The Ruling on Discussing and Declaring Some Rulers to Be Disbelievers
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh:
May Allah welcome you.
The questioner:
The questioner: My brother, I have a question. Please, give us your question, Muhammad. Yes, my question is that some groups declare some rulers to be disbelievers. I mean, I am asking on my own behalf, I mean, with my friends, when we are in Tunisia, we say, for example, is this specific president a disbeliever or not? For example, we ask about Bashar al-Assad; some people say he is a disbeliever, and some people say no. And there is the hadith that says, "O brother of the Ahad..."Sunan Ibn Majah 1079Sahih (Darussalam) And we see on television that some footage shows that Bashar al-Assad prays. Is Bashar al-Assad a disbeliever or not? Considering you are an official body, I ask you to provide us with information?
The Shaykh:
The Shaykh: My brother, Allah has not tasked you with this speech about people and declaring so-and-so a disbeliever. Allah has not tasked you with this. I advise your brothers that they do not enter into these topics. These are dangerous topics. Also, this is not among your affairs. Declaring people to be disbelievers is not permissible except with proof, and this is for the people of knowledge and insight when the clarification of the ruling is needed. As for when the clarification of the ruling is not needed, it is not permissible for this to be the talk of gatherings and for people to be occupied with it; because this is fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). Yes.
May Allah welcome you.
The questioner:
The questioner: My brother, I have a question. Please, give us your question, Muhammad. Yes, my question is that some groups declare some rulers to be disbelievers. I mean, I am asking on my own behalf, I mean, with my friends, when we are in Tunisia, we say, for example, is this specific president a disbeliever or not? For example, we ask about Bashar al-Assad; some people say he is a disbeliever, and some people say no. And there is the hadith that says, "O brother of the Ahad..."
that distinguishes between us and them is prayer
الذي بيننا وبينهم الصلاهThe Shaykh:
The Shaykh: My brother, Allah has not tasked you with this speech about people and declaring so-and-so a disbeliever. Allah has not tasked you with this. I advise your brothers that they do not enter into these topics. These are dangerous topics. Also, this is not among your affairs. Declaring people to be disbelievers is not permissible except with proof, and this is for the people of knowledge and insight when the clarification of the ruling is needed. As for when the clarification of the ruling is not needed, it is not permissible for this to be the talk of gatherings and for people to be occupied with it; because this is fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، حكم الخوض والحديث في تكفير بعض الحكام - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (0:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.