The Difference Between the Disbelieving Innovator and the Non-Disbelieving Innovator

Question:
Your statement, Shaykh (may Allah preserve you), in this saying: that the one who does not commit an innovation that entails disbelief does not fall outside the designation of the people of the Sunnah, but rather that the one who falls outside the designation of the people of the Sunnah is only the one who commits an innovation that entails disbelief?

Answer:
O, glorified is Allah! The one who commits an innovation that entails disbelief is not a Muslim at all; it is not enough to say that he is not from the people of the Sunnah. The one who commits an innovation that entails disbelief is said to be not from the Muslims, and it is not said that he is only not from the people of the Sunnah. Because if it is said he is not from the people of the Sunnah, it is understood that he is a Muslim, understood that he is a Muslim but he differs from the methodology of the people of the Sunnah, so he would be like the other innovators.
As for the one who commits an innovation that does not entail disbelief, he is the one who is not from the people of the Sunnah. So the innovators are of two types: an innovator who is a disbeliever and is not from the Muslims at all, and he is the one who has an innovation that entails disbelief; and an innovator who is counted among the Muslims but is not from the people of the Sunnah? So it is not possible for an innovator to be said to be from the people of the Sunnah, ever.
It is said either that he is a disbeliever who has exited the religion, or that he is an innovator from other than the people of the Sunnah and the community, like the Mu'tazilah, the Jahmiyyah, the Khawarij, and other than them from the sects. Yes.