the Fire headlong. This is an instance of giving to those whose hearts are to be reconciled.
Now, are those whom the Quran and Sunnah describe as having Islam, but not faith, hypocrites who are inwardly unbelievers? Or do they also include people who possess some faith? Scholars of various persuasions have disagreed over this.
A group of hadith scholars, speculative theologians, and others said: Rather, they are hypocrites who have outwardly submitted and complied, while no faith has entered their hearts. Those who hold this view may say that the Islam that is accepted is faith. These people, however, submitted outwardly, not inwardly; thus, they were neither inwardly Muslims nor believers.
They said: Allah, glorified is He, says:
“Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him.”
Their explanation is that every Muslim is a believer: whatever is not part of Islam is not accepted, which requires that faith be part of it.
They maintain that every believer is a Muslim, and every Muslim is a believer, provided that he is inwardly a Muslim. As for someone who is inwardly an unbeliever and a hypocrite, the Muslims unanimously agree that he is excluded from the believers who deserve reward. None of the early generations of the Muslim community or its leading scholars, nor any of the Muslim groups, call such people believers—with the exception of one group among the Murji’ah: the Karrāmiyyah, who said that faith consists merely of outward assent.
Accordingly, once someone gives such assent, he is a believer, even if he inwardly denies it. They nevertheless acknowledged that he would be punished eternally in the Hereafter. Thus, they disputed his designation, not