, according to the correct view among Ahl al-Sunnah. All these matters are disputed. Some who affiliate themselves with the Sunnah deny differences of degree in all of them; this is the position preferred by al-Qādī Abū Bakr, Ibn ʿAqīl, and others. Two positions have been reported from Ahmad concerning differences of degree in knowledge.

Denying differences of degree in these attributes is akin to the fundamental position of the Murjiʾah, yet it is also maintained by people who oppose them. These people say: “Differences of degree concern deeds alone; faith in the heart does not vary in degree.” Matters are not as they claim. Rather, all of these vary in degree. They may also say: “The deeds of the heart vary in degree, unlike its knowledge.” This too is incorrect. Rather, faith in people’s hearts varies according to what is obligatory upon one person and what is obligatory upon another: their obligations are not identical.

Although faith became obligatory upon the entire community of Muhammad once the revealed law was fully established, the obligation to believe in a particular matter depends, if it is a report, on its reaching the person; if it is a command, on his needing to act upon it; and if it is a matter of knowledge, on his knowing it. Otherwise, it is not obligatory for every Muslim to know every report and every command in the Quran and Sunnah, understand its meaning, and have knowledge of it, for no one is capable of this. Thus, what is obligatory varies according to people’s differing circumstances. They also differ in the extent to which they fulfill their obligations.

Knowledge itself also varies: it may be general or detailed, strong or weak, continually present in the mind or accompanied by heedlessness. For it is not the case that detailed knowledge, consciously present and firmly established, whose possessor Allah makes steadfast through the word