and in this category are the reports from al-Hasan al-Basrī and other early scholars that they called sinful people hypocrites. Writers on sectarian doctrines treated this as a position differing from that of the majority when recounting the disagreement over a sinful member of the Muslim community: Is he a disbeliever? A sinner possessing no faith? A believer whose faith is complete? A believer by virtue of the faith he possesses and a sinner by virtue of his sinfulness? Or a hypocrite? Yet al-Hasan—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said nothing that placed him outside the mainstream Muslim community. Rather, he called such a person a hypocrite in the sense we have explained.

Hypocrisy, like disbelief, has lesser forms. Hence it is often said that there is disbelief that takes a person outside Islam and disbelief that does not, and major hypocrisy and minor hypocrisy, just as associating partners with Allah is said to be of two kinds: minor and major.

In the Sahīh of Abū Hātim and elsewhere, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“Associating partners with Allah within this community is more imperceptible than the creeping of ants.” Abū Bakr said, “O Messenger of Allah, how can we escape it when it is more imperceptible than the creeping of ants?” He replied, “Shall I not teach you words which, if you say them, will save you from all of it, great and small? Say: ‘O Allah, I seek refuge in You from knowingly associating partners with You, and I ask Your forgiveness for what I do unknowingly.’”

Al-Tirmidhī also reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever swears by other than Allah has associated partners with Him.”

Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a sound hadith.”

This makes clear that the Lawgiver denies a person the designation of believer because he lacks the required completeness of faith, even though he possesses some of its constituent parts. Thus he said:

“The adulterer is not a believer while committing adultery; the thief is not a believer while stealing; and the one who drinks wine is not a believer while drinking it.”

Another example is his statement: “Whoever cheats us is not one of us, and whoever takes up against us