who are promised Paradise. Rather, he possesses faith that prevents him from remaining in Hell forever and through which he will enter Paradise after being punished in Hell, unless Allah forgives his sins. Hence some have said: “He is a believer by virtue of his faith and an evildoer by virtue of his major sin,” or, “A believer deficient in faith.”
Those among Ahl al-Sunnah and the Mu‘tazilah who do not call him a believer say that the designation of wickedness is incompatible with the designation of faith, because Allah says:
“How wretched is the name of wickedness after faith!”
And:
“Is one who is a believer like one who is an evildoer?”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said:
“Reviling a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is disbelief.”
According to this principle, a person may possess a branch of disbelief while also possessing faith. This explains the reports in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, called many sins disbelief, although the person committing them may possess more than an atom’s weight of faith and therefore will not remain in Hell forever. For example, he said:
“Reviling a Muslim is wickedness, and fighting him is disbelief.”
And:
“Do not revert after me to being disbelievers, striking one another’s necks.”
This is widely reported from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, through several chains of transmission in the Sahīh. During the Farewell Pilgrimage, orders were given for it to be proclaimed among the people. Thus, he called those who strike one another’s necks without right disbelievers, and called this act disbelief.
Nevertheless, Allah Most High said:
“If two groups of believers fight one another, make peace between them,”
up to His words:
“The believers are but brothers.”
He thus made clear that they had not departed from faith altogether, but that they possessed something constituting disbelief: this particular trait. As some of the Companions said: “A lesser form of disbelief.”
Likewise, the Prophet said:
“If someone says to his brother, ‘You disbeliever!’ one of them has incurred that charge.”
He called him his brother at the very moment those words were spoken, while stating that one of them had incurred that charge. Had either of them departed from Islam altogether, he would no longer have been his brother. Rather, he possesses an element of disbelief.