When does a Muslim leave Islam?

The questioner : There is a person who has a question, which is when does a Muslim leave Islam, and he wants a detailed explanation.

The Shaykh : A detailed explanation, a detailed explanation.

The questioner : Regarding the issue, and he has heard our brother’s words but was not convinced, or his heart did not open to this speech.

The Shaykh : Yes,
The questioner: He wants to know when a Muslim leaves Islam, meaning when does he become a disbeliever.

The questioner : Yes, when does he become a disbeliever.

The Shaykh : A Muslim leaves his Islam if he denies something that was part of what he entered into. Do you understand this? If he denies, if he rejects something that is established in his Islam and his religion, and he knows it, and he denies it with his heart, not just with his tongue, then he is an apostate from his religion, even if he is under Islamic rule. He is killed because he has apostatized from his religion. However, if that did not come from his belief, but he said it out of ignorance of his religion, or said it under compulsion, or out of fear, or something similar, then he does not become a disbeliever because of it. The summary is: he apostatizes from the religion if he rejects something from it while knowing it. But if he denies something he does not know is part of Islam, and he denies it, then he does not become a disbeliever until it is clarified to him that this is what Islam brought. If he then persists in his denial, then he is the one who is declared a disbeliever and an apostate. His wife is divorced from him, and if he dies, he is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries. That is, the rulings of apostasy apply to him. As for the thing that he denies and becomes a disbeliever by denying it, it is what the scholars of jurisprudence call, if it is known from the religion by necessity... What does this phrase mean? Most people today do not know that smoking is forbidden, but all Muslims, even the Christians, know about Islam that drinking intoxicants is forbidden in Islam. So if a Muslim says, "Intoxicants are not forbidden," he apostatizes from his religion. Why? Because it is not conceivable that he is ignorant of the religion he believes in and has faith in. It is not conceivable that he is ignorant that Islam forbids it. Rather, he certainly knows that intoxicants are forbidden, but he refused this ruling in Islam. So in his denial of this ruling, he becomes a disbeliever. The jurists call this "known from the religion by necessity," meaning that by being a Muslim, one knows this ruling. Meanwhile, there are rulings with extreme precision that only the people of knowledge know, and perhaps only the specialists among the people of knowledge. But regarding smoking, is it known by all Muslims that it is forbidden, like intoxicants? The answer is no. So if he says, "I want to smoke, and it is not forbidden," here he does not become a disbeliever, because he did not deny something known from the religion by necessity. One of the characteristics of what is known from the religion by necessity is that it is mentioned either in the Qur'an or in the mass-transmitted Sunnah, which is accepted by all Muslim scholars. So if he denies a ruling about which there is scholarly disagreement, he does not become a disbeliever because of it; rather, he is in error if he is contrary to the evidence. This is all I have as an answer to that question, and I hope it has become clear to you and the difficulty has been removed, and there is no more ambiguity.

The questioner : If we establish the proof and evidence against him, do we pray behind him, or do we say that he has become a disbeliever?

The Shaykh : Who is going to establish the evidence against him? Zayd, Bakr, 'Amr, or the people of knowledge?

The questioner : ... the hadiths

The Shaykh : The hadiths do not speak. If the people of knowledge, and the people of knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, bring this man and clarify to him that you are contradicting the clear text of the Qur'an, and contradicting the clear text of the Sunnah, and contradicting the consensus of the Muslims, because this scholar may actually clarify the proof and evidence to him. But this is not the case with the uneducated person who denied this thing. Great scholars denied this thing on which he is establishing the evidence. So establishing the evidence is not sufficient from the perspective of the scholar, but rather from the perspective of the man who has shown that all Muslim scholars agree with him on this, and yet he stuck to his head and followed his desire. Then he becomes a disbeliever, otherwise there is no way to declare him a disbeliever. What do you want to say?

The questioner : And if he means ignorance of them, meaning he is ignorant of the ruling, meaning he is ignorant of the hadiths and verses, what is the ruling?

The Shaykh : Is the research about this, or is the research about who knows?

The questioner : About who does not know.

Another questioner : The result of this research is that if a man denies a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and he does not believe in the authenticity of this hadith, what is his ruling?

The Shaykh : Does he pray?

The questioner : Yes, he prays.

The Shaykh : So he is a Muslim, but the research returns to the previous one. This is, of course, if he denied a hadith, and we assume that this hadith is authentic. If he is following his desire, then he is misguided. And if he is following a man who issued a fatwa for him, then he is a man who is not misguided, and the sin is on the one who issued the fatwa.

The questioner : Do we declare him a disbeliever?

The Shaykh : Never, I seek refuge in Allah.