will also manifest humble devotion in his limbs, but the converse does not hold. Hence the saying:

“Beware of hypocritical humility.”

This is when the body displays humble devotion while the heart does not. When the heart is sound, the whole body is sound; yet the body’s engagement in worship does not mean that the heart is fulfilling its inward realities.

With regard to “faith” and “Islam,” people fall into three ranks: those who wrong themselves, those who follow a middle course, and those foremost in good deeds. Someone who is a Muslim outwardly and inwardly, yet wrongs himself, must possess faith, though he has not fulfilled what is obligatory. The converse does not hold, and the same applies in the other case. This will be discussed, Allah willing.

The verses cited as evidence by Muhammad ibn Nasr establish that Islam is obligatory, that it is Allah’s religion, that Allah loves it and is pleased with it, and that it is His only religion. All of this is true. Yet none of it establishes that Islam is identical to faith. Nor does it establish that Islam alone makes a person one of the people of Paradise, as he mentioned when presenting the evidence for the first position. Allah has promised the believers Paradise in numerous verses, but He has not attached this promise to the designation “Islam.” Thus, His praise of Islam, His making it obligatory, and His love for it indicate that it is included within faith and forms part of it. All the adherents of the Sunnah agree on this. They say:

Every believer is a Muslim, and everyone who fulfils the obligatory requirements of faith has fulfilled the obligatory requirements of Islam. The dispute, however, concerns the converse.

Similarly, Allah loves prayer, commands it, makes it obligatory, and praises both it and those who perform it in numerous passages. Yet this does not establish that what the term “prayer” designates is identical to what the term “faith” designates. Rather, prayer is included within faith. Thus, every believer performs prayer, but not everyone who prays while committing major sins is necessarily a believer.