Summary and abridgment of what was agreed upon in the session regarding the division of disbelief into creedal and practical.

The questioner : If you had summarized what you said, that would have been better. I liked it when, like yesterday, you started... first, summarize what we agreed upon.

The Shaykh : We agreed that disbelief is divided into two categories: creedal disbelief, which is apostasy, and practical disbelief, which is not apostasy, but rather open sinfulness and sin. And any action a person performs, which he believes in regarding his own state, in reality, may be creedal disbelief or it may be practical disbelief. And since, from our side, we have not seen into his heart, and he has not made explicit what is in his heart; when we see this action that contradicts the Shari'ah from him, we believe that he is sinful, and that it is possible to call it practical disbelief. If he makes explicit what is in his heart... believing in the ruling of the Shari'ah that he contradicted, it is not permissible to declare him a disbeliever. And if he makes explicit that he does not believe in this ruling of the Shari'ah, then he is a disbeliever, whether he contradicted this ruling in action or not. This is the summary of the research, in my belief.

The questioner : We would like you to give us a brief overview with questions after this rule that we have understood.

The Shaykh : Yes, and we agreed upon it.

The questioner : Yes, we agreed upon it. So if this is the rule...