Hawzah News Agency-Faith is a voluntary act of human kind, although some degrees of faith may require special grace and guidance of God. Man needs to try to be faithful and make preparations for faith.

One reason for holding faith as a human act is that according to the Qur'an the people are held responsible or accountable for being faithful or non-faithful. People, on occasions, are blamed in the Qur'an for their failure in becoming faithful and this shows that it is because of their own decision.

The other reason is that in the Qur'an or hadiths people are encouraged to have faith by referring to its good outcomes. The other reason is that faith may decrease or increase depending on human practices and characters. Imam Ali (A), the first Shi'ite Imam, says:

“Do not be jealous because jealousy eats away faith just as fire eats away dried wood.”1

Among philosophers of religion, there are two main views about the nature of faith: the propositional view which takes faith as “belief that” (fides) and the non-propositional which takes faith as “belief in” (fidusia). Of course, each may imply the other secondarily and in practice a faithful person is the one who both believes that God exists and trusts Him. However, the question is which one primarily constitutes the faith reflecting on relevant verses of the Glorious Qur'an, normally the assumption among philosophers of religion is that in Islam faith has a propositional nature. For example, we read:

“... the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His apostles; we make no difference between any of his apostles; and they say: we hear and obey, our Lord”.2

“the believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Apostle then they doubt not”.3

I think faith means acceptance of or submission to certain truths and involves three elements, but it is not identical with any of them:

(a) A heartfelt knowledge. This knowledge is propositional. No one can be faithful while he is in doubt. It should be noted that according to the Glorious Qur'an, faith is different from knowledge, because sometimes a person may have knowledge in its most certain form, but lack faith. Sometimes people know some truths, but deny them unjustly or arrogantly.4

The knowledge, thus, prepares the ground for faith, and faith needs knowledge; but it is not knowledge.

(b) A verbal declaration of that heartfelt knowledge.

(c) Acting in accord with that knowledge. The believer in his life must work in harmony with that knowledge he has, otherwise there would be no benefit in that knowledge. When Imam Ali (A) was asked about belief, he said:

“Faith involves appreciation with heart, acknowledgement with tongue and actions with limbs.”5

Thus, faith is a voluntary act for which knowledge is a pre-requisite and should imply declaration with tongue and practice with limbs. Faith is a reality that might decrease or increase. Taking into account all the above aspects of faith and based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah, I believe that faith consists in submission to certain truths, such as existence of God (God exists).6

Therefore, faith is neither “belief that” nor “belief in”. One may believe that something is true and at the same time deny or reject it. Among those who believe in basic religious truths and commit themselves to those truths, some people may be prepared to commit and submit themselves just in declaration of faith, some may be prepared to fully or partly practice their faith and some may be prepared to submit their entire reality including acts, heart and mind to God.

Faith may also have degrees according to different degrees of the required knowledge or different degrees of the consequent acts.

1. Imam Ali, Nahj al- Balaghah, Sermons, no. 86.

2. Qur'an, 2:285. This verse indicates that the believers are those who believe that Allah, His angels, His books and His apostles are true.

3. Qur'an, 49:15. This verse indicates that the believers are only those who believe that Allah and His Apostle are true.

4. Qur'an, 27:14.

5. Imam Ali, Nahj al- Balaghah, Sayings, no. 227.

6. According to the Glorious Qur'an, the objects of faith include: God (2:62) and His attributes (67:29); the day of Judgment (2:62); God's Apostles and His revelations to the apostles (2:285; 3:53); God's Angels (2:285) and the invisible world (2:3)

Reference:
Mohammad Ali Shomali, Reason, Faith & Authority: A Shiite Perspective, Published by Ahlul Bayt World Assembly