then both a Muslim and a believer. It must therefore be clarified who the Muslim who is not a believer is, and how he falls within Islam. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“This was Gabriel, who came to teach you your religion.”

His statement, “Islam consists of the five pillars,” does not refer to someone who performs them without sincerity to Allah, but rather with hypocrisy. It refers instead to someone who performs them as commanded, both inwardly and outwardly. He identified these five as Islam because they are the purely devotional acts of worship owed to Allah Most High by every servant capable of performing them. Other duties are either collective obligations serving a benefit—once that benefit is secured, the obligation lapses—or concern people’s rights against one another, even though fulfilling them may also bring one nearer to Allah, and other such matters.

These other duties follow from the five pillars, as in his statements:

“A Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe.”

“The best of Islam is to provide food and greet with peace those you know and those you do not know.”

And there are other statements to this effect. These five, then, are the pillars and foundations, just as faith has its pillars and foundations.

The statement, “Acts of obedience are the fruits of inward affirmation,” can mean two things. It can mean that they necessarily follow from it: whenever inward faith exists, they exist. This is the position of the early generations and Ahl al-Sunnah. Or it can mean that inward faith may give rise to them, yet may be complete and perfect even when they are absent. This is the position of the Murjiʾah among the Jahmiyyah and others. We have already explained that they erred in three respects:

(First): Their assumption that faith in the heart can be complete without the deeds of the heart—affirmation without such deeds of the heart as love of Allah, awe and fear of Him, reliance upon Him, and longing to meet Him.