doubts and seeks to dispel them through reflection and inquiry. No reasonable person doubts that knowledge attained through numerous strong proofs, recognition of the falsity of opposing doubts, and demonstration of the invalidity of the arguments advanced in their support is unlike knowledge obtained from a single proof without awareness of the doubts raised against it. For the stronger and more numerous a thing’s causes become, and the more its obstacles are removed and disappear, the more this ensures its perfection, strength, and completeness.

(The sixth respect)

These matters differ in degree according to their persistence and stability, and according to how consistently they are remembered and kept in mind, just as hatred arises through heedlessness of something and turning away from it. Knowledge, assent, love, reverence, and other such things within the heart are attributes, accidents, and states that endure and arise as their causes endure and arise. Although knowledge resides in the heart, heedlessness prevents it from being actively present. Someone who knows something but is heedless of it is at a lower level than someone who keeps it in mind.

ʿUmayr ibn Habīb al-Khatmī, one of the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Faith increases and decreases.” They asked, “How does it increase and decrease?” He replied, “When we praise Allah, remember Him, and glorify Him, that is its increase. When we become heedless, forget, and neglect our duties, that is its decrease.”

(The seventh respect)

It may be said that nothing within a human being admits greater differences and disparities of degree than faith. Whatever attributes or actions are affirmed despite their differences of degree, faith admits even greater differences. For example, a person knows from his own experience that the love within his heart varies in degree, whether it is love for his child or his wife