through intercession or by any other means.

The second group agreed with Ahl al-Sunnah that none of those who affirm Allah’s oneness will remain in the Fire forever. Yet they supposed that this could only be so if their faith were complete, because they believed that faith cannot be divided into parts. They therefore said: Every sinful person has complete faith, and people’s faith is identical, without differences in degree. Differences in degree concern only deeds, which are outside faith. They also said: Deeds are not part of faith, because Allah distinguishes between faith and deeds in His Book.

The recognized jurists who held this position said: Faith consists of the heart’s assent and the tongue’s profession. This is what is reported from Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān and those who agreed with him, such as Abū Hanīfa and others. Jahm, al-Sālihī, and the speculative theologians who agreed with them, such as Abū al-Hasan and others, said that it consists solely of the heart’s assent.

The decisive distinction in this matter is that the term “faith” is sometimes mentioned on its own and sometimes alongside deeds or Islam. When mentioned on its own, it includes deeds, as in the two Sahīh collections:

“Faith has sixty-odd or seventy-odd branches. The highest is the declaration that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and the lowest is removing something harmful from the road.”

Both collections also report that he said to the delegation of ‘Abd al-Qays:

“I command you to have faith in Allah. Do you know what faith in Allah is? To testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to establish prayer, to give zakat, and to pay one-fifth of the spoils you acquire.”

When faith is mentioned alongside Islam—as in the hadith in which “Gabriel asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about