and His Messenger and who, when engaged with him in a matter of common concern, do not leave until they have asked his permission.”

And His saying concerning Paradise:

“Prepared for those who believe in Allah and His messengers.”

And the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“No adulterer commits adultery while he is a believer; no thief steals while he is a believer; and no one drinks wine while he is a believer.”

What is denied of such a person is the obligatory faith by which he deserves Paradise. This does not entail denying the foundation of faith or all its other parts and branches.

This is what they mean when they say, “The completeness of faith is denied, not its reality.” That is, they mean obligatory completeness, not the recommended completeness meant when jurists describe a ritual bath as either complete or sufficient.

Another example is the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Whoever cheats us is not one of us.”

This does not mean that he is a disbeliever, as the Khawārij have interpreted it, nor that he is not among the best of us, as the Murjiʾah have interpreted it. Rather, the pronoun corresponds to its explicit referent: the believers who deserve reward and are safe from punishment. The person who cheats is not one of us because he exposes himself to Allah’s wrath and punishment.

Once this is clear, whoever omits some obligatory aspect of faith because he is unable to fulfil it—whether because he has no means of acquiring the knowledge, as when the message does not reach him, or because he is unable to act—is not commanded to do what he cannot do, and that is not part of the faith