Mentioning the conditions of declaring someone a disbeliever.
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The questioner : May Allah keep you safe. Can we summarize this and say that the conditions of declaring someone a disbeliever are three, and the obstacles to declaring someone a disbeliever are three? The first condition is knowledge, and its opposite is ignorance; the obstacle is ignorance.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The second is choice, and its obstacle is coercion and compulsion.
The Shaykh : And so it is.
The questioner : The third is figurative interpretation, and its obstacle is the absence of figurative interpretation. That is to say, if we do not open the door to figurative interpretation in a matter where we see that figurative interpretation might apply, we would have declared the Jahmiyyah disbelievers, and we would have declared the Mu'tazilah disbelievers, who say, "I do not know whether Allah is above the Throne or beneath the Throne." The Salaf did not do that.
The Shaykh : This is correct.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The second is choice, and its obstacle is coercion and compulsion.
The Shaykh : And so it is.
The questioner : The third is figurative interpretation, and its obstacle is the absence of figurative interpretation. That is to say, if we do not open the door to figurative interpretation in a matter where we see that figurative interpretation might apply, we would have declared the Jahmiyyah disbelievers, and we would have declared the Mu'tazilah disbelievers, who say, "I do not know whether Allah is above the Throne or beneath the Throne." The Salaf did not do that.
The Shaykh : This is correct.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.