1043 - Zakariyya ibn al-Faraj informed me, from Ahmad ibn al-Qasim, who said: I said: O Abu ‘Abd Allah, do you say: Faith increases and decreases? He said: Yes. I said: And do you say: [It is] statement and action? He said: Yes. I said: Does it follow from this meaning that if a man commits these things which he has been forbidden from, he is more deficient than one who does not commit them, and that the latter is greater in faith than him? He said: Yes, faith is such that some of it is greater than others; it is as such. We then discussed those who held that faith increases and decreases, and he enumerated more than one. Then he said: And Malik ibn Anas says: It increases and decreases. I said to him: Indeed, they narrate from Malik that he said: It increases but does not decrease. He said: Nay, it has been narrated from him that it increases and decreases; Ibn Nafi‘ used to report it from Malik. I said to him: Ibn Nafi‘ reported it from Malik? He said: Yes.