The Criterion for Coercion That Exempts One from Disbelief
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
What is the ruling on this coercion, O Shaykh? Does coercion count as consent to shirk (associating partners with Allah)?
The Shaykh:
The coercion that is defined as being beaten, or threatened with death if one is able to resist, makes a person coerced. For example, if someone is taken to a city and forced, meaning they are told, "Say this, or the people will kill you?" or "You will be beaten with the sword until you speak?" If he speaks it while being coerced, and his heart is at peace with faith, speaking it while believing in Allah and that He alone is worthy of worship, but he speaks with his tongue to ward off the beating and killing, then he is coerced, because Allah has protected him, and his heart is at peace with faith. However, if he agrees with them, and his heart agrees with them, and he is at peace with it, then he becomes a disbeliever.
What is the ruling on this coercion, O Shaykh? Does coercion count as consent to shirk (associating partners with Allah)?
The Shaykh:
The coercion that is defined as being beaten, or threatened with death if one is able to resist, makes a person coerced. For example, if someone is taken to a city and forced, meaning they are told, "Say this, or the people will kill you?" or "You will be beaten with the sword until you speak?" If he speaks it while being coerced, and his heart is at peace with faith, speaking it while believing in Allah and that He alone is worthy of worship, but he speaks with his tongue to ward off the beating and killing, then he is coerced, because Allah has protected him, and his heart is at peace with faith. However, if he agrees with them, and his heart agrees with them, and he is at peace with it, then he becomes a disbeliever.
Source
شرح كشف الشبهات [ ابن باز ]، بداية من الفصل الثاني عشر : كشف شبهة من زعم أن من أدى بعض واجبات الدين لا يكون كافرًا ولو أتى بما ينافي التوحيد — islamhouse.com (1:19:51)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.