Increase and Decrease of Faith: Assent, Conviction, and Detailed Belief

1. The central problem of increase and decrease

أَنَّ حَقِيقَةَ الْإِيمَانِ لَا تَزِيدُ وَلَا تَنْقُصُ
The essence of faith neither increases nor decreases.

Here the essence of faith means inward assent that has reached decisive conviction and acknowledgment. Once a person firmly accepts a report as true, the question is in what sense that very assent could increase quantitatively.

Variation in actions, the range of religious knowledge, and the fruits of faith are separate considerations. Treating all of these as identical to faith's essence obscures the precise disagreement.

2. Inner assent and religious acts

التَّصْدِيقُ الْقَلْبِيُّ الَّذِي بَلَغَ حَدَّ الْجَزْمِ وَالْإِذْعَانِ
Inward assent that has reached certainty and acceptance.

Jazm indicates firm affirmation rather than mere probability or hesitation. Idhʿān concerns the heart's submission to the truth affirmed.

For example, a person firmly believes prayer to be obligatory. Performing a prayer adds an act of obedience; omitting one incurs disobedience. Neither fact, by itself, demonstrates a mathematically equal change in the essence of the person's assent. Other effects of sin on belief require a separate inquiry.

3. Four major interpretations of variation

Four important approaches must be distinguished:

1. Deeds included in faith: If obedience forms part of faith's definition, more obedience means more faith.
2. Decisive assent: If faith's essence is indivisible certainty, that essence does not rise and fall.
3. Strength of conviction: Some allow greater or lesser strength within assent itself.
4. General and detailed assent: The foundational commitment may be one, while the number of separately known and affirmed matters grows.

Each claim depends on its own sense of “faith.” A terminological distinction should not be mistaken for one simple shared assertion.

4. The view that deeds enter into faith

A substantial group of scholars included works of obedience within the definition of faith. On this account, prayer, charity, and other obedience expand faith's practical composite, while disobedience diminishes it.

الْإِيمَانُ يَزِيدُ وَيَنْقُصُ
Faith increases and decreases.

Statements transmitted from early Muslims and certain reports are invoked for this view, although the attribution and strength of any particular report require separate scrutiny. The bare term “increase” does not yet establish whether what grows is assent's very essence or deeds associated with it.

5. The position associated with Abū Ḥanīfah

The view associated with Abū Ḥanīfah and several theologians is that the fundamental assent of faith is not subject to increase or decrease: decisive conviction is not simply a quantity varying like mere conjecture.

Someone who definitively affirms the truth brought by the Messenger ﷺ possesses foundational assent. More worship may increase reward, obedience, nearness, and perfection, without thereby adding constituents to the essence of that assent.

This view does not diminish the religious importance of deeds. It distinguishes the definition of faith from the believer's excellence in action.

6. Can conviction itself be stronger or weaker?

The view associated with Qāḍī ʿAḍud al-Dīn permits differences in the strength of assent. One person may be more deeply settled in conviction than another.

The response insists that strong probability and decisive certainty must not be treated as simply two measurements of the same qualified assent. Once certainty has reached the required threshold, the underlying affirmative judgment has been made.

“Assent” may designate either the categorical judgment or the depth of accompanying assurance. Keeping these meanings apart makes the genuine point of dispute visible.

7. General and detailed faith

وَالْإِيمَانُ وَاجِبٌ إِجْمَالًا فِيمَا عُلِمَ إِجْمَالًا، وَتَفْصِيلًا فِيمَا عُلِمَ تَفْصِيلًا
Belief is general where knowledge is general, and detailed where knowledge is detailed.

Affirming everything authentically brought by the Messenger ﷺ is one comprehensive commitment. Learning a particular command or report allows an additional distinct and explicit affirmation of that detail.

This is an increase in the number of specifically understood objects of assent, not necessarily a transformation of the initial assent's essence. One cannot be expected to affirm an unknown detailed formulation as though one had already learned it.

8. The verse about increasing in faith

لِيَزْدَادُوا إِيمَانًا مَعَ إِيمَانِهِمْ
So that they may increase in faith along with their faith. (Qur'an 48:4)

The verse plainly speaks of an increase. The exegetical issue is what precisely increases: the quantity of basic assent, or steadfastness, assurance, its fruits, and the range of matters affirmed?

One interpretation relates the increase to tranquility and firmness granted by God. Another concerns additional knowledge and affirmation of newly explained duties. Neither reading should be assumed without attention to the reasoning offered for it.

9. Increase upon hearing revelation

وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُهُ زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَانًا
When His verses are recited to them, they increase them in faith. (Qur'an 8:2)

Hearing revelation can add understanding, renew remembrance, deepen reverence, and strengthen resolve to obey. Qur'an 9:124 likewise speaks of faith increasing with revealed material.

Some theologians relate this to new particular assents or to the effects and fruits of an established commitment; others see a strengthening of certainty itself. The issue is the intended sense of “faith,” not merely the merit of recitation.

10. Newly learned rulings and explicit assent

Imagine a believer initially affirming all authentic teachings of Islam in general. Later the person learns the specific commands concerning prayer, fasting, charity, or pilgrimage and comes to affirm each explicitly.

Initially: a comprehensive acceptance of what the Messenger ﷺ brought.
Subsequently: explicit assent to particular duties, their conditions, and meanings.

This is genuinely an expansion in detail, without implying that the earlier general assent was absent. “More” here measures known subjects, as when an overarching agreement is later understood in its specific provisions.

11. Detailed learning after the prophetic age

An objection arises: if faith grows through learning new commands, how could such growth occur after revelation ceased?

The answer distinguishes a command's revelation from an individual's discovery of that command. Revelation is complete, but no new learner knows every detail immediately.

A person today may learn an established duty and affirm it explicitly. No new revelation has appeared, yet that person's detailed understanding and assent have increased. This distinction answers the difficulty of restricting all growth in faith to the Prophetic era.

12. The basis of faith and its qualities

One explanation distinguishes faith's foundation from its accompanying light, tranquility, reverence, stability, and obedience. Acts of devotion may enhance these qualities, whereas wrongdoing may impair their expression.

Example: Two people assent decisively to the same truth, but one displays greater reverence and more consistent obedience. The difference in conduct or spiritual condition is real; a separate argument would be needed to show a numerical difference in the underlying assent.

The phrase “faith increases” must be interpreted in light of context rather than forced into one technical meaning everywhere.

13. Does continued existence count as increase?

Another explanation treats remaining faithful at successive moments as a kind of increase through continuation in time.

The objection is that a thing's persisting through each moment does not mean its very existence becomes quantitatively larger in each moment. Duration of a state is different from the addition of new constituents to its essence.

Persistence over time must therefore be distinguished from increase in what something is. A lasting affirmation does not necessarily acquire additional components merely because it continues.

14. Numerical increase versus qualitative strength

Increase can be described under two familiar aspects:

Numerical increase: more distinct objects are known and affirmed, such as additional particular commands.
Qualitative increase: one affirmation is accompanied by deeper reassurance, stability, or strength.

Some investigators explain much of the disagreement as verbal, arising from which aspect is meant. Others regard the difference among degrees of conviction as a substantive issue.

The question is best resolved only after specifying the object, quantity, and quality concerned, rather than assuming one usage of “faith” excludes every other one.

15. The argument for unequal degrees of certainty

Some investigators maintain that even sound, certain assent can differ in depth and strength. People vary in their understanding of evidence and in the state of the heart accompanying belief.

A comparison is drawn between someone who confidently trusts reliable testimony and someone who also has numerous independent demonstrations of the same truth. Neither denies it, but their grounds of reassurance differ.

The reply defines foundational assent as a categorical judgment: differences in evidence, effects, and depth need not constitute a difference in the essential act of affirming a claim as true.

16. Faith of prophets and other believers

If basic assent does not increase, does that imply that the faith of prophets and ordinary believers is equal in every respect?

The response distinguishes a shared essential description from degrees of excellence and perfection. Two individuals may share the act of affirming a truth, while greatly differing in knowledge, piety, divine favor, completeness of proof, and prophetic qualities.

Equality in the abstract essence of affirmation is not equality in every religious merit. The distinction matters when interpreting brief statements attributed to earlier authorities.

17. Shared conviction does not imply equal reward

A shared predicate does not establish equality in every perfection. Two people may both rightly be called knowledgeable or courageous, though their accomplishments and capacities differ.

Similarly, the existence of foundational faith in two persons does not erase differences in detailed knowledge, good works, reverence, and perseverance. These may explain differences in merit and reward.

This is an illustration of a conceptual distinction, not a claim that every feature of a human trait can be transferred without qualification to faith. Possessing a description, its quality, and its perfection must be carefully distinguished.

18. Abraham and reassurance of the heart

رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِنْ لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي
My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead. He said: Do you not believe? He said: Yes, but so that my heart may be reassured. (Qur'an 2:260)

The verse mentions both faith already present and a request for further reassurance. It prompts debate about whether this is tranquility added after basic assent or a further degree within certainty.

Abraham did not deny resurrection. The request concerned witnessing how the dead are brought to life. Treating the verse as an admission of unbelief ignores that distinction.

19. Faith, recognition, and certainty

Maʿrifah is cognition or recognition of something. Istīqān may mean firm certainty of its reality. Yet recognizing a truth does not necessarily mean submitting to and accepting that truth.

This becomes important when a person recognizes something but outwardly rejects it because of obstinacy, envy, or pride. The issue is the relation between knowledge and inward acceptance.

Thus defining faith merely as having a meaning present to the mind is considered insufficient. The distinct role of affirming and accepting the truth must be explained.

20. Knowing the truth while denying it

وَجَحَدُوا بِهَا وَاسْتَيْقَنَتْهَا أَنْفُسُهُمْ ظُلْمًا وَعُلُوًّا
They denied them, although their souls were convinced of them, out of injustice and arrogance. (Qur'an 27:14)

Some theologians draw from this verse a distinction between mere certainty of fact and faithful acknowledgment. A person may recognize evidence and yet persist in rejection through pride or obstinacy.

The principle does not authorize us to claim certain knowledge of any contemporary individual's inner state. The verse describes a particular case of knowing the truth without receiving it in obedient acceptance.

21. Recognition by the People of the Book

يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ
They recognize him as they recognize their own sons. (Qur'an 2:146)

The example requires recognition to be distinguished from religious acceptance. Recognition is attributed to some among the People of the Book, yet their refusal to accept the truth is also discussed.

Recognition: understanding a report, sign, or person.
Faithful assent: accepting the truth recognized and submitting to it inwardly.

The distinction explains why the technical theological definition of faith is not reduced to mere knowledge or identification.

22. Affirmation includes acceptance

فَالَّذِي يَحْصُلُ لَنَا هُوَ الْإِذْعَانُ وَالْقُبُولُ لِتِلْكَ النِّسْبَةِ
What is acquired is submission to and acceptance of that relation.

Understanding a report's meaning, grasping the relation between subject and predicate, and accepting that relation as true are distinct aspects. Merely forming a conception of a claim is not identical to affirming it.

For example, someone may understand what “the Messenger is truthful” means without accepting it as true. Understanding the words alone therefore does not establish the assent required in faith.

23. Is assent voluntary?

An objection holds that assent is a kind of knowledge and knowledge does not always arise at will. If clear evidence makes a truth apparent to the mind without choice, how can faith be the subject of an obligation?

The response distinguishes truth becoming known through evidence from the heart's acceptance and submission to that truth. On this account, the question concerns more than simply the involuntary appearance of knowledge.

This reasoning has limits: it does not imply that one can manufacture certain knowledge of any proposition merely by wishing to believe it.

24. Knowledge through demonstration and choice

When sound premises are arranged and their conclusion becomes clear, knowing the conclusion may follow without an additional act of choice. Attending to evidence, undertaking inquiry, or refusing to engage are different acts in which choice may operate.

The occurrence of a known conclusion is not identical to the actions of inquiry and deliberation. This is why theologians examine how religious obligation and human agency apply if faith is described as knowledge.

One explanation emphasizes acceptance, assent, and the refusal to deny known truth rather than treating knowledge itself as a freely manufactured state.

25. An integrated analysis of growth in faith

The arguments can be organized by distinguishing faith's essence from its perfections:

Foundational assent: decisive acknowledgment and acceptance; theologians dispute whether this itself varies.
Detailed affirmations: their number increases as further teachings become known and accepted.
Effects and qualities: reverence, reassurance, strength, and good deeds may develop or diminish.
Knowledge versus faith: knowing that a proposition is true is not necessarily identical in theological analysis to accepting and submitting to it.

Verses concerning increase, early scholarly usage, and precise theological arguments can thus be read with their respective referents made explicit, without concealing the remaining disagreement.