The Ruling on Declaring Specific Muslims Disbelievers and Warning Against Targeting Individuals
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The questioner:
The Shaykh said: What is your opinion regarding one who mocks some of the good deeds with his knowledge after they have been delayed? You said that they used to rule by what Allah sent down and believed in it, and you know about them. Is that permissible?
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to declare Muslims disbelievers except with evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. Furthermore, there is scholarly disagreement regarding declaring specific individuals disbelievers, and you do not know on what state they died. Even if it were established that he committed one of the acts of disbelief, you do not know whether he repented or not, so you must not definitively rule that he is a disbeliever. Rather, you say that whoever does such and such, in general terms, is a disbeliever. As for singling out specific people without knowing their state at the time of death, that is not permissible.
In any case, a person should guard his tongue from declaring disbelief, interpreting, and declaring innovation. Allah has not burdened him with this. He should reform himself, learn, call to Allah, reconcile hearts, unite words, and spread love among Muslims. As for having no concern other than saying "so-and-so is a disbeliever," "so-and-so is an innovator," and "so-and-so and so-and-so," that is a calamity.
Except for a person who deceived the people and left behind books containing misguidance. In that case, you clarify the misguidance in his books. As for him, you do not rule on him; you do not know about him. But you say, "In so-and-so's book, there is such and such, and such and such." And Muslims must beware of being deceived by this, and so on. That is fine. As for the individuals, leave them to Allah the Exalted and Majestic.
The questioner:
And to a major sin,
The Shaykh:
Yes, the scholars mentioned this. They stated that being lax with minor sins leads to major sins, and perhaps a minor sin becomes a major one if a person is lax with it. Yes. Unless it is the last one, I do not know.
The Shaykh said: What is your opinion regarding one who mocks some of the good deeds with his knowledge after they have been delayed? You said that they used to rule by what Allah sent down and believed in it, and you know about them. Is that permissible?
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to declare Muslims disbelievers except with evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. Furthermore, there is scholarly disagreement regarding declaring specific individuals disbelievers, and you do not know on what state they died. Even if it were established that he committed one of the acts of disbelief, you do not know whether he repented or not, so you must not definitively rule that he is a disbeliever. Rather, you say that whoever does such and such, in general terms, is a disbeliever. As for singling out specific people without knowing their state at the time of death, that is not permissible.
In any case, a person should guard his tongue from declaring disbelief, interpreting, and declaring innovation. Allah has not burdened him with this. He should reform himself, learn, call to Allah, reconcile hearts, unite words, and spread love among Muslims. As for having no concern other than saying "so-and-so is a disbeliever," "so-and-so is an innovator," and "so-and-so and so-and-so," that is a calamity.
Except for a person who deceived the people and left behind books containing misguidance. In that case, you clarify the misguidance in his books. As for him, you do not rule on him; you do not know about him. But you say, "In so-and-so's book, there is such and such, and such and such." And Muslims must beware of being deceived by this, and so on. That is fine. As for the individuals, leave them to Allah the Exalted and Majestic.
The questioner:
And to a major sin,
The Shaykh:
Yes, the scholars mentioned this. They stated that being lax with minor sins leads to major sins, and perhaps a minor sin becomes a major one if a person is lax with it. Yes. Unless it is the last one, I do not know.
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية [34] — alfawzan.live (46:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.