Hadith record

1. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from ‘Abbas ibn al-Ma’ruf from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn abu Najaran from Hammad ibn ‘Uthman from ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Qusayr who has said the following: “Abd al-Malik ibn A’yan and I wrote to Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) asking him, ‘What is belief?’ He then wrote to us. ‘You, may Allah grant you favors, have asked about belief. Belief is affirmation, with the tongue, that is established in the heart and by the deeds of the body. Beliefs are from each other. Belief is a house. So also, Islam is a house. Rejection (of Islam) is a house. Sometimes a servant (of Allah) is a Muslim before he becomes a believer but he cannot become a believer before becoming a Muslim. Therefore, Islam is before belief and it shares belief. Whenever a servant (of Allah) commits one of the major sins or one of the minor sins that Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, has prohibited he is out of belief and belief falls off of him but the name ‘Muslim’ still applies to him. When he repents and asks forgiveness he returns to the house of belief. Nothing takes him out to rejection but rejection of what is lawful, such as saying to what is lawful, ‘It is unlawful’ or saying lawful to what is unlawful and living thereby (such attitude) as a religion. In such a case one is out of Islam and belief and is in rejection. It is like one’s entering the Sacred Mosque then the Holy Ka’ba wherein he invents an act of heresy. He then is taken out of the Holy Ka’ba and the Sacred precinct and is decapitated and that turns him to hell (for his act of defiant and treachery).”’

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.