he will be gathered with the believers on the Day of Resurrection. Then, if he has sins for which he is to be punished, he will be punished and brought out of the Fire, provided that his heart contains a mustard seed’s weight of faith, even if he also possesses hypocrisy.

For this reason, Allah Most High said concerning these people:

“Those will be with the believers, and Allah will grant the believers a great reward.”

He did not say that this alone makes them believers, since He did not mention faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His messengers. Rather, they are with the believers. He mentioned only righteous deeds and performing them sincerely for Allah, and said:

“Those will be with the believers.”

Thus, the same ruling applies to them. Elsewhere, He has explained that believers differ in rank: whoever fulfils the requirements of obligatory faith deserves reward, whereas whoever possesses a trait of hypocrisy and commits major sins is among those threatened with punishment. Allah will benefit him through his faith and bring him out of the Fire by virtue of it, even if it amounts only to a mustard seed’s weight. Yet this does not entitle him to the unqualified designation of believer, to which the promise of Paradise without punishment is attached.

To complete this explanation: some people may possess both a branch of faith and a branch of disbelief or hypocrisy, yet be called Muslims, as Ahmad explicitly stated. To complete this explanation: a person may possess both a branch of faith and a branch of hypocrisy. He may also be a Muslim while possessing a degree of disbelief less than that which takes a person out of Islam altogether, as the Companions—Ibn ‘Abbās and others—said: “Disbelief less than outright disbelief.”

This is the position of the great majority of the early generations, and it is what Ahmad and others explicitly stated. Concerning the thief, the drinker of intoxicants, and others of whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “He is not a believer,” they held that such people are to be called Muslims, not believers. They cited the Quran and Sunnah as evidence for withholding the designation of faith while affirming the designation of Islam, and for the fact that a man may be a Muslim while possessing disbelief