What is meant by the faith mentioned in the verse: "Indeed, those who believed and did righteous deeds will have the Gardens of Paradise as a lodging?" Is applying the six pillars of faith sufficient to fulfill the condition of faith in the verse? And what does "and did righteous deeds" mean in the verse; does it imply doing them in abundance?

Al-Hasan al-Basri was asked: Are you a believer? He replied: If you are asking about belief in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, Paradise, Hell, the Resurrection, and the Reckoning, then I am a believer. But if you are asking about the attributes of the believers mentioned in Surat Al-Anfal: "The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts tremble, and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord they rely. The ones who establish prayer, and from what We have provided them, they spend. Those are the believers, truly" [Al-Anfal 8:2-4], then by Allah, I do not know whether I am one of them or not.

A believer enters into faith simply by uttering the two testimonies (Shahadatayn), acting upon the pillars of faith and Islam, and being free from nullifiers. Their faith increases in strength according to their submission, obedience, and adherence to the branches of faith, and it weakens by their shortcomings in acts of obedience and their commission of sins. Faith has multiple branches, some of which are obligations whose abandonment diminishes faith, and some are recommended acts whose abandonment causes one to miss higher ranks.