not to its completeness, deficiency, or present state. He also forbade declaring without qualification that faith is created or uncreated, and wrote on this subject a treatise known among the people of the Sunnah in Kitāb al-Maqālāt (Book of Doctrinal Views). He stated that he upheld their position.

A group of later followers of Abū Hanīfah—such as Abū Mansūr al-Māturīdī and others like him—adopted a fundamentally similar position. They said that faith consists in what is within the heart, while outward profession is a condition for the application of worldly rulings. Yet these scholars endorse qualifying one’s profession of faith by saying “if Allah wills,” and related matters, as is known from their principles.

The underlying disagreement over faith among these groups—the Khawārij, Murji’ah, Mu‘tazilah, Jahmiyyah, and others—stems from their treating faith as a single entity: if any part of it disappears, all of it disappears; and if any part is present, all of it is present. Thus, they did not accept that some of it could disappear while some remained, as indicated by the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Whoever has a grain’s weight of faith in his heart will come out of the Fire.”

The Khawārij and Mu‘tazilah then said that all acts of obedience form part of faith. If some of these are lost, part of faith is lost, and consequently all the rest is lost. They therefore ruled that someone who commits a major sin has no faith whatsoever.

The Murji’ah and Jahmiyyah said that faith is only a single, indivisible thing: either the heart’s assent alone, as the Jahmiyyah hold, or the assent of both heart and tongue, as the Murji’ah hold. They argued that if deeds were included in faith, they would become part of it; if those deeds were lost, part of faith would be lost. This would necessarily mean excluding the person who commits a major sin from faith, which is the position of the Mu‘tazilah and Khawārij. Yet faith may have things that necessarily accompany it and signs that indicate it