The explicit description of the Ash'ari and the secularist as an innovator and a disbeliever

The questioner:
And I ask your excellencies for permission to make the call to prayer.

The Shaykh:
The call to prayer does not require permission.

The questioner:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Honorable Shaykh, is it obligatory that if I say so-and-so is Ash'ari, I have declared him an innovator, and if I say so-and-so is a secularist, I have declared him a disbeliever?

The Shaykh:
This depends on the benefit. If there is a benefit in mentioning it by warning against him, where a person is impressed by him and does not know his true nature, and this is made clear to him, that is good. But if it is a matter of taking pleasure in speaking about people, this is not permissible. There is no benefit in this. The Ash'ariyyah are Ash'ariyyah; if I did not say he is Ash'ari, but if someone is deceived by them or does not know their true nature, it is made clear to him. This is part of sincere advice.