How to respond to one who says: "Whoever says: 'Deed is a condition of perfection' is a Murji'i"?

Khalid al-Anbari: Your Eminence, since deed is a condition of perfection and not a condition of validity, as the Mu'tazilah and the Khawarij say, some people accuse the people of the Sunnah, or some Salafis, of being Murji'ah. This is because they believe that if they say that deed is a condition of perfection, it leads to the idea that faith is speech without deed. They say this is the statement of the Murji'ah. Since you, the Salafis, do not declare as disbelievers those who abandon deeds, including the five pillars, and those who abandon judging by other than what Allah has revealed, without denial or deeming it permissible, you are Murji'ah. What is your response to this false accusation, may Allah bless you?

The Shaykh : First, what concerns us is not the recent terminologies, but following the truth wherever it is. So whether it is said that this is the madhab of the Khawarij or the Mu'tazilah, they say with us: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Does agreeing with them on this good word mean we should deviate from it because others who have deviated from the truth also say it? Obviously, the answer is no. Rather, as stated in some authentic hadiths, we revolve with the truth wherever it revolves.
So those who accuse the people of the Sunnah, who say what we mentioned regarding the position of the Imams, of being Murji'ah, what is this "irja'" in their view? What is this "irja'"? Those who hold to "irja'" do not say that faith increases and decreases with righteous deeds. Therefore, there is a very clear difference between the people of truth and the Murji'ah. We know that the scholars of the Salaf mention that some of the sects of the Murji'ah who say that faith does not increase or decrease, one of them would not hesitate to say: "My faith is like the faith of Jibril." This is reported. This is because the reality of faith, in their view, is not subject to increase or decrease. The doctrine of "irja'" differs from our statement that faith increases and decreases—and as mentioned in the question, there is no need to repeat this—that its increase is through obedience and its decrease through disobedience. The deviation of those who hold to "irja'" has actually reached a point where they contradicted texts other than those that explicitly indicate in the Book and the Sunnah that faith increases. Based on their statement that faith does not increase or decrease, they said that word and built upon it the ruling that it is not permissible to make an exception in faith. It is not permissible to say: "I am a believer, if Allah wills." And they derived from this statement a very serious ruling, which is declaring as disbelievers those who make an exception in their faith. So whoever says: "I am a believer, if Allah wills," it has been stated in the books of branches that it is not permissible for a Hanafi to marry a Shafi'i, because they make an exception in their faith. This was issued by some of their scholars previously.
Then came one who is thought to have been among their moderates or the balanced ones among them, and he issued a fatwa of permissibility. But the truth is that I wonder which is more dangerous: this one who issued a fatwa of permissibility with the following reasoning, or those who explicitly stated that it is not permissible for a Hanafi to marry a Shafi'i? Because they doubt their faith. The one who doubts her faith is not a Muslim, nor from the People of the Book, so it would not be permissible to marry her even if she were from the People of the Book. So this one, who may be thought to be among the moderates among them, answered when asked—and he is known as the "Mufti of the Two Heavyweights" and the author of the tafsir—he said: "It is permissible." And the reasoning now is the point of caution: "By placing them in the position of the People of the Book." This is the answer of the Murji'ah. There is no doubt that those who accuse the speakers of the word of truth, as previously explained, that faith increases and decreases, etc., are saying about the people of truth what is not in them. And in my belief, they know what they are saying, and they know that they are wrong in what they say. So the difference, in my belief, is very clear between the creed of the Salaf and the Murji'ah. How vast is the difference between the two groups, and the injustice is from these upstarts today who accuse the followers of the righteous Salaf of being Murji'ah.
Yes.