What is the position of deeds in faith, and is it a condition of perfection or a condition of validity? We ask for clarification.
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Khalid al-Anbari: We begin with the first question, which concerns the issues of faith. There is no doubt that faith, according to the people of the Sunnah, as some scholars express it, consists of five "nuns": "Belief in the heart, speech with the tongue, and action with the limbs. It increases with obedience to the Most Merciful and decreases with obedience to Satan." In other words, "Faith is speech and action: speech of the heart and tongue, and action of the heart and limbs." A man is not a believer until he believes with his heart and testifies with his tongue, and he is not a believer by that alone until he performs the actions of the heart, such as love, fear, glorification, and reverence for the Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, and other similar actions of the heart. The question is, O honorable Shaykh, what is the position of deeds in faith? Is it a condition of perfection or a condition of validity? I ask you to clarify this issue, and may Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : What we have understood from the evidence of the Book and the Sunnah, and from the statements of the Imams among the Companions, the Successors, and the Imams who exercised independent legal reasoning, is that what goes beyond the actions of the heart and extends to what concerns physical actions is a condition of perfection, not a condition of validity. Therefore, the increase and decrease, which is well known among the scholars and mentioned in the context of the question, increases and decreases with these actions. There is a very close connection between the actions of the heart and the physical actions. As faith increases in the heart, its effects appear on the body, and as physical actions increase, they return an increase to the faith of the heart. This is what we understand from what you mentioned earlier regarding the statements of the scholars who were the most knowledgeable people regarding the implications of the Book and the Sunnah. I understood recently that you expanded on this topic and gathered all the evidence that was available to you from the Book of Allah, the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the statements of the Imams of the Salaf and those who followed their methodology. This is sufficient and provides abundance, making further elaboration unnecessary for a time like this, where we are improvising an answer to your question. If there is something that needs clarification or explanation, we will clarify it; otherwise, shall we move on to what comes after this question?
The Shaykh : What we have understood from the evidence of the Book and the Sunnah, and from the statements of the Imams among the Companions, the Successors, and the Imams who exercised independent legal reasoning, is that what goes beyond the actions of the heart and extends to what concerns physical actions is a condition of perfection, not a condition of validity. Therefore, the increase and decrease, which is well known among the scholars and mentioned in the context of the question, increases and decreases with these actions. There is a very close connection between the actions of the heart and the physical actions. As faith increases in the heart, its effects appear on the body, and as physical actions increase, they return an increase to the faith of the heart. This is what we understand from what you mentioned earlier regarding the statements of the scholars who were the most knowledgeable people regarding the implications of the Book and the Sunnah. I understood recently that you expanded on this topic and gathered all the evidence that was available to you from the Book of Allah, the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the statements of the Imams of the Salaf and those who followed their methodology. This is sufficient and provides abundance, making further elaboration unnecessary for a time like this, where we are improvising an answer to your question. If there is something that needs clarification or explanation, we will clarify it; otherwise, shall we move on to what comes after this question?