Is it permissible to pray behind the Ibadis?

The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the Ibadis, is it permissible to pray behind them? And what is the position of the people of the Sunnah toward the Ibadis? I also ask for detail on this issue, and regarding the Asha'irah after that?

The Shaykh : I ask our brothers that if their question contains many questions, they should separate one question from another, because they have burdened me, and I am an old shaykh as you see me, to memorize the question from its beginning to its end: a first part, a second, a third, and so on. Your question now contains two questions or more. So what is your first question?

The questioner : Is it permissible to pray behind the Ibadis?

The Shaykh : The answer is that everyone who testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and prays our prayer, and faces our qiblah, and eats our slaughtered meat, and slaughters our animals, is a Muslim, as came in the hadith in *al-Bukhari* except if he denies a matter known from the religion by necessity. The Ibadis are a sect among the misguided Islamic sects, but it is not permissible to rule that any misguided Islamic sect is a disbeliever, first of all, in this absolute manner that includes the Shi'ah and the Ibadis, and they are a group of the Khawarij and the Murji'ah and the like, and the Mu'tazilah. This absolute ruling is not permissible. This is first. Second, it is not permissible to declare a specific person a disbeliever, a fortiori, and this is the crux of the answer now: he is praying for people as an imam. So if he is from the misguided sects, except if we hear from him, first, we hear from him something that makes him a disbeliever, and second, the proof is established against him. If these two conditions are met, it is not permissible to pray behind these imams, whether they are Ibadis or Shi'ah or the like. No blame on the common Muslims. The common Muslims, if we wanted to expand the circle of declaring people disbelievers, as it appears to some extremists among the people of the Sunnah, we would declare the people of the Sunnah disbelievers, meaning the common people of the Sunnah. Why? Because regarding the previous question, many of them believe that Allah the Exalted has the attribute of rising above the Throne and not only this, but they explicitly say that Allah is present in every place. The meaning of this statement, and they knew that they were supporting the Sufis, indeed supporting the extremists of the Sufis who say that Allah the Exalted, the Creator and the created, are one thing. And their leader gave an example for that and said:
The Shaykh : "And Allah in the likeness is like ice in which is water." Can one separate the water from the ice? No, not so. Allah, in their view, is a "mixture," in the Syrian expression, Allah and creation are one thing, while Allah the Exalted is free from the worlds. The point is, and I do not want to delve too much, if we wanted to open the door of declaring people disbelievers merely for being misguided, we would declare the common people of the Sunnah disbelievers. Why? Because the common people say this, and you are sitting in a gathering and one of them says, "Allah is present in every existence," meaning present in the caves, the sewers, the drains, the mouths of dogs and pigs, and so on. Who says this? These Muslims, due to their ignorance and heedlessness of their religion. Do we declare them disbelievers? No. So it is not permissible, first, to declare a group disbelievers, and second, to declare an individual a disbeliever, except with two conditions. The first condition is that we understand that he believes a belief that he himself holds; we do not hold him accountable for what his people, his party, or his school hold. We do not hear from him a word of misguidance that is disbelief itself, as we said earlier regarding the common people of the Sunnah: "Allah is present in every place." This is misguidance beyond misguidance. We do not declare them disbelievers except when we hear from one of them such disbelief, and then we establish the proof against him. Otherwise, always, when we are asked, "What is your opinion on praying behind the Sufis?" we say it is permissible to pray behind the Sufis with the previous condition: he testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and just as we are, they are, but there is a deviation in them. I know that there is this deviation in them, but as a group, but as individuals, every person is held accountable for what he believes, first, and then he is not declared a disbeliever except after the proof is established, second. In summary, the answer to question number one: it is permissible to pray behind the Ibadis, except if they deny a matter known from the religion by necessity and the proof is established against them. Give us the second question.

The questioner : The position of the people of the Sunnah toward them.

The Shaykh : This is the position of the people of the Sunnah; you have already known it!