Allah has forbidden has fulfilled the faith and Islam required of him. Whoever neglects any of this does not cease to be called a believer or a Muslim, but is deficient in Islam and faith compared with others. This involves no diminution in his acknowledgment that Allah is the Truth and that His words are true, not false, and truthful, not lies. Rather, the deficiency is in the faith that consists of reverence for Allah, submission before His awe and majesty, and obedience to the One believed in—namely, Allah. It is in this respect that the deficiency occurs, not in their acknowledgment that Allah is the Truth and that His words are truthful.”
The response is this: what he has mentioned indicates that whoever fulfils the requirements of obligatory faith has fulfilled those of Islam. This is true, but nothing in it indicates that whoever fulfils the requirements of obligatory Islam has fulfilled those of faith. His statement, “Whoever believes in Allah has humbled himself before Him and submitted to Him,” is true. But what in this indicates that whoever submits to Allah and humbles himself before Him has thereby believed in Him, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and resurrection after death?
As for his statement, “Allah and His Messenger have made clear that Islam and faith are inseparable”: if he means that Allah has made both obligatory and forbidden separating them, this is true. But if he means that Allah has made what one term denotes identical to what the other denotes, the texts of the Book and the Sunnah contradict this. Nor has he ever cited a single text indicating agreement among the Muslims.
Likewise, his statement, “Whoever does what he has been commanded to do and refrains from what he has been forbidden has fulfilled faith and Islam,” is correct if he carries out what he has been commanded to do both inwardly and outwardly. He will then have fulfilled the faith and Islam required of him. It does not follow that his faith and Islam are equal to the faith and Islam attained by the messengers of firm resolve, such as Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend, and Muhammad,