such a statement, given his conduct, would be a lie on his part. It would be like someone throwing a copy of the Quran into a latrine while saying, “I testify that its contents are Allah’s words,” or setting about killing a prophet while saying, “I testify that he is Allah’s Messenger,” or committing similar acts incompatible with faith in the heart. If someone acting in this way says, “I am a believer in my heart,” his outward declaration is a lie.

This point deserves careful reflection. Whoever understands the connection between the outward and the inward will have his doubts concerning this matter dispelled. He will recognize that any jurist who says that someone who acknowledges the obligation of prayer but refuses to perform it should not be put to death—or should be put to death while remaining a Muslim—has been affected by the same misconception that affected the Murji’ah and the Jahmiyyah, and those who hold that firm resolve, together with full ability, may produce no action at all. Thus, those jurists who opposed putting such a person to death based their position on their view concerning “the question of faith”: that deeds are not part of faith.

It has already been explained that deeds, as a category, necessarily accompany faith in the heart, and that complete faith in the heart without any outward deeds is impossible, whether outward deeds are regarded as a necessary consequence of faith or as part of faith, as explained earlier. Accordingly, when a servant performs some of what he has been commanded to do and leaves some undone, he possesses faith in proportion to what he has done. Faith increases and decreases, and faith and hypocrisy may coexist in a servant.

As is established from him in the Sahīh, he said:

“Four traits, whoever possesses them all is a pure hypocrite; whoever possesses one of them has a trait of hypocrisy until he abandons it: when he speaks, he lies; when he is entrusted with something, he betrays the trust; when he makes a covenant, he breaks it; and when he disputes, he transgresses all bounds.”