The Meaning of the Hadith: (Do not return after me as disbelievers)

The Shaykh : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the Farewell Pilgrimage, in the sermon that is cited as an example of its greatness and the greatness of its rulings, and so on. Among its contents is that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali: This is a rare matter. This means: Prepare this entire crowd standing at 'Arafah to listen to the revelation I will deliver to them. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Muslims fought each other first, then later, and finally, and so on. Now, the covenant with you is not far behind. The Muslims fought each other. Are these people disbelievers? Say, "Allah knows best," and that is your right, unless you have knowledge, if Allah wills?

The questioner : I swear by Allah, I mean, as we have been taught, that among them is the believer and among them is the disbeliever, meaning in one of the two groups.

The Shaykh : This is a political answer, in my view.

The questioner : The correct view is that it occurred, meaning that among the army were the polytheist disbeliever and the believing Muslim who prays, meaning who upholds the law of Allah for himself. As for the second group, we know about them that among them is the atheist disbeliever or the polytheist, and among them is the Muslim from the Arab lands that gathered for Iraq.

The Shaykh : In previous battles, there were people called the Khawarij, you know them, right? So these were fought by the Rightly Guided Caliph. Were they disbelievers?

The questioner : The Khawarij.

The Shaykh : Yes, say "Allah knows best," that is better for you. This question was asked: Who fought them?

The questioner : The Caliph.

The Shaykh : Ali. Were they disbelievers? He said: "They fled from disbelief," and I bear witness that they fled from disbelief. It was made to appear to them that he had "made men judge." They went astray, they went astray far away. The point is, I have brought you two examples, and the hadiths are very numerous: Whoever does such-and-such has committed disbelief, even if a slave runs away from his master, he has committed disbelief. The slave committed disbelief. We move on to fighting. If we look at these hadiths, their apparent meaning is that he is a disbeliever. But our Lord said: This rebellious group was ruled upon as believers, even though they are rebellious. So fighting coexists with faith, and faith and disbelief coexist at the same time. So we take from this and that the following conclusion: It is not permissible for us to rush to declaring someone a disbeliever who is expelled from the religion and doomed to the Fire, merely because we heard a hadith or hadiths describing a person who is originally a Muslim as having committed disbelief for a certain act. We never say this, because the word "disbelief" in its legal usage does not mean apostasy. So when? When does it mean apostasy? The issue is related to what is settled in the heart. What is settled in the heart, the Lord of all people knows; nothing is hidden from Him on earth or in the sky. As for us humans, we have only the apparent. So if we hear a man say: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and especially if we see him pray sometimes, even in a patchwork manner, or on Friday, for example, and strangely, he also fasts Ramadan, right? So faith is present in him, and this faith is what drove him to the two testimonies, to praying sometimes, and to fasting the month of Ramadan, and so on. What makes us say: His faith, his testimony will not benefit him, his fasting did not benefit him, his prayer, even if only sometimes, will not benefit him, merely because he left one prayer? And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ... The one who does not bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah are the same, because he left one prayer, or five prayers, or ten, or more. This is injustice, and this is tyranny, and Allah does not love the unjust. And this research is truly long-tailed.