and to establish prayer, give zakat, and pay one-fifth of the spoils you acquire.” This is why some of the early generations said: “Every believer is a Muslim, but not every Muslim is a believer.”

When, however, the term “faith” is coupled with action or Islam, a distinction is made between them, as in the words of the Exalted:

“Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds…”

This occurs frequently in the Quran. Another example is the Prophet’s statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the authentic hadith in which Gabriel asked him about Islam, faith, and excellence in worship. He said:

“Islam is to testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to establish prayer, give zakat, fast Ramadan, and make pilgrimage to the House.”

He asked, “Then what is faith?”

He replied, “To believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and resurrection after death, and to believe in the divine decree, both its good and its evil.”

He asked, “Then what is excellence in worship?”

He replied, “To worship Allah as though you see Him; for even though you do not see Him, He sees you.”

In this text, he distinguished between Islam and faith because he mentioned the two terms together. In the earlier text, he included Islam within faith because he mentioned faith alone. The same applies to the term “action,” for the Islam mentioned here is a form of action. Outward action is the necessary consequence of the heart’s faith and is entailed by it. Thus, when faith is present in the heart, faith is necessarily expressed through the limbs. The heart’s faith must include both its assent and its submission. Otherwise, if someone’s heart assented that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, while he hated him, envied him, and was too arrogant to follow him, his heart would not have believed.

Although “faith” includes assent, it is not synonymous with it. Thus, one does not say