Does one who denies an attribute of Allah the Exalted that is established become a disbeliever by this denial?

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: If one denies an attribute of Allah that is established in the Book and the Sunnah, does he become a disbeliever by this denial if he is knowledgeable and not ignorant?

Answer:
If he is deliberate and knowledgeable, he is a disbeliever. But if he is a follower of taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) or one who engages in ta'wil (figurative interpretation), he is not a disbeliever. If he is one who engages in ta'wil, like the Asha'irah, or if he follows others in taqlid, he is not a disbeliever. But it is said that he is misguided and misguides others, but he is not a disbeliever. Yes. But if he deliberately denies the attribute or interprets the attribute away from its meaning, he is a disbeliever because he has no excuse. Yes, the excuse is only by ignorance, or by ta'wil, or by taqlid, one of three things: either by ignorance, or by ta'wil, or by taqlid. Yes.