المعنى الاصطلاحي

Weakness of faith that afflicts the believers when they commit acts of disobedience and prohibitions.

الشرح المختصر

"Nuqsān al-imān" (deficiency of faith): It is of the Creed of Ahl-us-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‘ah that faith is liable to increase and decrease and that the people of faith are superior to one another according to their knowledge and practice. Some of them are more perfect in faith than others. There is much proof in the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the statements of the righteous predecessors for the fact that faith has degrees and branches and that it is liable to increase and decrease. It increases by the strength and profoundness of belief as well as the abundance of one's good deeds and sayings done by the heart, the body parts, and the tongue, like doing acts of obedience and other acts that draw one closer to Allah. On the other hand, faith decreases by doing bad things, such as committing sins and evil-doing. The causes of the decrease of faith include the following: - Ignorance of religious matters and the sciences of the Shariah. - Heedlessness and turning away from Allah's remembrance. - Doing acts of disobedience and committing sins. - Obeying one's evil-enjoining self. - Inclining to the worldly life and its temptations and adornment. - Following the steps of the devil. Sinning leads to a decrease of faith in proportion to the violation committed.