Principle Seventeen: Certain Qur’anic terms, when mentioned by themselves, convey their full and comprehensive meaning, but when they are coupled with another term, each word assumes part of the meaning while the accompanying word supplies the remainder.

There are many instances of this rule.

One example is imān (faith). It appears alone in numerous verses, and it also appears together with righteous deeds in many others.

In the verses where it stands alone, imān incorporates every doctrinal belief of the religion as well as all its outward and inward practices. For that reason Allah links it to the attainment of reward and deliverance from punishment; had those elements not been encompassed, the promised effects could not follow. According to the early generations, imān consists of: the heart’s affirmation and the tongue’s profession, together with the deeds of the heart, the tongue, and the limbs.

In the verses where faith is joined with righteous deeds—such as His saying, “Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds” (Al-Baqarah 2:277)—faith is explained as the inner knowledge, affirmation, conviction, and turning to Allah that dwell in the heart, while “righteous deeds” comprises all prescribed verbal and physical actions.

The same pattern applies to the terms birr (uprightness) and taqwā (God-fearing piety). Whenever birr is mentioned on its own, it includes fulfilling commands and avoiding prohibitions; the same holds true when taqwā is mentioned by itself. Accordingly, when Allah promises unrestricted reward and absolute salvation for birr or for taqwā in an unqualified sense, He does so just as He does for imān.

At times, the Qur’an details the works of birr in wording that covers both performing good deeds and shunning sins, and in several verses it enumerates the traits of taqwā, as in His words: “Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing—those who spend in charity in ease and hardship…” (Āl ʿImrān 3:133–134), continuing through the rest of the qualities by which taqwā is perfected.

When birr and taqwā are mentioned together, as in His saying, “Cooperate in birr and taqwā” (Al-Māʾidah 5:2), birr becomes an all-encompassing term for everything Allah loves and approves of—whether words or deeds.