The Difference Between Doctrinal and Practical Disbelief in the Issue of Declaring Rulers Disbelievers

The questioner : There is an issue being circulated now because of what people have read regarding the nullifiers of Islam. A person is a Muslim, but then he commits one of the nullifiers of Islam, and they declare him to have exited the religion, as happened with the group of Takfir and Hijrah and others. Now, some of the Muslim rulers appear to be practicing Islam through prayer, zakah, fasting, Hajj, and so on, but they adopt some communist and socialist theories and the like. These Muslims then declare these rulers to be disbelievers and see that they should rebel against them. You have clarified that rebelling against the rulers is not, in the first place, part of the creed of the people of the Sunnah and the community, as is understood. We want these people to understand the difference between the disbelief of a disbeliever and rebelling against a disbeliever. May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Between the disbelief of a disbeliever and the disbelievers.

The questioner : Upon them.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is what I clarified just now. May Allah bless you. I do not think this question has not already been answered, but in any case, I will say something that may be added to what has come before. We have known from the methodology of the Salaf, to whom we always refer in understanding the Book and the Sunnah, according to their school of thought and not the school of the later generations, that when disbelief is mentioned in some texts of the Book and the Sunnah, it is not necessary to interpret it as apostasy or that everyone who falls into disbelief has exited the religion. This is what we understood from the totality of the texts that came in the Book and the Sunnah, and especially from the interpretation of the Interpreter of the Qur'an regarding the saying of Allah the Exalted: where he said, "The matter is not as they think; rather, it is disbelief less than disbelief."
So "disbelief less than disbelief" indicates that Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) pointed out that disbelief is of two types: doctrinal disbelief and practical disbelief.
So whoever has doctrinal disbelief is the one about whom it is ruled that he has exited the religion, and the punishment for one who has apostatized from his religion is applied to him: "Kill them." And there is disbelief that does not cause one to exit the religion, which is practical disbelief. The difference between them is that the first type is believed in as the disbelievers believe.
He denies Islam, either in its entirety or in part. So this is an apostate from the religion. As for the other type of disbelief, which is practical disbelief, he performs the actions of the disbelievers but does not hold the creed of the disbelievers. Upon this basis, many texts in the Book and the Sunnah are understood, the first of which is:
So whoever rules by other than what Allah has revealed, believing in his heart that his ruling is the correct one in this time and that ruling by the Qur'an is not permissible or fitting, his disbelief is doctrinal disbelief.
And the legal ruling is carried out against him if there is someone who rules by the Shari'ah. But if he believes in the depths of his heart that it is not permissible to rule by these man-made laws because they contradict the Islamic Shari'ah, but here Satan intervenes to make an excuse for this one who rules by other than what Allah has revealed, like the excuse of the usurer, the fornicator, and the thief, and the like. And among the things we must be alert to and not be heedless of, especially when the issue of rebelling against the rulers is raised now because they rule by other than what Allah has revealed, they rule by other than what Allah has revealed, there is no doubt or ambiguity in this, but the question is whether these are declared apostates from the religion or not, because their disbelief is less than disbelief? We have now mentioned a detailed explanation, but what I want to mention is that there is no difference between a ruler who rules by a little or a lot of his rulings according to man-made laws, contradicting the Islamic Shari'ah in them, and many individual Muslims who consider lawful what Allah has forbidden in reality. So now, let us stand before the thief, before the fornicator, and before the usurer. Do we declare them disbelievers? Do we declare them to have exited the religion while they act contrary to what Allah commanded? You might say no. I say, wait. It is not permissible for you to simply say "no," but rather, the detailed explanation we mentioned regarding the rulers themselves is necessary. We say that every one who contradicts a ruling of Allah the Exalted, like these thieves, fornicators, usurers, deceivers, and so on, is in one of two states. If they believe in the depths of their souls that they are contradicting the Shari'ah of their Lord in the prohibition of these things, and that this prohibition is truth and justice, then these are Muslims and it is not permissible to declare them disbelievers, but they are open sinners and transgressors, and they fall under the general meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: The rulers are the same by this measure. Those who believe, and we have heard from some of them statements, they have exited the religion with these statements. They deny the obligation, for example, of fasting as a legal ruling, they deny the obligation of sacrifices, especially there in Hajj, and so on. So these are undoubtedly rulers who have apostatized from Islam. As for those I mentioned who pray and fast but nevertheless rule by a lot or a little of the rulings contrary to the Shari'ah of Allah, these are compared to the covenant that the Interpreter of the Qur'an explained for us: disbelief less than disbelief, and its interpretation is doctrinal disbelief and practical disbelief. So whoever denies what is known of the religion by necessity is a disbeliever, an apostate from the religion. Whoever acknowledges it but contradicts it in practice, they are the open sinners, and they are those who fall under the will of Allah mentioned just now in His saying: .
And the research in this is very extensive, and the brother has many tapes detailing the statement between doctrinal disbelief and practical disbelief, and heart disbelief and verbal disbelief. All of this requires that students of knowledge distinguish between them, otherwise they will fall into rebellion.
That is, they committed the creed of the Khawarij, who took one side of the Shari'ah and turned away from the other sides, even though the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described them as those who are worshippers: "One of you considers his prayer insignificant compared to their prayer, and his fasting compared to their fasting, and his worship compared to their worship. They exit the religion as an arrow exits its target." And so the issue is not just an issue of action, but it is an issue of creed, negatively or positively. If a Muslim believes a correct creed and performs an action contrary to it, then his matter is with Allah; if He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will forgive him. And if he believes a creed that is a cause of disbelief and exits him from the religion, then no good deed benefits him, but he is among those about whom Allah the Exalted said: .
And if he believes a creed that is a cause of disbelief and exits him from the religion, then no good deed benefits him, but he is among those about whom Allah the Exalted said: Finally, if there are people, as I said, what did I say? Usama, figuratively, and why did I express it that way? Say to the group, O Usama, for free.
The group of Usama, figuratively. If these people combine purification and education and are able to prepare the means to establish Islamic rule, then this is the obligation of every Muslim. As for focusing on the material, weapon aspect, we will not be able to overcome the rulers, even if they are disbelievers who have apostatized from the religion, except with the weapon of faith. And perhaps this extent is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, may Allah give you health.

The Shaykh : Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no deity but You. I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.