The Ruling on the Sects That Deviate from the People of the Sunnah and the Community

Question:
Are the Khawarij, the Shi'ah, the Asha'irah, and the other sects that claim to be Muslim disbelievers or not? And if they are disbelievers, does their disbelief expel them from the religion, and are they to remain in the Fire forever?

Answer:
The sects that deviate from the people of the Sunnah and the community differ in their methodologies. Some reach the level of disbelief, while others fall short of that, depending on the nature of their deviations. One who commits an act that constitutes disbelief, such as associating partners with Allah the Exalted and Majestic, worshipping the dead, or calling upon the dead and their shrines for aid, is considered a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) and a disbeliever. As for one who does not engage in any shirk (associating partners with Allah) but holds some deviations from the people of the Sunnah and the community in certain matters of belief, he is considered to be in a state of open sinfulness (fisq) in belief. The Mu'tazilah and the Qararidh—these are called open sinners in belief, open sinners in belief—and this may reach the level of disbelief if the holder of this methodology knows that it is false but becomes fanatical about it and calls people to it after knowing its misguidance. Is he then declared a disbeliever?
For this reason, many scholars declared the Jahmiyyah to be disbelievers. The scholar Ibn al-Qayyim stated that fifty scholars in seven regions declared them to be disbelievers, meaning the Jahmiyyah. Because the Jahmiyyah, may Allah protect us from them, said something abominable regarding Allah. There is no doubt that one who believes in their creed becomes a disbeliever by that. Likewise, one who worships other than Allah or deems permissible something that Allah has forbidden, on which there is scholarly consensus regarding its prohibition. The result is that the disagreement among the sects varies: some is a cause of disbelief, some is a cause of open sinfulness, and some is merely a minor deviation, depending on their distance or closeness to the people of the Sunnah. And the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the deviating sects that they are all in the Fire—this varies among them. Some enter the Fire because they are firm in their error, and some enter the Fire because they are open sinners and transgressors who are punished therein and then brought out, as mentioned previously. Their entry into the Fire varies; they are not all on the same level. But they are all in the Fire in the sense of the general warning. As for whether they are all to remain in the Fire forever, that is not the case; it depends on their methodologies and the errors they were upon. Yes, yes.