The Ruling on the Qawarib and Their Disbelief

Question:
May Allah reward you. These are some questions that came in via the internet. The questioner asks: Are the Qawarib considered disbelievers? And is it true that Your Eminence, Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him), held that they are disbelievers?

Answer:
The scholars have differed on them: are they disbelievers who have exited the religion, or are they disbelievers of minor shirk (associating partners with Allah)? There are two positions. The first position is that they are not disbelievers who have exited the religion; rather, they are Muslims, but they have committed a major sin among the major sins. Therefore, when 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) was fighting them, he was asked: "Are they disbelievers?" He said: "No, they fled from disbelief, they fled from disbelief. They are not disbelievers." This is the position of the majority of scholars: that they are not disbelievers who will remain in the Fire eternally.
The second position is that they are disbelievers who have exited the religion, based on the apparent meaning of the hadiths: they depart from the religion as an arrow flies from a bow, and then they do not return to it.
As for Shaykh 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him), I do not know that he issued a fatwa to that effect, nor have I heard it from him, nor have I read it in his books. Yes, he warned against the methodology of the Khawarij (an early sect that declared sinners disbelievers) with a great warning. As for whether he warned against them by declaring them disbelievers, I do not know that. Yes.