The Disagreement Among Islamic Sects on the Issue: Does Faith Increase and Decrease?

The Shaykh : ... From this disagreement, a second disagreement arose: Does faith increase and decrease, or does it neither increase nor decrease? Those who said that faith is belief and action said that it increases and decreases. There are many, and very many, verses indicating that faith increases, and nothing increases except that it is capable of decreasing. As for those who say that action is not included in the definition of faith, they say that it neither decreases nor increases, and if it were to decrease by the weight of a hair, it would be disbelief itself. And you read in the hadiths of intercession, the mass-transmitted hadiths of intercession, that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), after He grants intercession to the messengers and the prophets, and especially the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the angels, and the righteous, and the martyrs, says: Thus, the hadiths correspond with the verses that faith increases and decreases. Nevertheless, it was said that faith neither increases nor decreases, and to this day, millions of Muslims hold this belief, until one of their proponents said, "My faith is like the faith of Jibril (peace be upon him)." This is because, in their view, faith is a reality that is not divisible, contrary to what you have heard from the verses and the hadiths. So how can it be said that the disagreement is in the branches and not in the creed and the fundamentals...