These hadiths and others like them are found in the authentic collections, and they show that love and reverent fear vary in degree. Allah Most High says:

“Those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah.”

This is something a person experiences within himself: he may love the same thing more at one time than at another, and fear it more at one time than at another. Hence, people of knowledge are among those who most emphatically affirm that faith increases and decreases, because they experience this within themselves. Another example is His saying, Most High:

“Those to whom people said, ‘The people have gathered against you, so fear them,’ but it increased them in faith, and they said, ‘Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs.’”

What increased in them was tranquility and calm. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The believers most complete in faith are those with the best character.”

(The third respect)

The assent and knowledge within the heart vary in degree according to whether they are general or detailed. The assent of someone who believes the Messenger in general, without knowing the details of what he conveyed, is not like that of someone who knows what he conveyed about Allah, His names and attributes, Paradise, Hell, and the nations, and believes him concerning all of this. Nor is someone who commits himself to obeying him in general, but dies before learning the details of what he commanded, like someone who lives long enough to learn those details and obey him in them.

(The fourth respect)

Knowledge and assent themselves vary in degree, just as the other attributes of a living being—ability, will, hearing, sight, and speech—vary in degree. Indeed, so do all accidental properties, such as motion, blackness, whiteness, and the like. If the ability to do something varies in degree, then reporting about it likewise varies in degree. And if someone says, “Knowledge of a thing