supported and defended him out of loyalty to lineage and kinship. This is why Allah did not accept that from him. Had it stemmed from faith in his heart, he would necessarily have uttered the two testimonies. The very motive that led him to support the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—family loyalty—also led him to refuse to utter the two testimonies, unlike Abū Bakr al-Siddīq and others like him. Allah Most High says:

“But the most righteous will be kept away from it—the one who gives his wealth to purify himself, not to repay anyone for a favor, but only seeking the Face of his Lord, the Most High. And he will surely be pleased.”

Errors in these matters arise in several ways:

(First) The belief that knowledge and assent necessarily entail everything that faith requires.

(Second) The assumption that people do not differ in what is within their hearts.

(Third) The assumption that acceptable faith can exist in the heart without outward speech and outward action.

(Fourth) The assumption that there is nothing in the heart but assent, and nothing outward but the actions of the limbs. The correct understanding is that the heart has actions alongside assent, while what is outward comprises both speech and action; both necessarily entail what is inward.

The Murjiʾah excluded outward action from faith. Those among them who also intended to exclude the actions of the heart, treating them as nothing more than assent, are plainly astray. As for those who intended to exclude outward action, they are told: outward action necessarily accompanies inward action and cannot be separated from it; the absence of what is outward is evidence of the absence of what is inward.