Imaan consists of sayings actions and conviction all of which are pillars of imaan. Two of these pillars are visible/apparent whilst the conviction in ones heart cannot be seen by anyone.Hence anything that you do is with all three of these e.g. praying salat with conviction, testifying to it and practising it.
In the outer actions you have tafaadul which means ‘to be unbalanced’ and among the believers they differ in tafaadul in relation to their a’maal dhaahirah, the more good deeds people do their imaan increases and the less they do the less their imaan is accordingly.
Imam Shafi said that people differ whether the a’maal dhaahirah are part of Imaan some say that they are the fruits of imaan. They say that amal is metaphorically part of imaan and not imaan itself. They say that the increase and decrease of your imaan is the outcome/fruit of you imaan, and imaan for them is just belief in the heart. Imam Shafi said that imaan cannot be completed in the heart without sayings and actions in the apparent, if the imaan has been mentioned it means the sayings and actions. He said as they say it increases in the apparent actions but not in the imaan itself, this is completely wrong, to have variety of levels in any topic is present in anything. Imaan is subject to increase the actions of their heart and this is an increase in imaan. Among the people in their duties they have different levels and different levels of imaan, khushou etc.
There are 3 whoever has them tastes the sweetness of imaan, whoever Allah and his messenger are dearer to him than anyone else, the one who loves someone purely for the sake of Allah and the ones who hates to resort to kufr after being saved by Allah from the hellfire the way he hates to go to the hellfire. [Bukhari, Muslim]
Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight ... are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and fighting in His Cause , then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And Allâh guides not the people who are Al-Fâsiqûn (the rebellious, disobedient to Allâh).[9:24] – in this ayah Allah (swt) says that these 8 things cannot be an excuse to be taken before the deen let alone anything else.
“Verily my salah, ritual acts, transactions in the dunya, life and death are all for the sake of Allah”
By Allah I a have more taqwa than all of you and know more of the deen than you and I fast and break my fast, I pray and I sleep and I get married [Abu Dawud]
The actions of the people will differ among them, the imaan of Abu Bakr was greater that the whole of the ummah put together how then can we say that our imaan is all the same.
Imam Shafi debated one man who questioned him about the ayat that mention belief and action as being a conjunctive ‘waw’ and he said do you believe that there are 2 gods when Allah says Lord of the East and West.
Ibn Hishaam said about imam Shafi that i never saw or heard any error in his grammar.
No one of you is a believer until I become more dearer to him than his son, parents and everybody. Omar (ra) said you are dearer to me than everyone else except my nafs, the prophet said don’t do that you do not have imaan until I am more dearer to you than everyone and your own nafs, he said now you are more dearer to me than my nafs, he said now you are correct.
Imam Shafi said that the love to Allah (swt) is in the heart and this will fluctuate in the same way to fear Allah (swt) will also fluctuate.
People of knowledge know better about imaan increasing and decreasing especially when Allah (swt) says that ‘those who have been saved when the people are coming to attack them their imaan will increase’.
The very conviction in the heart of any person will be subject to increase and decrease
Some people believe in general (muajmal) and others will know the details of it and have more knowledge about the different aspects (mufassal) and hence the tasdeeq between them will be different.
The knowledge of the people will differ in relation to how much they understand the knowledge. If someone says that to know about one thing cannot be different between the people is as if he says that 2 people with the same strength who fight each other will be the same and never overcome the other – this is not true. For example when people see the hilaal the sighting of the moon people have different levels some see it others don’t but the moon Is still there, in the same way some people hear better than others, 2 people can speak one word but have different ways of pronouncing it, the same with smelling anything the same smell people will smell it differently i.e. there is tafaadul in everything and this is part of the fitra.
If some asks are you Muslim, you reply insha’Allah because you do not want to praise yourself as this is not allowed and furthermore you are Muslim at the moment but you do not know whether you will be Muslim tomorrow as the hadith says.
Man is subject to forget, make errors, become weak, become bad and therefore will
Umayr bin Habib al-Khatmi said Imaan increases and decreases how can it increase? It increases if we thank Allah, remember Him and elevate Him and if we become ghaafil (the one who neglects his duty), forget or miss it this is how the imaan will decrease. [Musnad Imam Shafi]
There is nothing in any action you do more varyingthan Iman for example man knows in his heart the different level of love that he posses for someone, children, wives etc. If there is varying in love then there is varying in imaan.
Man has different levels and has different likes and dislikes, even these likes and dislikes differ between the people.
The one who says that the love and hate does not increase or decrease then this is one of the most fasaad sayings. People have tafaadul they love Allah above everything else. Allah (swt) takes Ibraheem as khalil and take the prophet as companion and khalil. The prophet said if I was to take a friend from the dunya it would be Abu Bakr as khalil.
Allah (swt) loves the muwahhid more than ahlul kibla and therefore even Allah (swt) has variety in the love towards the believers.
Our love and hate to the believers and kuffar do not increase or decrease on the basis of our interests or what good they do for us, rather it is based upon his taqwa and his obedience to Allah (swt).
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