His Excellency the Professor, there is a disagreement among some of the brothers, the substance of which is that the one who circumambulates the graves is a disbeliever who has apostatized from his religion, that his wife is to be divorced, and other rulings apply.

The questioner : His Excellency the Professor, there is a disagreement among some of the brothers, the substance of which is that the one who circumambulates the graves or makes a vow to other than Allah is a disbeliever who has apostatized from his religion, that his wife is to be divorced, and the ruling of the disbeliever applies in all cases; so we request that Your Excellency clarify this matter.

The Shaykh : The reality is that my nature is to dislike repetition, and I feel that the questions revolve around one issue, but I do not forget that the matter requires this repetition. I said earlier that our duty is to rule that this is misguidance and that this is disbelief if the text states that it is disbelief and misguidance, but it is not our function to rule that people are apostates from their religion, because this is contrary to the Salaf al-Salih, as we mentioned to you. The Mu'tazilah denied many texts from the Book and the Sunnah, and I gave you an example of their denial of the believers seeing their Lord on the Day of Resurrection, yet they were not declared disbelievers. And we mentioned to you the story of the one who willed his children to burn him with fire, and how Allah forgave him. So our duty is to advise people as a community; we are not oath-swearers and we are not those who declare people disbelievers, but rather we are guides who lead people to the Book of Allah and the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So this one who circumambulates the grave, there is no doubt that this is disbelief, and this one who makes a vow to other than Allah and slaughters for other than Allah, we do not doubt that it is disbelief and misguidance. How so, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: These are calamities that have spread throughout the Islamic lands. But first, where is the Shari'ah text that obligates us to rule that these people are disbelievers while they are ignorant? Most of the scholars of the world are silent about these enormities, and some of them even justify them on the pretext of "let us leave them, their intention is good!" Their intention is good! That is the clear misguidance. They are in reality ruin... But if they have an excuse, their excuse is ignorance. Some people will say, but this ignorance does not excuse its owner. We say, yes, when this ignorant person lives among a group of people of knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah, and they are engaged in advising, as we indicated at the beginning... then in that case, these people are not excused, because they have heard the scholars always and forever warning them that what they are doing is precisely disbelief and shirk (associating partners with Allah). But these people whom some Salafis call "grave worshippers" are surrounded by people who are the ones misguiding them, and they are the ones making them understand that this is not of disbelief in any way. If our goal is to educate people and guide them, as for declaring them disbelievers, that returns to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), because I believe that there is no disagreement among the people of the Sunnah and the Salaf al-Salih, in particular, that disbelief is not attributed to its owner until the proof is established. And for most of these people, the proof has not been established. Why? Because the Islamic world counts eight hundred million Muslims, so how many are the people of the Sunnah and the community, especially those who have been given the opportunity to connect with this... long [gap] and advise them and explain to them these misguidances? This is less than a little. If I want to mention an issue that may be hidden from some people, some people may suppose that the Europeans, for example, and the Americans who know nothing about Islam except its name, who hear the Qur'an on the radio, some Muslims today suppose that the proof has been established against them. Why? Because they hear the Qur'an. Well, they hear the Qur'an, but they do not understand anything from it. So has the proof been established against them? The answer is no. And this is a fact that I do not think anyone can dispute or argue with. If that is the case, then I mention another fact: leave the non-Arabs aside, the Arabs themselves have become non-Arabs in their language. The proof is that many scholars still understand the verses that forbid worshipping other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to mean only that one should not pray to other than Allah, and not prostrate to other than Allah. So if one prays to other than Allah and prostrates to other than Allah, that is disbelief. But if one calls upon other than Allah and seeks help from other than Allah, they still understand that this is not of shirk in any way. And they are particularly [so]. So I say, the Arabs today, due to the long time since the language in which the Qur'an was revealed, hardly understand this Qur'an in its meaning. So what do we say about the non-Arabs, who are the overwhelming majority in this huge number of Muslims? So, O brothers, imagine before you rule with the takfir (declaring someone a disbeliever) of Zayd or Bakr among the people, has the proof been established against them? And the proof is from the Book and the Sunnah and from the people of knowledge. And I said on a recent occasion that some of our students suppose that they have become people of knowledge, and that merely by connecting with one of those misguided ones, especially if he... himself with a magnifying glass, sees himself at the peak of knowledge. So a small student comes and says, "You are a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah), and you are misguided and deviant," and so on. And he thinks that with such quick words he has established the proof against him! And we observe in Sham and elsewhere that some of our brothers who are beginners in this knowledge hardly sit with one of those misguided ones, and we rule that they are misguided, and he speaks two or three words and he is defeated. Why? Because he has not read the principles of the Arabic language or its etiquette, nor the principles of jurisprudence, nor the principles of hadith, nor anything of these sciences. So he comes to him with these sciences which he has mastered, but he has not benefited from them, so this Salafi student thinks that he has established the proof. So you must be cautious. It is sufficient for you to point people to what you have been given of knowledge, that this is misguidance and this is disbelief, and this is guidance and this is Sunnah. As for "this is disbelief and you have declared this person a disbeliever," first, we cannot rule with this in Shari'ah, and second, there is no benefit in it, but rather this is driving people away. And he (peace be upon him) said regarding less than that: This is what Allah has made easy.