Does a person's faith fluctuate between decrease and increase?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Does it fluctuate now between decrease and increase?
The Shaykh : By Allah, yes, it varies. Sometimes a person's mind becomes focused and his faith increases until it is as if he sees the unseen matters with his own eyes.
The questioner : Now, this is an increase.
The Shaykh : This is an increase, there is no doubt in it.
The questioner : I mean, is it the case that in a person's stage, it remains constant except for...? Or do we always fluctuate?
The Shaykh : It is not apparent; it decreases and increases. Perhaps he commits a sin that prayer expiates, so there is a decrease when he commits the sin, and then he performs the prayer. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sahih al-Bukhari 6782 And yet, if he repents from the zina, his faith returns to him.
The Shaykh : By Allah, yes, it varies. Sometimes a person's mind becomes focused and his faith increases until it is as if he sees the unseen matters with his own eyes.
The questioner : Now, this is an increase.
The Shaykh : This is an increase, there is no doubt in it.
The questioner : I mean, is it the case that in a person's stage, it remains constant except for...? Or do we always fluctuate?
The Shaykh : It is not apparent; it decreases and increases. Perhaps he commits a sin that prayer expiates, so there is a decrease when he commits the sin, and then he performs the prayer. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
When (a person) an adulterer commits illegal sexual intercourse then he is not a believer at the time he is doing it
لا يزني الزاني حين يزني وهو مؤمن،
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [767] هل إيمان الإنسان يتردد بين النقص والزيادة؟ - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.