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Once this is clear, and it is understood that faith in the heart—affirmation, love, and other such qualities—necessarily entails outward words and deeds, just as complete resolve, together with the ability to act, necessarily brings about what is intended, and that the faith required in the heart cannot exist without its necessary consequences becoming manifest, the “intellectual doubts” concerning this issue are dispelled. All that remains is a “verbal dispute”: are the necessary consequences of inward faith part of faith itself, included within its meaning, so that the term “faith” encompasses them through inclusion and its general scope? Or do they necessarily follow from faith as its effect and fruit, so that the term “faith” signifies them by necessary implication?

The “truth of the matter” is that the term “faith” is sometimes used in one sense and sometimes in the other, as explained previously. When faith is mentioned together with Islam or deeds, it denotes only what is inward. When mentioned on its own, however, it may encompass both the inward and the outward. In this way, the scriptural texts are reconciled.

Thus, in the statement:

“Faith has seventy-odd branches. The highest is saying, ‘There is none worthy of worship but Allah,’ and the lowest is removing something harmful from the road. Modesty is a branch of faith.”

The term “faith” is mentioned on its own, so it includes both the inward and the outward. As for his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the hadith of Gabriel:

“Faith is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day.”

He mentioned this alongside his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: “Islam is to testify that there is none worthy of worship but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of