He says in his letter, addressed to the Shaykh who answers this question: I hope you will answer my following question, which is that I sit with people from Yemen, and I am also a Yemeni, and I live with them, eat with them, drink with them, marry into their families, and they marry into mine.
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The questioner : From Yemen, from the Ibb district, this letter reached us from the presenter Muhammad Ahmad Ali al-Ju'ami. He says in his letter, addressed to the Shaykh who answers this question: I hope you will answer my following question, which is that I sit with people from Yemen, and I am also a Yemeni, and I live with them, eat with them, drink with them, marry into their families, and they marry into mine. Is that permissible for me, given that they do not pray and they smoke, knowing that I am forced to live with them because I am a resident abroad? I ask for your guidance on what I should do. May Allah grant you abundant reward and good?
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that one who does not pray is an apostate from Islam and a disbeliever. It is obligatory for the authorities to call him to Islam and prayer. If he does so, that is what is required. If he does not, he must be killed. And if abandoning prayer is apostasy, then it is one of the greatest of wrongs.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Living with them means approving them in one of the greatest of wrongs. It is not permissible for a person to live with someone who persists in a wrong, especially this great wrong, which is exiting and apostasy from Islam. The fact that he is forced to live with them is negated by the fact that he can live in any place, even a tent in the desert, and not live with these people in this great wrong. For Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says:[An-Nisa 4:140] Meaning, if you sit with them in this wrong, then you are like them. Therefore, he must look for a place to live that is far from living with these people. Yes.
The questioner : But such people may not fall under this verse, because they did not, for example, engage in the verses of Allah in a way that contradicts the intent of Allah, Mighty and Majestic; rather, they abandoned worship.
The Shaykh : Yes,.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : And this is disbelief in the verses of Allah. So as long as it is disbelief, and I know that they do not pray.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : That means I lived with them while they were in this wrong.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : There is no doubt that one who does not pray is an apostate from Islam and a disbeliever. It is obligatory for the authorities to call him to Islam and prayer. If he does so, that is what is required. If he does not, he must be killed. And if abandoning prayer is apostasy, then it is one of the greatest of wrongs.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Living with them means approving them in one of the greatest of wrongs. It is not permissible for a person to live with someone who persists in a wrong, especially this great wrong, which is exiting and apostasy from Islam. The fact that he is forced to live with them is negated by the fact that he can live in any place, even a tent in the desert, and not live with these people in this great wrong. For Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says:
And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them
وقد نزّل عليكم في الكتاب أن إذا سمعتم ءايات الله يُكفر بها ويُستهزئ بها فلا تقعدوا معهم حتى يخوضوا في حديث غيره إنكم إذا مثلهمThe questioner : But such people may not fall under this verse, because they did not, for example, engage in the verses of Allah in a way that contradicts the intent of Allah, Mighty and Majestic; rather, they abandoned worship.
The Shaykh : Yes,
disbelieved in and mocked at
يُكفر بها ويُستهزئThe questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh :
disbelieved in
يكفر بهاThe questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : That means I lived with them while they were in this wrong.
The questioner : Yes.