knowledge does not necessarily produce love for its object unless the soul possesses another faculty attuned to that object—and this faculty does exist in the soul. Each of these two faculties strengthens the other: knowledge strengthens action, and action strengthens knowledge. Whoever knows Allah and has a sound heart loves Him. The more he knows Him, the more he loves Him; and the more he loves Him, the more he remembers Him and knows His names and attributes. Strong love leads to frequent remembrance of the beloved, just as hatred leads one to avoid mentioning the one one hates. Whoever is hostile to Allah and His Messenger and sets himself against Allah and His Messenger is thereby led to refrain from speaking well of Allah and His Messenger and from mentioning what inspires love. His knowledge of Him consequently weakens, until he may even forget Him.
As Allah Most High said:
“And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves.”
And Allah Most High said:
“And do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who follows his own desires, and whose conduct is beyond all bounds.”
Belief and knowledge may nevertheless coexist with hatred and hostility, but they are weak belief and weak knowledge. Were it not for that hatred and hostility, however, this would produce enough love for Allah and His Messenger to make the person a believer. Thus, complete knowledge is a condition of faith. Hence, the correct view is that ignorance of some of Allah’s names and attributes does not make a person a disbeliever, provided that he acknowledges what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought, and nothing has reached him that would require him to know what he is ignorant of in such a way that his failure to know it would constitute disbelief. An example is the hadith of the man who instructed his family to burn him and then scatter his ashes. Indeed, those who know Allah differ in their knowledge of Him. This is why someone who does not act upon his knowledge is described as ignorant and lacking knowledge.
Allah Most High said:
“Allah only accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and then repent soon afterwards.”
Abū al-ʿĀliyah said: