Continuation of the explanation of the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah and 'Amr ibn al-'As (may Allah be pleased with them): (… so he is not one of us).

The Shaykh : But what is the meaning of ? Some people may understand to mean that he is not a Muslim; is this understanding correct?
Answer: No, but the meaning of is: he is not on our path, on our line, or on our Shari'ah. All the hadiths in this chapter are phrased this way. However, there was a man among the great scholars of hadith and the great early Hanafi scholars, known as Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi, who has a book titled "Mushkil al-Athar" (The Difficult Narrations). In it, he collected a large number of authentic hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and in each of them is the phrase "he is not one of us." Among them is this hadith, and among them are: , , . There are many hadiths, all of which begin or end with "he is not one of us" when someone does such and such, or when someone does such and such, then he is not one of us. So what is the meaning of this phrase "he is not one of us"? Does it mean he is not a Muslim? No, it is not permissible to expel a Muslim from his religion and rule that he has committed apostasy simply because he opposed a legal ruling, simply because he does not respect the elder, or simply because he does not show mercy to the young. We do not rule that he has apostatized from his religion; no, these are sins. So the meaning of "he is not one of us" is that he is not in our perfection. Rather, we love all Muslims, our brothers. And the opposite of this phrase is another phrase: "he is one of them." For example, the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) regarding the disbelievers: . Do some people, especially today, the group of those who declare others disbelievers in Egypt and elsewhere, interpret this to mean "he is one of them" as in he has become a disbeliever? Is that so? The answer is no. If we want to judge based on the apparent meaning of this report "he is not one of us" or "he is one of them," which is a declarative sentence, if we want to judge based on the apparent meaning of this or that sentence, we must observe another meaning. This other meaning is related to the heart. The first meaning is the action: he does not show mercy to the young in action, he does not show mercy; he does not respect the elder in action, he does not respect the elder. "He is one of them" refers to one who takes them as allies, meaning the disbelievers; he is one of them. He takes them as allies. What does he do? He allies with them, supports them, serves them, and so on. These are all apparent actions. So if we stop at actions only, then it is not permissible to interpret this phrase in the hadith "he is not one of us" by its apparent meaning, just as it is not permissible to interpret that verse and similar ones by their apparent meaning. Rather, it is said: is not on our way, and not in our good morals. "He is one of them" means in their bad morals and habits. But if we want to say "he is not one of us" absolutely, meaning he is not a Muslim, or "he is one of them" absolutely, meaning he is a disbeliever, then we must observe something else related to the heart. "He is one of them" if he allies with them, assists them, and supports them against the Muslims, and he also considers that permissible in his heart, then the verse at that time is by its apparent meaning: he is one of them in heart and body. Similarly, here in the hadith: , if he does not show mercy to the young, does not respect the elder, and does not recognize the right of the scholar in terms of religion and creed, not just in action, then at that time the hadith is by its apparent meaning: he is not one of us. With this detail, and I mean specifically considering the action and considering the heart, or in other words, considering the action of the limbs on one hand and the action of the heart on the other, the detail in interpreting the texts comes about. Sometimes we apply the text by its apparent meaning, and that is when the action encompasses both actions: the action of the body and the action of the heart. "He is one of them" in action and belief, meaning he believes what they believe and considers permissible what they consider permissible in his heart, not just with his limbs and body. Similarly, regarding "he who does not show mercy to our young ones" to the end of the hadith, "he is not one of us," we should observe whether he does not show mercy only in action, or whether he also considers the lack of mercy permissible in his heart. If the bodily action and the heart action coincide, then that is disbelief. Considering the coincidence of these two actions, the heart action and the body action, considering their coincidence or separation, causes many problems for the student of knowledge. Among them is what relates to the previous hadith that my sister Khadijah's daughter asked about earlier: , , not so, and he is a believer. There are many hadiths in this meaning. How do we interpret these texts by their apparent meaning? We can interpret them by their apparent meaning, and we can interpret them by way of figurative interpretation (ta'wil), as we did with the hadith, the hadith of the current lesson , and like the hadith of the verse: . We said: "He is not one of us" absolutely, if his bodily action and his heart action are together, then he is not one of us absolutely at that time, because it is disbelief by his denial of what Allah has legislated regarding showing affection to the young and honoring the elder, and the like. Similarly, the previous verse: . Sometimes we leave the verse by its apparent meaning when the one we say is among the disbelievers has a heart that is also contrary to the Shari'ah in heart and body, like his action. , . Sometimes we interpret it as: "He does not commit zina" when he commits zina while he is a believer with complete faith. When we assume that this person commits zina but does not consider zina permissible in his heart, he drinks intoxicants but does not consider intoxicants permissible in his heart, he steals but does not consider stealing permissible in his heart, then we interpret the hadith at that time as: "He does not commit zina, does not steal, does not drink intoxicants" in all of this while he is a believer with complete faith. Why would a complete believer steal? Why would a complete believer commit zina? Why would he drink intoxicants? May Allah be far from that (Mighty and Majestic). Sometimes we interpret the hadith by its apparent meaning : he is not a believer at all in the case where he considers it permissible in his heart, meaning he says there is no haram and no halal, as some ignorant people say today. So here, the corrupt heart action is combined with the corrupt limb action. The combination of the corrupt heart action is what justifies the Muslim scholar to interpret the verse or hadith by its apparent meaning at that time. has two interpretations: If he is a believer in heart, it is not permissible to expel him from the religion as long as he is a believer, but we say he is not a believer with complete faith, because it is clear that if his faith were complete, it would have prevented him from committing these major sins and committing them. But if he does not respect the sanctity of all these characteristics, from stealing and intoxicants and the like, then at that time the faith that is negated from him is absolute faith, and he will be among those who dwell in the Fire in the Hereafter. This is what had to be explained in connection with this hadith , and in connection with that hadith that was asked about. And there are many, and very many, hadiths regarding the problem of observing what we call practical disbelief and creedal disbelief. If creedal disbelief is combined with practical disbelief, then he is not a believer. And if it is said "he will not enter Paradise," he will not enter Paradise at all. But if there is creedal faith, but it is combined with practical disbelief, meaning he does the actions of the disbelievers but does not believe the belief of the disbelievers, then he will be an open sinner (fasiq) and a transgressor, and not an apostate disbeliever. And peace be upon you.
This is sufficient, and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.