What does Eemaan Consist of?
Question: Someone says: Eemaan (faith) consists of speech, belief, and action, but action is a condition of perfection in it. He also says: there is no Kufr except by belief. Is this from the sayings of Ahlus-Sunnah or not?
Answer: Those who say that do not understand Eemaan nor ‘Aqeedah. That is what we have said in the introduction- that it is obligatory to study ‘Aqeedah at the hands of the people of knowledge and receive it from its correct sources, and then he will know the answer to that question.
He said: “Eemaan consists of speech, action, and belief”, and then says: “Action is a condition of the perfection and the validity of faith.” This is a contradiction, how can he say that action is part of faith and then says it is a condition?!
It is known that the Shart (condition) comes independently of the Mashroot (conditioned) and that action is part of faith and not independent of it according to Ahlus-Sunnah, so this is a contradiction. That person wants to bring together the saying of the Salaf and that of the late scholars while he does not understand the contradiction, because he knows neither the saying of the Salaf nor the reality of the saying of the late. He wanted to combine them together. So, Eemaan consists of speech, action and belief. Action is part of faith and not one of the conditions of the validity of faith or the perfection of faith or such sayings that they spread nowadays. Faith consists of the speech of the tongue, the belief of the heart, and an action of the limbs, it increases by obedience and decreases by disobedience. That is what Ahlus-Sunnah has always been upon, in the past and in the present as opposed to the Murji’ah [1]
Footnotes:
[1] Editor's Note: The Murji‘ah are a misguided sect, and their Madhhab (way) is wicked and false, it it not upon the methodology of the Sunnah, nor its people. We do not take them out of the Religion, as this is what has been recorded and quoted by Shaykhul-Islaam. He affirmed it in a number of places.The Murji‘ah are of three categories:
- Jahmiyyatul-Murji‘ah: they say that Eemaan is cognizance (ma’rifah) (only). So due to this, some of the Scholars of the Salaf have declared them disbelievers.
- al-Karraamiyyah: they are those who limit Eemaan to the statement of the tongue, not the heart.
- Murji‘atul-Fuqahaa‘: they are those who say that Eemaan is belief in the heart and a statement upon the tongue. They take the action (‘amal) out of the appellation of Eemaan. So all of them are upon misguidance, even though they are dissimilar – according to what Shaykhul-Islaam [Ibn Taymiyyah (d.728H)] detailed about them.
Source: Masaa'il Fil Eemaan
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