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By Allah, I find him to be a believer." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) answered, "He may be [just] a Muslim." I kept quiet Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi for a short while but then I could not restrain myself and again said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), "O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), what about so and so? By Allah, I find him to be a believer." He said, "He may be uust] a Muslim." I remained quiet for a while and then what I knew about that man made me speak again, "O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), what about so and so? By Allah, I find him to be a believer." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) answered, "He may be uust] a Muslim. I often bestow something upon a person whereas someone else is dearer to me than he, because of the fear that he may fall headlong into the Fire." In this hadith one also finds the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) differentiating between a true or complete believer and a Muslim. What can be derived from the above is that for a person to be called an absolute, complete or true believer, he must fulfill the conditions and obligations of Imaan. If he is lacking in them, then he is not deserving of being called a believer. 1 But he has not left the fold of Islam. Instead, he has moved from the lofty level of being called a "believer" to the level of being a "muslim". This is a very important point to understand as, when misunderstood, this point leads to a great deal of confusion. In fact, it leads to more than just confusionit leads to Muslims calling other Muslims disbelievers. A disbeliever is one who completely leaves the fold of Islam. A Muslim is one who is in the fold of Islam by performing the outward deeds of Islam. However, a Muslim may not perform all of the required aspects of faith, especially those deeds of the heart, to be called a believer in an absolute sense. A believer, in an absolute sense, on the other hand, is one who submits completelythat is, fulfills the requirements of Islambut, in addition to that, fulfills all of the characteristics and requirements of a true believer. Hence, he is termed a believer. Therefore, every true believer must first be a true Muslim. However, not every Muslim is necessarily a true and complete believer in an absolute sense. This point must be kept in mind when one reads hadith like the following: . •.'I ș J I , • {I * J *, ই g஛\ / / "lmaan is composed of seventy some-oddor sixty some-odd1branches. The greatest aspect is the statement, 'There is none worthy of worship except Allah,' and the lowest aspect is removing something harmful from the road. And modesty is a branch of faith."2 Obviously, the one who is driven by his faith to remove something harmful from the road for the sake of Allah has gone beyond the minimum or obligatory aspects of faith. Because of his faith in Allah, he will stop and remove something harmful from the road. The only thing driving him to do that is his Imaan. In sum, ibn Taimiya argues that Imaan is composed of: (1) Essentials or foundation without which Imaan is missing in totality: If one fails to fulfill any one of these, he is outside of the fold of Islam and will remain in the Hell-fire forever. (2) Obligatory aspects: If one fails to fulfill any one of them, he may be deserving of punishment in the Hereafter. However, the person who fails only in these aspects will not be in the Hell-fire forever. Instead, he will be rescued by the mercy of Allah and entered into Paradise. If one performs all of these obligatory aspects, one will be entered, by the grace and mercy of Allah, directly into Paradise without first suffering any punishment for what was lacking in his Imaan. (3) Recommended or beloved acts: These are the acts that will distinguish the People of Paradise from one another. These are the acts that will determine the various degrees of reward and positions of Paradise that are described in the Quran and hadith. lbn Taimiya then quoted the following verse of the Quran as referring to these three categories of "Muslims-believers-those who excel": T ,,,. U ,,,. ,.,, :z..., ,,,. .,,,.,, .,. ,,.. J ஒ ili u :r (.:[k'",,,1 \.:u1 ]1 u)ji ஓ ,,,. ,,. ,,,. ,,,. ,,,. ,,,. ,,,. ,,. ,,,. ,,,. ,- Չ\ "Then We gave the Book for inheritance to such of Our slaves whom We chose [the followers of Muhammad]. Then of them are some who wrong themselves, and of them are some who follow a middle course, and of them are some who 1 The doubt is from one of the narrators. 2 Recorded by Muslim.