Or it may be said that the meaning of a term varies according to whether it is used alone or alongside another term. This is the case with “the poor” and “the needy”: when either is used alone, it includes the other, but when they occur together, they denote two distinct categories, as in the verse on zakat. Undoubtedly, the branches of faith stand in relation to its foundations as two terms joined by a conjunction, while their relation to faith in its entirety is that of a part to the whole. This is where dispute and confusion have arisen over whether deeds are included in faith, since they are mentioned alongside it using a conjunction.

Similarly, some of faith’s higher branches or loftier forms, such as certainty and knowledge, may be mentioned alongside faith using a conjunction, suggesting a distinction between them. Thus, one may say, “This is the highest form of faith”—meaning that certainty and knowledge are higher than faith unaccompanied by such certainty and knowledge. As Allah Most High says:

“Allah will raise those of you who believe and those who have been given knowledge by degrees.”

It is well known that people differ in faith and affirmation themselves: in their strength and weakness, their breadth and specificity, their persistence and continuity, what they entail and what contradicts them, and other aspects. One of the two forms is therefore distinguished by a name indicating its superiority over the other, while in such usage the term “faith” continues to denote the other category. The same occurs in comparable cases, as when one says, “Human beings are better than animals,” or “Human beings are better than other living creatures,” even though human beings are included among the living creatures mentioned in His words:

“Indeed, the worst of living creatures in Allah’s sight are the deaf and dumb who do not reason.”

Once this is understood, wherever an acceptable statement describes something as superior to faith, it merely gives precedence to a particular form over faith in general, or to some of its higher branches over the rest,