“If it is asked: ‘Have not the terms prayer, pilgrimage, and zakāh been shifted from their linguistic meanings and used differently from the usage of speakers of the language?’

We reply: ‘Scholars have differed over this. The correct position is that these terms retain their established linguistic usage and meanings; they have not acquired new meanings, but additional elements have been attached to them. Even if we conceded to our opponent, on the basis of conclusive evidence, that these terms had acquired new meanings or were being used figuratively, he would still have to establish that the same applies to faith. Setting aside one apparent meaning in the Quran does not require setting aside its other apparent meanings.’”

It may be said in reply: You maintain that religious law has added elements to faith, making it comparable to prayer and zakāh. Yet no one can cite any evidence from religious law that only the faith with which one meets one’s Lord may be called faith. Even supposing there were such evidence, the scriptural evidence for including deeds within faith is manifestly more abundant and better known. How, then, can deeds be excluded from what faith denotes in religious law?

His statement, “Conclusive evidence is required,” may be answered in two ways:

First: His position concerning the faith with which one meets one’s Lord provides a counterexample, since he has no certainty concerning it.

(Second: We do not concede this. Indeed, our certainty that loving Allah and His Messenger, fearing Allah, and similar matters are included in what faith denotes in the words of Allah and His Messenger is greater than our certainty concerning some of the acts of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage, such as those over which there is disagreement. Moreover, Abū al-Hasan, Ibn Fūrak, and others who hold that faith is determined by one’s final state do not maintain that religious law has added anything to it. Rather, in their view, anyone whom religious law denies the designation of faith has lost assent from his heart.

He said: “Some of our companions do not make meeting one’s Lord with faith a condition for its being faith