What is the ruling on greeting an innovator?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: What is the ruling on greeting an innovator, and if he greets me, should I return the greeting?
Answer:
Bid'ah (religious innovation) varies. It varies: if it entails kufr (disbelief), such as supplicating to other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, or making vows for other than Allah, this is kufr, and one does not greet him. But if the bid'ah is less than kufr, one greets him because he is still a Muslim, unless boycotting him and not greeting him serves to deter him from sin and bid'ah, and he is affected by it such that he repents. In that case, there is no harm; boycotting is prescribed.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: What is the ruling on greeting an innovator, and if he greets me, should I return the greeting?
Answer:
Bid'ah (religious innovation) varies. It varies: if it entails kufr (disbelief), such as supplicating to other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, or making vows for other than Allah, this is kufr, and one does not greet him. But if the bid'ah is less than kufr, one greets him because he is still a Muslim, unless boycotting him and not greeting him serves to deter him from sin and bid'ah, and he is affected by it such that he repents. In that case, there is no harm; boycotting is prescribed.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم السلام على المبتدع؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.