When is a Muslim declared an apostate?

The Shaykh : Among the discussions that clarify their error and misguidance, we asked them: When do you rule that a Muslim who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and who may pray a lot or a little, has apostatized from his religion? Is one instance enough, or must he declare, either by his actions or his words, that he is an apostate? As they say, they were at a loss for an answer; they did not know the answer. So I was forced to give them the following example. I said: A judge who rules according to the Shari'ah, as is his custom and system, but in one case his foot slips and he rules contrary to the Shari'ah, meaning he gives the right to the oppressor and denies it to the oppressed. Is this ruling by other than what Allah has revealed or not? It is ruling by other than what Allah has revealed. Do you say that this is disbelief, meaning the disbelief in their terminology, i.e., apostasy? They said: No. We asked: Why? He contradicted the ruling of the Shari'ah. They said: Because this came from him only once. We said: Well, if the same ruling came from him a second time, or another ruling, but he also contradicted the Shari'ah in it, is he a disbeliever? I kept repeating this to them three times, four times. When do you say he is a disbeliever? You cannot set a limit by counting the number of rulings in which he contradicted the Shari'ah. You can do the exact opposite: if you know from him that in the first ruling he preferred his own opinion and disliked the Shari'ah ruling, you can rule that he has apostatized. And conversely, if you see from him dozens of rulings in various cases where he contradicted the Shari'ah, but you ask him, "O Shaykh, you ruled by other than what Allah the Exalted and Majestic revealed, why did you do that?" and he says, "By Allah, I was afraid, I feared for myself, or I took a bribe, for example, and that is much worse than the first," and so on, even then you cannot declare him a disbeliever until he declares the disbelief hidden in his heart, that he does not see the ruling by what Allah the Exalted and Majestic has revealed. Only then can you say that he is a disbeliever, an apostate. So, in summary, it is necessary to know that disbelief, like open sinfulness and oppression, is divided into two categories: disbelief, oppression, and open sinfulness that take one out of the religion, and all of this returns to the heart's acceptance of what is forbidden as permissible. And what is contrary to that returns to the practical acceptance of what is forbidden as permissible. So all the sinners, and especially the widespread acceptance of riba (usury or interest) in this time, all of this is practical disbelief. It is not permissible for us to declare these sinners disbelievers merely for committing a sin and practically accepting it as permissible, unless something comes from them or becomes apparent to us that reveals to us what is in the depths of their souls: that they do not consider what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden to be forbidden in their belief. They do not consider what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden to be forbidden in their belief. If we know that they have fallen into this heart's contradiction, we rule at that time that they have disbelieved, apostasy. But if we do not know that, we have no way to rule on their disbelief, because we fear that we will fall into the warning of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And there are many, and very many, hadiths coming in this meaning. On this occasion, we mention the story of that Companion who duelled a polytheist. When the polytheist saw that he was under the strike of the Muslim Companion's sword, he said: "I testify that there is no god but Allah." What did the Companion do? He killed him. When the news reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he had done that, he strongly disapproved of it, as you know. So the man excused himself by saying that he only said it out of fear of being killed. So his answer (peace and blessings be upon him) was: So, belief-based disbelief has no relation to action; it has a relation to the heart. And we cannot say that we know what is in the heart of the open sinner, the wicked, the thief, the fornicator, the one who deals in riba, and so on, unless he expresses what is in his heart with his tongue. As for his action, his action indicates that he has contradicted the Shari'ah in a practical way. So we say that you have contradicted, and that you have committed open sin and transgression, but we do not say that you have disbelieved and apostatized from your religion until something appears from him that gives us an excuse before Allah the Exalted and Majestic to rule on his apostasy. And thus comes the known ruling in Islam, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): Then I have said, and I still say, to those who keep talking about declaring the Muslim rulers disbelievers: Suppose, oh people, that these are actually disbelievers, apostates, and that if there were a higher ruler over them and he discovered that their disbelief was apostasy, it would be obligatory for that ruler to apply the previous hadith to them: So now, what do you gain practically if we hypothetically accept that all these disbelievers, these rulers, are disbelievers, apostates? What can you do? These disbelievers have occupied much of the lands of Islam, and we are here, unfortunately, afflicted by the occupation of the Jews of Palestine. What can you or we do with these so that you can work with the rulers you think are disbelievers? Why don't you leave this aspect aside and start by establishing and laying the foundation upon which the standing of the Muslim government is built, and that is by following the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), which he raised his Companions upon and brought them up on its system and foundation. And that is what we express on many such occasions by saying that every Muslim group working to restore the rule of Islam, not only on the land of Islam but on the whole earth, in realization of His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): And it has come in some authentic hadiths that this verse will be realized in the future. So for the Muslims to be able to realize this Qur'anic text, is the beginning to declare a revolution against these rulers whom they think are disbelievers, apostates? And with this thought of theirs, which is a wrong thought, they cannot do anything to realize this true Qur'anic news: What is the methodology? What is the path? No doubt the path is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to mention and remind his Companions of in all his sermons, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). So it is upon all Muslims, and especially those among them who care about restoring the rule of Islam on the Islamic land, indeed the whole earth, to start where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) started, which we refer to with two light words: purification and education. This is because we know a truth that is overlooked, or rather ignored, because it cannot be overlooked, by those extremists who have no concern except declaring the rulers disbelievers, and then nothing. And they will remain, as a group before them remained, calling for the establishment of the rule of Islam on the earth, but without taking the lawful means for it. They will keep declaring the rulers disbelievers, and nothing will come from them but fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). And in reality, in these recent years that you know, starting from the fitnah of the Sacred Mosque, then the fitnah in Egypt and the killing of Sadat, and the loss of the blood of many innocent Muslims because of this fitnah, then finally in Syria, and now in Algeria, unfortunately, and so on. All of this is caused by their contradiction of texts from the Book and the Sunnah, the most important of which is: So if we want to establish the rule of Allah the Exalted and Majestic on the earth, do we start by fighting the rulers when we are unable to fight them, or do we start with what the Messenger (peace be upon him) started with? No doubt the answer is: With what did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) start? You know that he started with calling some individuals whom he thought had the readiness to accept the truth. Then those who responded responded, as is known in the Prophetic biography. Then the weakness and strength that afflicted the Muslims in Makkah, then the command for the first and second migration, and so on, until Allah the Exalted and Majestic established Islam in the Blessed City of Madinah, and the skirmishes began, and the fighting began between the Muslims and the disbelievers on one hand, and the Jews on the other hand, and so on. So we must start with education as the Messenger (peace be upon him) started with. But we do not say now "education" only, why? That is, we do not limit ourselves only to the word "educating the Ummah in Islam," because we are in a situation now where what is not of Islam has entered Islamic education in no way, but rather what destroys Islam and kills the fruit that can be reached by correct Islam. And therefore, the duty of the Islamic callers is to start with what I mentioned earlier: purifying this Islam from the things that have entered it that corrupt Islam, not only in its branches and its morals, but also in its belief. And the second thing is that this purification must be accompanied by educating the young Muslim generation on this purified Islam. And if we study the existing Islamic groups now, since about a century, we will find that many of them have not benefited anything, despite their shouting and their clamor that they want an Islamic government, and perhaps they have spilled much innocent blood, and very much, without benefiting anything from it at all. We still hear from them beliefs that contradict the Book and the Sunnah, and they want to establish the state of Islam. And on this occasion, we say that there is a word by one of those callers that I wished his followers would adhere to and realize. That word is his saying: "Establish the state of Islam in your hearts, and it will be established for you on your land." Because if the Muslim corrects his belief based on the Book and the Sunnah, no doubt that behind that his worship will be corrected, his morals, his behavior, and so on. But this good word, in my critique and in my opinion, these people did not act upon it. So they kept shouting about establishing the Muslim state, and the saying of that poet is true of them: "You hope for salvation but have not taken its paths, for the ship does not run on the dry land." Perhaps what I have mentioned is sufficient as an answer to this question, and we benefit from our brothers Abu Malik and the others in strengthening the topic, if Allah wills, and increasing the knowledge and jurisprudence of the attendees. Oh Allah, Your mercy.