The evil of deviating from the methodology of the righteous Salaf.

The Shaykh : It is perhaps beneficial to remind you of the evil of deviating from the creed of the righteous Salaf. Among the things that have appeared in this era of ours are groups scattered throughout the Islamic lands, united by a misguided creed: their declaring Muslims to be disbelievers because of their committing sins. That is, they did not distinguish between disbelief of the heart and doctrinal disbelief. So it was that they established [the position of] practical disbelief, yes.
So among the evils of this deviation was that, unfortunately, many of them were imprisoned. But even more ominous is what I learned on my last trip to Oman. One of these men, whom I know personally, was from a group, a group of those who declare disbelievers here in Jordan, may Allah guide them all. This man remained an outlier among them, so he was arrested and put in prison. His appearance was that of a pious young Muslim. The prison director honored him; in fact, we rarely hear of such character from an employee or a prison director. He honored him and housed him in a private room because he was a shaykh. There are still many people in Jordan who remain upon the fitrah, so he honored him and gave him a private room, and allowed his wife to visit him once a week and be alone with him. This is like a dream, but unfortunately, what happened? He plotted to escape from prison. His wife came to him with a sheet, a woman’s abaya, and red women’s makeup and powder. This young man had a beard, so he shaved it off and threw it on the ground. He took that as a means, as many people do today, taking the disease as a means to the cure, as Abu Nuwas said:
"And cure me with that which is the disease"
...his beard, he powdered himself and dressed up, and he threw the sheet and went out. None of the guards on the prison corridors, as is known, noticed him except the last one, who suspected him, so he arrested him. The story remains very sad. The director, the prison director who had honored him, brought him back and lined up the prisoners in a long row, and ordered them to spit in his face, because he had taken advantage of the kindness of this prison director’s heart.
This is a very sad and sorrowful story. I have no purpose from it except the lesson. Look at what extremism in religion does to its holder. He believed, along with many or few others, that if a Muslim commits a sin and persists in it, he is a disbeliever. They do not know the difference between disbelief of the heart and practical disbelief, and in doing so, they contradict many texts from the Book and the Sunnah. Then you find the outcome of this enthusiasm to be weakness and psychological collapse, such that he considers it permissible for himself to shave his beard, knowing that shaving it is forbidden, and then he imitates women to escape from prison. Meanwhile, one of the previous prophets, Yusuf (peace be upon him), said: . He did nothing except that they invited him to sin, so he preferred prison over being close to that corrupt environment in which one is invited to the sin of Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
This is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.