Explanation of the second type of verbal disbelief.

The Shaykh : Another type of verbal disbelief, which is not like the first type in that the person is not held accountable for it, is that he is held accountable for uttering the word of disbelief, but he is not held accountable on the basis that he disbelieved in his belief; because he did not believe what the word of disbelief entails. An example of this is what came in the authentic hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stood one day addressing the Companions, and a man among them stood up and said to him a word he did not give it any thought: "What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah." He said to him (peace be upon him), and he was in a state of intense anger: . He said (peace be upon him): . In another narration: . The other story or the other hadith is that a man from the Companions came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) one day and recounted to him a vision he had seen the previous night; he said: "I saw that I was walking in one of the streets of Madinah, and I met a man from the Jews, so I said to him: 'You are a good people, O Jews, if only you did not associate partners with Allah, saying: "Al-‘Aziz is the son of Allah."' The Jew answered him—this was in the dream—: 'And you are a good people, O Muslims, if only you did not associate partners with Allah, saying: "What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills."' He said: "Then I continued on my way, and I met a man from the Christians, so I said to him: 'You are a good people, O Christians, if only you did not associate partners with Allah, saying: "What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills."'"
-- And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Ah, excuse me. --
The Companion who saw the vision said to that Christian whom he met on the road: "You are a good people, O Christians, if only you did not associate partners with Allah, saying: 'Isa is the son of Allah.'" That Christian answered him: "And you are a good people, O Muslims, if only you did not associate partners with Allah, saying: 'What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills.'" He said to him (peace be upon him): . He said: "No." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gathered his Companions, then stood among them addressing them, and recounted to them this vision that he had heard from that Companion, and said to them (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him): .
-- The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh: And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah. --
This hadith and that one benefit us by showing that a Muslim who believes in Allah and His Messenger may utter the word of disbelief while he does not know and does not realize it. The greatest proof of this is the Companions themselves, whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) purified from the filth of shirk to the light of faith, and yet some of them continued to say the word of disbelief—disbelief in the legal sense—which is: "What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills." So some of them did not continue, and at the head of them was 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), who continued to swear by his father until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) heard him one day swearing by his father, so he said to him: .
; that is: be silent. And to confirm this prohibition against swearing by other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), he (peace be upon him) said: . In a narration: . 'Umar said—and this is what is expected of every Muslim—he said: "After the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited me from swearing by other than Allah, by Allah, I did not mention it, neither as a narrator nor as an intentional speaker. That is: the oath by Allah, the swearing by other than Allah did not come from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, neither intentionally as he used to do before, nor as a preference to transmit it from others; even on the basis of narration, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab did not swear by other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic); because he knew the prohibition of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding it and his consideration of it as disbelief and shirk.
These hadiths indicate that a type of disbelief does not cause a person to disbelieve in a way that takes him out of the religion. The scholars agreed to call this type verbal disbelief; because he does not intend what appears of heart-based disbelief from this phrase. That first man who said to the Messenger (peace be upon him): "What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah," he said to him: ; did that Companion actually intend to make the Messenger of Allah an equal, while he knows the saying of Allah: ? We are certain, without any doubt or ambiguity, that this Companion did not intend in his heart to make the Messenger of Allah a partner to Allah in His will and His desire; because he had become well-versed in Islam, and in Islam there are many verses and texts indicating that the will of the servant is after the will of the Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He), as in His saying (Mighty and Majestic): . But with this belief, which we do not doubt was settled in that Companion, he erred with his tongue and said to the Messenger (peace be upon him): "What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah"; so he should have said as the Messenger (peace be upon him) taught him: . Then in the Arabic language, it gives a more precise meaning than the conjunction "and": "What Allah wills first, then what you will, O Messenger of Allah, in the second and lower rank after the will of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)." He did not express it well, but rather said: "What Allah wills and what you will," so he (peace be upon him) considered it shirk, but he did not consider it heart-based shirk, otherwise he would have ordered that Companion to renew his faith. So he considered it only verbal shirk; because he actually said: "What Allah wills and what you will"; because it is a phrase in the Arabic style that equates the will of the Messenger with the will of Allah. This is shirk and this is disbelief, but since he did not intend it in his heart, this type of shirk was called verbal shirk.
This type of shirk is committed by the masses of people today, but—regrettably—some of them fall into this type of shirk in heart-based shirk as well. Here is the explanation and warning:
You hear many people—and no blame for mentioning it—especially our Palestinian brothers, who always swear by honor: "By my honor," and they do not consider it a thing at all. So swearing by other than Allah, whether you swear by your honor, or your father's honor, or your grandfather's honor, or your father's head, or any other thing other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), is shirk. And we—also—the Levantines, we are not pure; rather, I wanted to point out a specific oath, which is by honor. We—also—swear this oath.