What is the criterion for declaring a specific individual a disbeliever?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: What is the criterion for declaring a specific individual a disbeliever? If someone dies while not praying, is he called a disbeliever, or a Jew, or a Christian?
Answer:
The ruling on declaring someone a disbeliever is referred to the scholars and the Shari'ah courts. Not everyone should declare people disbelievers, misguided, innovators, or open sinners, as has become widespread among the youth and the pretenders to knowledge.
This has caused division, estrangement, and boycott in the community. These are matters of ruling on disbelief and innovation, and they belong to the people of knowledge, the trustworthy scholars. So if you notice something in a person, convey it to the scholars and ask them: Does this warrant declaring him a disbeliever? Perhaps you see it as disbelief when it is not. If you ask, the confusion will be removed from you. I advise against rushing in these matters. Declaring someone a disbeliever has criteria, conditions, and the removal of impediments. A Muslim, once he has entered Islam, it is not permissible to rule that he is a disbeliever except after exhausting the excuses and impediments that prevent his being declared a disbeliever. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: What is the criterion for declaring a specific individual a disbeliever? If someone dies while not praying, is he called a disbeliever, or a Jew, or a Christian?
Answer:
The ruling on declaring someone a disbeliever is referred to the scholars and the Shari'ah courts. Not everyone should declare people disbelievers, misguided, innovators, or open sinners, as has become widespread among the youth and the pretenders to knowledge.
This has caused division, estrangement, and boycott in the community. These are matters of ruling on disbelief and innovation, and they belong to the people of knowledge, the trustworthy scholars. So if you notice something in a person, convey it to the scholars and ask them: Does this warrant declaring him a disbeliever? Perhaps you see it as disbelief when it is not. If you ask, the confusion will be removed from you. I advise against rushing in these matters. Declaring someone a disbeliever has criteria, conditions, and the removal of impediments. A Muslim, once he has entered Islam, it is not permissible to rule that he is a disbeliever except after exhausting the excuses and impediments that prevent his being declared a disbeliever. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [889 -1024] ما هو الضابط في تكفير المعين؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.