Part 102

However, this only follows from the view of one who defines belief so as to include the performance of religious obligations and the abandonment of those things that are forbidden. Someone who dies in this state will enter Paradise. As

for those who supported the views of the Jahmites and the Murji’ites, they believed that such a person will undoubtedly die a believer with perfect belief. However, he may also be a major sinner bound to enter Hellfire. Hence it follows that simply because he dies a believer, this does not mean that he will enter Paradise. And it is this logical reasoning of their view that indicates its falsity, for Allah promises believers that they will enter Paradise. Allah says: “Allah has promised the believers, men and women, Gardens . . .” (9:72). Hence, those who affirmed so unequivocally that such a person will die a believer considered his steadfastness in belief to be a result of this assent, as well as the belief that we have described to punishment and fulfillment of it in the Afterlife as a condition of belief on the basis of law, not on the basis of language or reason. It has been said that this was the teaching of the earliest hadith scholars. It was also the view chosen by Abu Bakr Ibn Firak. As for Muhammad Ibn Ishaq Ibn Khuzaymah, he took it to extremes, claiming that anyone who says he is a true believer is a heretic.

Regarding the doctrine of the pious ancestors and experts on hadith—such as Ibn Mas‘“iid and his followers, al-Thawri, Ibn ‘Uyyaynah, and the majority of the scholars of Kiifah—Y ahya Ibn Sa‘id al-Qattan, on the authority of the scholars of Basrah, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, and other leading Orthodox Muslims all of them used to make the exception with regard to Iman. This has been reported about them by numerous widespread sources. However, none of them said that he made the exception due to uncertainty about the state of his belief at the time of his death. Nor did they say that Iman is merely the state of one’s belief at the time of death. Rather, their leaders declared that the exception was made because Iman includes the performance of one’s religious obligations. For this is something about which they could not bear witness for themselves, just as they could not testify for themselves that they were pious and righteous. These are things they simply did not know about themselves [as will be indicated later].

As for the importance al-muwafat, the state of belief at the time of one’s death, 1 know of none of the pious ancestors who justified the practice of making the exception on this basis. However, many later thinkers, including hadith scholars and followers of Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal], Malik, al-Shafi‘l, as well as speculative thinkers such as Abu al-Hassan al-Ash‘ari and most of his disciples, used it as a justification. However, this is not the position taken by the earliest hadith scholars.

Someone might ask: “if you say that the belief we are commanded to have in Islamic law is what you have described with certain conditions attached, though it is not a sense that has been passed down through linguistic usage, then how can you legitimately say that the term ‘belief’ is consistent with such usage?” In response we would say that belief is the same as assent; both are based on linguistic usage and Islamic law. However, Islamic law added to this assent certain conditions and specifications, the sum total of which becomes acceptable and a basis for reward, as we have likewise mentioned with regard to prayer, fasting, making the pilgrimage, and so on. The same is true for the linguistic meaning of “prayer, it is supplication,” except that the Islamic law added certain conditions to it.

It might then be said that this contradicts what some have said the term “belief” refers to; for when they claim that, linguistically speaking, this term means the same as tasdiq, assent, and that Islamic law introduced no changes into it, they have answered themselves.

Someone might ask: Do not the terms “prayer,” “pilgrimage,” and zakah have meanings different from those they originally conveyed in the language? And are they not used in a manner that differs from the way speakers of the language used them before? To this we would reply that scholars have differed on this question. But the fact is that their meanings have been determined by the manner in which speakers of the language have used them before. Moreover, they have retained their required components, and have not been shifted away from their original sense, though some elements have been added to them. And if we granted, for the sake of argument, that they had indeed been shifted away from their original meanings, or that they had clearly been used in a metaphorical manner, then on this basis one might adduce evidence that something similar had occurred with regard to the term “belief.” For it is not necessary that all phenomena in the Qur?an be removed simply because one of its phenomena has been removed.

The author of this book refutes his [Abu al-Qasim al-Ansari’s] view by saying that he claimed that the addition of the exception is based on Islamic law. He thus considered the exception to be like prayer and zakah, although there is no evidence [in Islamic law] to support the notion that Iman is judged solely according to one’s belief at the time of death. Also, it is known that the evidence for the inclusion of

works in Iman is much more simple and more widely recognized. So, why are works not included in Iman, according to Islamic law? Moreover, he [al-Ansari] claimed that the statement, “there must be definitive evidence [that someone will enter Paradise],” can be refuted in two ways. One way is to refute the notion that one’s Iman is judged according to the state of his belief at the time of his death. The second is to affirm that we have greater certainty that one’s love for Allah and His Messenger and other such attitudes are included in the word Iman [as it is used in the words of Allah and His Messenger] than we have concerning some acts of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage over which people dispute. Moreover, Abu alHassan, Ibn Furak, and others who stressed the importance of one’s state of belief at the time of death do not make the exception. Rather, they believed that if Islamic law negates someone’s Iman, he will lose the tasdiq in his heart. He [alAnsari] said that among his friends are those who did not make one’s state of belief at the time of death a condition for genuine Iman at the present time, although they did consider this a condition for being rewarded for one’s Iman. Indeed, this was the doctrine of the Mu‘tazilite’s and the Karramites. It was also the opinion of Abu Ishaq al-Isfarayini, which was supported by statements made by al-Qadi. He [al-Ansari] said that it is also the opinion of our teacher Abu alMa‘ali, who said that Iman in al-hal, the present, is definitely established and not subject to doubt. However, the Iman that is the knowledge of being rewarded [in Paradise] and the sign of deliverance [from Hell] is the Iman that one has at the time of death. The latter type of Iman was the concern of the pious ancestors, who associated it with the use of the clause, “if Allah wills.” Yet they did so without doubting the possibility of having a complete, perfect Iman. He [Abu al-Ma‘“ali] added that Iman is a kind of description or adjective from which the word “believer” is derived and which refers to knowledge and tasdiq. Similarly, the word “Alim, scientist, is derived from the word ‘ilm, science. And if I recognize Iman in myself, I can be certain of it, just as I can be certain that I am a scientist, or that I know or believe something. If something occurs in the future to remove it [Iman], then one no longer deserves to be described as a believer. In such a case, we are not to say that it is now clear to us that this person did not truly have the Iman that Allah commands. Rather, it was an Iman worthy of reward that has now undergone changes and, hence, is nullified. However, saying that I will enter Paradise is different. For this matter is unknown to me and can only be hoped for. He [Abu al-Ansari] said that he who advocates the first saying clings to certain notions, for example, that Iman is lifelong worship. It is like a single act of

obedience in which the soundness of its early stages depends on the success of its final outcome. This is also the case with regard to prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage. It has also been said that there is no doubt that such a man is not to be called a friend of Allah, blessed, or acceptable to Allah at the present time. Similarly, the unbeliever is not to be called Allah’s enemy or a villain at the present time, except in the sense that he may be judged as an enemy in order to show him that he himself is an enemy. [Their argument is that he may convert from unbelief to Iman before his death, but what is correct is that Allah’s favor and wrath are based on one’s deeds, as will become clear below].

What has been mentioned no doubt reflects the views of Ibn Kullab, al-Ash‘ari and his followers, and supporters of his view from among the followers of Ahmad {Ibn Hanbal], Malik, al-Shafi‘l, and others. However, most people say that if a man is an unbeliever, then he is an enemy of Allah, but if he believes in Allah and becomes righteous, then he will be a friend of Allah. Allah says: “Oh, you who believe! Take not My enemies and yours as friends [or protectors] offering them your love, while they have disbelieved and what has come to you of the Truth and have driven out the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in Allah, your Lord! If you have come forth to strive in My Cause and to seek My Good Pleasure. You show friendship to them in secret, while I am All-Aware of what you conceal and what you reveal. And whosoever of you [Muslims] does that, then indeed he has gone astray, from the Straight Path. Should they gain the upper hand over you, they would behave to you as enemies and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you with evil, and they desire that you should disbelieve. Neither your relatives nor your children will benefit you on the Day of Resurrection. He will judge between you. And Allah is the All-Seer of what you do. Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people: ‘Indeed, we are free from you and whatever you worship besides Allah, we have rejected you, and there has started between us and you, hostility and hatred forever, until you believe in Allah alone,’ except the saying of Abraham to his father: ‘Indeed, I will ask for forgiveness [from Allah] for you, but I have no power to do anything for you before Allah.’ ‘Our Lord! in You [Alone] we put our trust and to You [Alone] we turn in repentance, and to You [Alone] is {our] final Return. Our Lord! Make us not a trial for the disbelievers, and forgive us, Our Lord! Indeed, You, only You, are the All Almighty, the All Wise.’ Certainly, there have been in them an excellent example for you to follow, for