Is it permissible to declare a specific person a disbeliever or an open sinner?
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The Shaykh : We declare him a disbeliever specifically, we declare him a disbeliever specifically, and we do not care, because if we did not issue a ruling on the specific individual, no one would remain a disbeliever, as I said. So, if we find a man who calls upon the dead, and we tell him, "This is shirk (associating partners with Allah), this is shirk and disbelief," and we bring the verses or hadiths, but he persists in what he was doing, we declare him a disbeliever specifically, or declare him to be in a state of shirk specifically. We have no authority to declare anyone a disbeliever, an open sinner, or one in a state of shirk except in accordance with the Book and the Sunnah. Just as we have no authority to prohibit or permit anything except by the Book and the Sunnah. Disbelief, Islam, faith, shirk, and sincerity—whom do they refer to? They refer to Allah and His Messenger, to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). It is not we who declare people disbelievers, or make them polytheists, or declare them open sinners; it is referred back to the Book and the Sunnah. So, if it is established in the Book and the Sunnah that this act is disbelief, or that this act is shirk, or that this act is open sinfulness, and then we establish the proof against its doer, at that point, what do we do? We declare him a disbeliever specifically.
And this statement I made is the middle position. It is not extreme like those, nor extreme like those. This is the middle position, and it is necessary, and this is what the evidence requires. For this reason, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) declared those who apostatized to be disbelievers and killed them, and they did not say, "The texts are general and we do not apply them to every specific person." No, if the proof is established. But the discussion is about the establishment of the proof. When the proof is established, it is obligatory to rule in accordance with the evidence regarding the specific person. Yes.
The reader: May Allah reward you with good.
And this statement I made is the middle position. It is not extreme like those, nor extreme like those. This is the middle position, and it is necessary, and this is what the evidence requires. For this reason, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) declared those who apostatized to be disbelievers and killed them, and they did not say, "The texts are general and we do not apply them to every specific person." No, if the proof is established. But the discussion is about the establishment of the proof. When the proof is established, it is obligatory to rule in accordance with the evidence regarding the specific person. Yes.
The reader: May Allah reward you with good.