The ruling on declaring specific rulers disbelievers after their death

Question:
O good news, what is your opinion regarding those who declare specific rulers to be disbelievers after they have died, especially since they did not rule by what Allah revealed and they were unjust, and this is known about them? Is that permissible?

Answer:
It is not permissible to declare Muslims disbelievers except with evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. Furthermore, there is scholarly disagreement regarding declaring specific individuals disbelievers, and you do not know on what they died. Even if it were established that he committed one of the acts of disbelief, you do not know whether he repented or did not repent, so you must not definitively rule that he is a disbeliever. However, you may say that whoever does such and such, in general terms, is a disbeliever. But specifying certain people without knowing their state at the time of death is not permissible. In any case, a person should guard his tongue from declaring disbelief, interpreting, and labeling people as innovators.
What Allah has obligated upon him is that he rectifies himself, learns, calls to Allah, reconciles hearts, unites the word, and spreads love among the Muslims. As for having no occupation except saying so-and-so is a disbeliever, so-and-so is an innovator, so-and-so and so-and-so, that is a calamity. Yes, except for a person, except for a person who deceived the people and left them books containing misguidance; then you clarify the misguidance in his books. As for him, you do not rule against him because you do not know about him, but you say his such-and-such book contains such-and-such, and it is obligatory for the Muslims to beware of being deceived by this, and so on. This is fine. As for the individuals, not all of them are [to be targeted], so leave them to Allah the Exalted and Majestic.