What constitutes major disbelief or apostasy?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He asks: What constitutes major disbelief or apostasy? Is it limited to belief, denial, and refutation, or is it broader than that?
Answer:
Disbelief and shirk (associating partners with Allah): shirk occurs by calling upon other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, making vows for other than Allah, or directing any type of worship to other than Allah. This is major shirk, which expels one from the religion. Disbelief occurs by committing any of the nullifiers of Islam. The nullifiers of Islam are well known, and there are both concise and lengthy works on them. Whoever commits any of the nullifiers of Islam has committed disbelief. Apostasy occurs through speech, through action—such as slaughtering for other than Allah or calling upon other than Allah—
and through the heart, by having doubt in one’s heart regarding the truthfulness of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) or regarding any of the fundamentals of faith. If he has such doubt, he becomes an apostate. How much more so if he is certain or believes in the invalidity of the statement of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? That is more severe. Thus, apostasy occurs either through speech, or through action, or through belief, or through doubt. Yes, it fluctuates.
He asks: What constitutes major disbelief or apostasy? Is it limited to belief, denial, and refutation, or is it broader than that?
Answer:
Disbelief and shirk (associating partners with Allah): shirk occurs by calling upon other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, making vows for other than Allah, or directing any type of worship to other than Allah. This is major shirk, which expels one from the religion. Disbelief occurs by committing any of the nullifiers of Islam. The nullifiers of Islam are well known, and there are both concise and lengthy works on them. Whoever commits any of the nullifiers of Islam has committed disbelief. Apostasy occurs through speech, through action—such as slaughtering for other than Allah or calling upon other than Allah—
and through the heart, by having doubt in one’s heart regarding the truthfulness of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) or regarding any of the fundamentals of faith. If he has such doubt, he becomes an apostate. How much more so if he is certain or believes in the invalidity of the statement of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? That is more severe. Thus, apostasy occurs either through speech, or through action, or through belief, or through doubt. Yes, it fluctuates.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، بِمَ يكون الكفر الأكبر أو الردة؟ #فتاوى الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.