The issue of the increase and decrease of faith, the disagreement of the Muslim community regarding it, and its harm to them.

The Shaykh : From here, we say constantly and forever, as we were taught by the Salaf: "Hold fast to the ancient way." In the time of the Companions, there was no one who said: "Faith does not increase or decrease," because this contradicts the Book and the Sunnah. But after them, about a hundred years or more later, someone held a view and erred. He was a distinguished scholar who believed that it is impossible for faith to accept increase and decrease, and that what increases is only its effects, which are the righteous deeds. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says constantly and forever that faith increases, and consequently, righteous deeds increase. Then this opinion, which came from some scholars, was adopted as a religion, and this is one of the calamities of the Muslims! How was it adopted as a religion, when the religion is Islam, and Islam is the Qur'an, and the Qur'an explicitly says that faith increases and decreases? How many, and how many, verses in the Qur'an are there with this meaning! This opinion became a religion because something else preceded it—also made into a religion—namely, taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence). And still, some people, even the educated and those who look at themselves with satisfaction from an academic standpoint, barely understand a hadith. They do not know, even today, why we constantly and forever engage in fighting taqlid; because it has become a religion, and a creed, and whatever any imam says, no matter how far it is from the Book and the Sunnah, is considered religion—taqlid! And for this truth, we fight taqlid; that is, that it be adopted as a religion that prevents its holder from believing in Allah and His Messenger regarding what came in the Book and the Sunnah. The simplest phrase you hear, or at least some of you hear: "My brother, isn't so-and-so ignorant?" No, he is a scholar. But is so-and-so infallible? Here he falls silent due to his ignorance. He was not taught the basic principles of Islam. He was taught that this man is a distinguished scholar who does not speak out of desire, and does not speak out of purpose, and all this is correct. But he was not taught, and if he was taught, it was not emphasized in the teaching that: beware, this distinguished scholar who does not speak out of desire, or tribalism, or purpose, or anything, can still err; therefore, you must hold fast to his words only within the limits of them not contradicting the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet. This guidance was lost by the Muslims for about ten centuries because of taqlid.
Therefore, we say that while we explain that faith is not beneficial except by combining belief in Allah as Allah has legislated, with tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and the oneness of the names and attributes, and belief—also—in the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), these two realities are still unknown to the masses of the earth's inhabitants; they are in need of being informed. But we are in greater need of that than they are; because we still live in the lands of Islam, and we are practically and intellectually disbelievers in the meaning of "There is no god but Allah"! How can one who calls upon Allah believe? I wanted to say: one who calls upon other than Allah, but my tongue got ahead of me, but I will patch up my words; so I will say: How can one who calls upon Allah and associates with Him a wali (close friend of Allah) (Mighty and Majestic) believe?! And you hear, for example, while you are traveling on the road, one person's foot or his mount's foot slips, and quickly he utters from his mouth: "O Allah, O Baz," is Allah alone not enough?! And our Lord says: , This is a peer (nidd). He said: "O Allah, O Baz"! This is the peer, "Baz." What does "Baz" do, especially when you associate it with Allah?! This is shirk (associating partners with Allah) itself, which never meets with belief in Allah (Mighty and Majestic); this is the faith that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) intended by his saying in this hadith, and with this we end the lesson and turn to answering the questions, or whatever is feasible of them. He said (peace and blessings be upon him): .
We ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to gather us in the company of those who believed in Him and testified to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding his message.