for Allah’s decision.’ Who are these people?” Then Ahmad said:

“Does not faith consist of words and deeds?”

The man replied, “Yes.”

He said, “Then have we made the verbal profession?”

He replied, “Yes.”

He said, “And have we fulfilled the deeds?”

He replied, “No.”

He said, “How, then, can you object to someone saying, ‘If Allah wills,’ and qualifying his profession of faith?”

[Abū Dāwūd said: Ahmad ibn Abī Shurayh informed me that Ahmad ibn Hanbal wrote to him concerning this question: “Faith consists of words and deeds. We have made the verbal profession but have not fulfilled the deeds, so our qualification concerns the deeds.”] (*)

Al-Khallāl also related this answer through al-Fadl ibn Ziyād. He said: Al-Fadl added: I heard Abū ‘Abd Allāh say: Sulaymān ibn Harb understood this as referring to acceptance. He would say, “We perform deeds, but we do not know whether they will be accepted from us.”

I say: Acceptance depends on performing the deed as commanded. Whoever fears Allah in his deed and performs it as commanded has had it accepted from him. Yet he cannot be certain of its acceptance because he cannot be certain that he has performed it fully, as commanded. As the Most High said:

“And those who give what they give while their hearts are fearful.”

‘Ā’ishah asked, “O Messenger of Allah, does this mean a man who commits adultery, steals, drinks wine, and is afraid?”

He replied, “No, daughter of al-Siddīq. Rather, it is a man who prays, fasts, gives charity, and fears that it will not be accepted from him.”

Al-Khallāl narrated from Abū Tālib, who said: I heard Abū ‘Abd Allāh say: “We cannot dispense with qualifying our profession of faith, for when someone says, ‘I am a believer,’ he has made the verbal profession. The qualification concerns only the deeds, not the verbal profession.”

It is also related from Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm, who said: I heard Abū ‘Abd Allāh say: “I follow the hadith of