💠The belief of Ahl as-Sunnah, with no difference of opinion among any two scholars among them, is that îmân is belief in the heart, statement on the tongue, and actions on the limbs.

💠Îmân is by speech, actions, and knowledge; it increases with obedience and decreases with sinning.

💠The consensus from the sahâbah, their students, and the great scholars is that îmân is speech, action, and intention; one cannot replace the other.

💠The deen is both speech and action; there is no difference of opinion among the people of knowledge.

💠Îmân has three components—belief in the heart, speech of the tongue, and action of the limbs; they are branches that stem from îmân and each branch has a servitude that is specific to it.

💠Îmân is not one component; it is broken down into several—and this is evidence that some parts of a person’s îmân can disappear and some will stay behind.

💠There are a people who will be removed from the fire for a mustard seed of îmân in their hearts—it is believed among Ahl as-Sunnah that they were put in because some parts of their îmân were missing and then were taken out because some remained.

💠The branches of îmân are of different levels; there are three branches, and every belief, action, or speech falls under one of them.

💠The most important branch is the foundation; without it, a person’s îmân will become nonexistent and it will take one outside the fold of Islâm.

💠The second branch is the obligatory branch of îmân—all of the actions that were made obligatory upon the believer.

💠The third is the recommended branch; it includes the deeds that are recommended but not obligatory.

💠Belief in the shahâdah is a part of the foundation; without the foundation, one is beyond the pale of Islâm.

💠The one who abandons the obligatory is still considered a believer, but his îmân has serious shortcomings.

💠Neglecting the recommended branch of îmân is not sinful, but it will make one’s îmân incomplete.

💠The one who achieves the highest ranking, who is described as as-sâbiq al-khayrât (the one who races toward good), is the one who attains all three branches of îmân.

💠There are things that one may do that will take away his or her foundation of îmân and they are no longer a believer; and there are some branches that if one neglects them, he still has îmân and remains a believer.

💠The scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah agreed with no difference of opinion that îmân is in parts, but they had a difference of opinion on what things are part of the foundation of îmân.

💠There was an unanimous agreement that abandoning the shahâdah is kufr, but they differed on prayer—whether it was part of the foundational branch or part of the obligatory branch.

💠Some of the scholars, Imâm Ahmad included, had the opinion that all five pillars of Islâm were a part of the foundational branch of Îmân and that the one who abandoned any of the pillars had left Islâm.

💠It does not take someone out of Ahl as-Sunnah to believe abandoning the pillars of Islâm as kufr that takes someone outside of Islâm, because it is an opinion that the scholars differed upon; but to make takfeer on the one who opposes this opinion is against Ahl as-Sunnah.

💠One is allowed to say “I’m a believer inn shâ Allâh” when referring to the completeness of the two other branches of îmân; it does not negate his îmân as mistakenly believed, for “inn shâ Allâh” is not regarding the foundation of îmân.