“Among the people are those who say, ‘We believe in Allah and the Last Day,’ yet they are not believers.”
—through to His saying—
“They will have a painful punishment because they used to lie.”
There are two well-known readings of yakdhibūn (“they lie”). A hadith states:
“The foundation upon which hypocrisy is built is lying.”
Allah, exalted is He, says:
“When the hypocrites come to you, they say, ‘We testify that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.’ Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and Allah testifies that the hypocrites are liars.”
He, exalted is He, also says:
“Among them are those who pledged to Allah, ‘If He gives us of His bounty, we will surely give charity and be among the righteous.’ But when He gave them of His bounty, they became miserly with it and turned away in aversion. So He caused hypocrisy to follow in their hearts until the Day they meet Him, because they broke their promise to Allah and because they used to lie.”
He also says:
“Among them are those who criticize you concerning the charitable alms.”
There are many similar passages.
In short, no one who reflects on what he is saying can doubt that a man does not become a believer merely through assent in his heart while hating Allah and His Messenger, arrogantly refusing to worship Him, and showing hostility towards Him and His Messenger. For this reason, the great majority of the Murji’ah held that the actions of the heart are included in faith, as reported by writers on sectarian doctrines. Among them is al-Ash‘arī, who said in his book, Maqālāt (Doctrinal Views):
“The Murji’ah disagreed over what faith is, dividing into twelve groups. The first group claims that faith in Allah consists solely of knowing Allah, His Messenger, and everything that has come from Allah. Anything other than this knowledge—verbal profession, submission of the heart, love for Allah and His Messenger, reverence for them both, fear, and bodily deeds—is not faith. They claimed that disbelief in Allah consists of ignorance of Him. This is a view attributed to al-Jahm