All the evidence he cited from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, distinguishes between what “faith” and “Islam” designate when they are mentioned together, as in the hadith of Gabriel and elsewhere. It also shows that when the term “faith” is used without qualification, it includes Islam.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hāmid said in his book on the foundations of religion:

“We have already stated that faith consists of speech and deeds. As for Islam, Ahmad’s statements admit of two reported positions. The first is that it is like faith. The second is that it consists of speech without deeds. This latter position is his explicit statement as transmitted by Ismāʿīl ibn Saʿīd.”

He said: “The correct view is that the school has only one reported position: that Islam consists of speech and deeds. His statement that Islam consists of speech may mean that it does not require the deeds stipulated as conditions of faith. Prayer is not a condition of Islam, since his explicit statement is that a person does not become a disbeliever by abandoning prayer.”

He said: “We have established that Islam and faith are two terms designating two meanings, and we have mentioned the disagreement among the jurists.”

It had previously been stated that Islam and faith are two terms designating different meanings, and that Mālik, Sharīk, and Hammād ibn Zayd held this view, distinguishing between Islam and faith.

He said: “The followers of al-Shāfiʿī and the followers of Abū Hanīfah said that they are two terms with the same meaning.”

He said: “This implies that a person may cease to be designated a believer while remaining a Muslim. This happens when he commits the major sins mentioned in the report: he loses the designation of faith, yet remains a Muslim. If he repents of this, he returns to the faith he previously possessed. Committing minor sins does not deprive him of the designation of faith; rather, it continues to apply to him.”

He then cited the evidence for this. However, what he cited