Does Iman Increase and Decrease

Question

Zayd says that iman, tasdiq (affirmation) and yaqin (certainty) all mean one and the same thing. Bakr says that there is a difference between iman, tasdiq and yaqin: iman is a part of deeds, it decreases and increases; the measure of the iman of the Prophet ﷺ and the iman of an ordinary Muslim of today who abandons fasting, prayer, Hajj, zakat and so forth are not equal; by adhering to the pillars of Islam iman increases, and by neglecting them it decreases.

Answer

It is incumbent upon the muqallid to accept what the imam has understood of the meaning of the Qur’an and the hadith and the rulings he has derived from them, and to act upon those rulings. To set up one’s own analogies against that and to shoot arrows at a guess is contrary to the very station of a muqallid.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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