The Shaykh’s warning against hastening to declare people misguided or disbelievers

The Shaykh : So my aim with this final word is that we should be mindful of not rushing to declare people misguided, let alone to declare them disbelievers, because it is possible that these people have an excuse. As for whether this excuse is valid in the sight of Allah or not, Allah is their accountant. But we are scrupulous about rushing to declare them misguided, let alone rushing to declare them disbelievers. In reality, this issue is very serious. One of its manifestations is the continued declaration by Saudi scholars of the disbeliever status of the one who abandons prayer out of laziness, even though they know—let us leave it at that from the perspective that this is their conviction, even though we completely disagree with them. But they are convinced that they are taking the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) at its apparent meaning. We leave them to their own affairs. But they know that the Muslim society today is living in misguidance, in the darkness of ignorance. So let them excuse this society, and let them judge the individuals who live in their society. And always they hear this dangerous statement that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever, and his wife is divorced from him, and so on. As for the general Muslims, first, if they are educated in the Shari'ah culture, they do not hold this opinion; they hold the second opinion, which is that the one who abandons prayer out of laziness, not out of denial, is not declared a disbeliever, and it is not permissible. In this case, it is not permissible for us to speak in this way and say that the one who abandons prayer is a disbeliever.