alone, and this prevents sins. If he is repentant, then, should [his faith] be deficient and he commit sins, it effaces them after they occur. It is like an antidote that wards off the effects of poison and removes them once they occur; like nourishment from food and drink; and like lawful enjoyment, which prevents the soul from seeking what is forbidden. If such a desire arises, he seeks to remove it. It is also like knowledge, which prevents doubt and dispels it once it arises, and like medicine, which preserves health and wards off illness. Likewise, the faith within the heart is preserved by kindred qualities present within it. If an illness involving doubts and desires develops within it, these remove it. Illness arises only when the means of maintaining health are deficient; likewise, the heart becomes ill only because its faith is deficient.

Faith and disbelief are likewise opposites. With any pair of opposites, one sometimes prevents the other and at other times removes it, as with blackness and whiteness … (1) takes its place and removes it if it is already present. The same applies to good deeds, evil deeds, and nullification … (2) and the Mu‘tazilah [hold] that a major sin nullifies good deeds, even faith itself, and that whoever dies persisting in it would not be … (3) al-Jubbā’ī and his son, regarding the weighing of deeds against one another.

However, they said:

“Whoever’s evil deeds outweigh his good deeds will remain in the Fire forever.”

Weighing deeds against one another without eternal punishment is a view. As for nullification, what is unanimously agreed upon is that all good deeds are nullified by disbelief, as He said:

“Whoever among you turns back from his religion,”

and the rest of the verse. And His saying:

“And whoever rejects faith