Tafsir of Al-Fath 48:4

Al-Raghib said: God’s sending down His grace upon a servant is His bestowing it upon him. This is either by sending down the thing itself, such as the sending down of the Quran, or by sending down its causes and guidance toward it, such as the sending down of iron and the like. It is said: Anzala (He sent down) is derived from nazala in a place, meaning he alighted there; he caused another to descend, so the meaning is that He established tranquility in their hearts, making it a place of descent and a shelter for it. It is also said: The Sakīnah is an angel that dwells in the heart of the believer and gives him security, as it is reported that Ali—may God be pleased with him and honor his face—said: "Indeed, the Sakīnah speaks upon the tongue of Umar," and the command for it to descend upon him is very apparent.

Ibn Jarir and al-Bayhaqi in al-Dala’il and others reported from Ibn Abbas that he said: The Sakīnah is mercy. It is said: It is intellect (al-‘aql), and it is called sakīnah when it rests from leaning toward desires and from terror. It is said: It is reverence and greatness for God and His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace. It is said: It is from sakana toward something, meaning he leaned toward it; that is, He caused the stillness and inclination toward the laws that the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, brought to descend into their hearts. The most preponderant of the interpretations here, according to what al-Khafaji said, is the first. As for what some mentioned—that the Sakīnah is a thing that has a head like the head of a cat—I do not consider it a sound view.

The detailed discussion in this context is that the majority of the Ash’arites, al-Qalanisi, the jurists, the hadith scholars, and the Mu’tazila held the view that faith increases and decreases. This is also reported from al-Shafi’i and Malik. Al-Bukhari said: "I met more than a thousand men of the scholars in the cities, and I did not see any of them disagreeing that faith is speech and action, and that it increases and decreases." They argued for this by reason and by transmission. As for the first: if the reality of faith did not vary, then the faith of the commoners of the nation who are immersed in debauchery and sins would be equal to the faith of the Prophets, peace be upon them, for example. The necessary consequence is false, so the antecedent is likewise. As for the second: it is due to the abundance of texts in this meaning, among them the aforementioned verse, and among them what is reported from Ibn Umar—may God be pleased with them both: We said, "O Messenger of God, does faith increase and decrease?" He said: "Yes, it increases until its owner enters Paradise, and it decreases until its owner enters the Fire." Among them is what is reported from Umar and Jabir—may God be pleased with them—in a marfu’ (elevated) tradition: "If the faith of Abu Bakr were weighed against the faith of this nation, it would outweigh it." It was objected that the non-acceptance of increase and decrease by faith, on the assumption that acts of obedience are included in its definition, is more appropriate and deserving than its non-acceptance if its definition is belief (tasdiq) alone.

As for the first, it is because there is no rank above all deeds to be an increase, nor is there faith below it to be a decrease. As for the second, it is because no one would then perfect faith, and increase upon what is not yet perfected is impossible. The reply to this is that this only applies to the Mu’tazila and the Khawarij who say that faith vanishes upon the absence of certain deeds; whereas the group [the majority] only says that they are conditions of perfection in faith. Therefore, upon their absence, only the absence of perfection is necessitated, which is disparaging to the essence of faith.

Al-Nawawi and a group of verifying scholars of theology said: Faith, in the sense of heart-based belief (tasdiq), also increases and decreases by the abundance of reflection and the clarity of evidences, or the lack thereof. For this reason, the faith of the Siddiqin (the truthful ones) is stronger than the faith of others, to the extent that doubts do not assail it. This is supported by the fact that everyone knows that what is in his heart varies, such that at some times it is greater in certainty and sincerity than at others; thus, belief and knowledge vary according to the appearance and abundance of proofs. It was objected that whenever it accepts this, it becomes doubt.

This was repelled by the fact that the ranks of certainty vary into ‘ilm al-yaqin (knowledge of certainty), haqq al-yaqin (truth of certainty), and ‘ayn al-yaqin (essence of certainty), even though there is no doubt accompanying them. Among those who agreed with al-Nawawi is what al-Sa’d settled upon in the second section of his Tahdhib. A group of scholars, the greatest of whom is Imam Abu Hanifa, followed by his companions and many of the theologians, said: Faith does not increase and decrease. This was chosen by the Imam of the Haramayn. They argued that it is a name for belief reaching the limit of certainty and submission, and it is not conceivable for this to increase or decrease. Thus, when the believer adds acts of obedience to it or commits sins, his belief remains as it is, not having changed at all. It only varies if it is a name for acts, which vary in paucity and abundance. They answered what the former group held onto with several points. Among them is what we indicated first: that increase is according to continuity, steadfastness, and the abundance of time and occasions. Its clarification is what the Imam of the Haramayn said: The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, is superior to others by the continuity of his belief and God’s protection of him from the intrusion of doubts. Belief is an accident (‘arad) that does not persist in its own person, but its likes are renewed. Thus, they occur to the Prophet, peace be upon him, successively, and to others with intervals. Therefore, numerical counts of faith are established for the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that are not established for others except for some of them, so his faith, may God bless him and grant him peace, is greater. It is said that there is no dispute about increase in this sense.

It was objected that the attainment of the like after the non-existence of a thing does not constitute an increase in it, like the blackness of a body. It was repelled by the fact that what is intended is the increase of numbers that occurred, and the lack of persistence does not negate that. Among them is what we indicated second: that the intended meaning is increase according to the increase in what one believes. The Companions—may God be pleased with them all—first believed in what they believed, and the Law was not yet complete, and the rulings were descending bit by bit; thus, they would believe in everything that was renewed from it. There is no doubt in the variation of people’s faith by observing the details, in abundance and paucity, and this is not restricted to his era, may God bless him and grant him peace, due to the possibility of knowing the details in other eras as well. Among them is the need for the increase of its fruit and the illumination of its light in the heart, for the light of faith increases with obedience and decreases with sins. It is said: This is only needed after establishing a decisive proof for the impossibility of belief accepting increase and decrease. Since no decisive proof has been established for that, it would be better to keep the literal meanings as they are. Al-Khattabi said: Faith is speech, which does not increase or decrease; action, which increases and decreases; and belief, which does not increase or decrease—if it decreases, it goes away. It was objected that if it increases and then returns to what it was, it has decreased and not gone away.

This was repelled by the fact that he meant belief, in consideration of its first levels, increases and does not decrease, not that belief absolutely is such. A group, among them Imam al-Razi and the Imam of the Haramayn, went to the view that the disagreement is verbal. This is by carrying the statement of negation to the root of faith, which is belief, so it does not increase or decrease; and carrying the statement of affirmation to that which completes it, which is deeds. Thus, the disagreement in this issue is a branch of the disagreement on the interpretation of faith. The truth is that it is a real disagreement, according to what you heard from Imam al-Nawawi and those with him, that belief itself increases and decreases.

Some verifiers said: Increase and decrease are properties of quantity (kamm), and belief is a category of knowledge, and no one has said it is from the category of quantity; it is rather quality (kayf), or affection, or relation, or a connection between the knower and the known, or a property possessing a relation. It is most famous that it is a quality. So, whenever this is correct and we say that intensity and weakness are different from increase and decrease, there is no harm in carrying them in the texts and elsewhere to mean intensity and weakness. This is a well-known metaphor, and denying that faith is characterized by them borders on stubbornness, so contemplate this. Some mentioned here that the faith which is the object of "with" is the innate faith, and the faith mentioned before it is the discursive faith; so it is as if it was said: "so they increase in discursive faith along with their innate faith," and this contains a hiddenness that it contains.