the faith that safeguards my life and property, then I am a believer. But if you mean His words:

‘The believers are only those whose hearts tremble when Allah is mentioned, whose faith increases when His verses are recited to them, and who put their trust in their Lord.’

‘Those who establish prayer and spend out of what We have provided for them.’

‘It is they who are truly believers.’

And His words:

‘The believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then never doubt, and strive with their wealth and their lives in Allah’s cause. It is they who are truthful.’

Then I am a believer, if Allah wills.”

As for the act of professing faith itself, no one attached this qualification to it, nor was such a qualification prescribed. Rather, everyone who came to faith and embraced Islam did so categorically, without making it conditional.

It thus becomes clear that the disagreement on this issue may be merely verbal: what the former prohibited is not what the latter approved and enjoined. Whoever spoke categorically was affirming the present state of his heart. This is valid and does not contradict making the completeness of faith and one’s final outcome conditional upon Allah’s will. However, the former do not regard deeds as part of faith, so what they call faith amounts to what the latter call Islam.

The well-known position among the scholars of hadith is that one does not qualify one’s profession of Islam. This is also the well-known position reported from Ahmad, may Allah be pleased with him, although permission to qualify it has also been reported from him. This has been discussed at length in the commentary on the hadith of Gabriel and other texts concerning faith in the Quran and Sunnah.