Explanation of the Author's Statement: The Chapter on One Who Jokes with Something Involving the Mention of Allah, the Qur'an, or the Messenger
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The Shaykh : And so on, regarding anything involving the mention of Allah, the Qur'an, or the Messenger. The truth is that the title contains some ambiguity. "The Chapter on One Who Jokes with Something Involving the Mention of Allah, or Involving the Qur'an, or Involving the Messenger," or "One Who Jokes with Something, and with the Qur'an, and with the Messenger"? Which is it?
The student: The second.
The Shaykh : It appears to be the second option: one who jokes with something involving the mention of Allah, such as the Qur'an, for example. Or do we say the author mentioned the Qur'an? The author mentioned it. It involves the mention of Allah, such as the rulings of the Shari'ah, or the Qur'an, meaning, or one who jokes with the Qur'an or the Messenger, or one who jokes with the Messenger. The intended meaning of "the Messenger" here is the generic term, not the specific person. So the "al" here is for the generic sense, not for the definite article, meaning it is not intended to refer only to the Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), but to the genus of messengers. As for the Qur'an, it is clear that it refers to the speech of Allah revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
And his statement "one who jokes"—joking means to mock and to ridicule, to mock and to ridicule, and... to play, not in seriousness. The ruling, the author says, "The Chapter on One Who Jokes," meaning what is its ruling? Its ruling is that he becomes a disbeliever; he is a disbeliever by the consensus of the scholars. The one who mocks Allah, or mocks the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), or mocks the Qur'an, or mocks the Shari'ah, yes. And if you wish, say: one who jokes with Allah, or with His cosmic or legislative signs, or with His speech such as the Qur'an, or with His messengers. Whoever jokes with any of these becomes a disbeliever. This is because the contradiction between ridicule and faith is a great and major contradiction. How can one mock and ridicule a matter in which he believes and which is a great matter? Because the one who ridicules is sitting there laughing. How can we say that this man believes in Allah while he ridicules Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or believes in the Qur'an while he ridicules the Qur'an? The one who believes in something must hold it in high esteem and have in his heart a degree of reverence for it that befits it. As for mocking, this contradicts faith with a great contradiction. For this reason, the scholars have agreed that whoever mocks Allah, or His books, or His messengers becomes a disbeliever, even if he is joking. If he says, "I am just kidding," we say, "Well, joking contradicts faith. Joking contradicts faith completely." For this reason, they say that disbelief is of two types: disbelief of turning away and disbelief of opposition. The disbeliever who turns away turns away from the religion, but he does not ridicule it or harm it in any way. But the one who ridicules, his disbelief is disbelief of opposition, and may Allah protect us, because he mocks the religion and ridicules it, so he is greater, greater than one who merely prostrates to an idol. And this issue is very serious. And perhaps a word has caused its owner to fall into calamity and destruction, and he is not aware. A person may speak a word of the anger of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not giving it any thought, and thereby plunge into the Fire, a distant place. Therefore, one must be cautious in such matters. Whoever ridicules something of the Shari'ah, such as ridiculing, for example, prayer, or zakah, or Hajj, or fasting, or prayer, even if it is voluntary, becomes a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims. And likewise, whoever jokes with the cosmic signs and says, for example, that the existence of such and such is nonsense and foolishness, such as the existence of cold in the days of summer, or the existence of heat in the days of winter, this is foolishness. We say this, and may Allah protect us, is disbelief that expels one from the religion. Because the Lord (Mighty and Majestic), all His actions are wisdom. Nothing issues from Him, whether from matters of the Shari'ah or the divine decree, except for a great wisdom that we may not be able to, indeed we are not able to, reach. The conclusion now is that whoever jokes with Allah, or with His cosmic or legislative signs, or with His books, or with His messengers, is a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims, a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims. And his disbelief is greater than the disbelief of turning away, which turns away from the religion but does not confront it. He turns away from it and does not confront it. He turns away from it and does not confront it. Because this, and may Allah protect us, combines the two things: turning away from the religion and confronting it with cursing and abuse.
Then the scholars differed: is the repentance of one who curses Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or curses His Messenger, or curses His Book, accepted? They differed on this in two opinions. The first opinion is that his repentance is not accepted. This is the well-known view from the madhhab of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: that his repentance is not accepted, and that he is killed as a disbeliever, even if he returns, even if he says he has repented, even if he says he made a mistake, his repentance is not accepted. He must be killed as a disbeliever. He is killed and not prayed over, and no supplication for mercy is made for him, and he is buried in a place far from the graves of the Muslims, even if he repents. Because they say that this apostasy is a great and major matter, and repentance does not benefit in it. And some of the scholars said, rather, that he repents, rather, that his repentance is accepted if we know the truth of his repentance and his return to Allah, and he acknowledges his mistake and describes Allah the Exalted with the attributes of reverence He deserves, then we accept his repentance. Because the verses regarding the acceptance of repentance are general, and nothing is excluded from them, such as His saying (the Exalted):[Az-Zumar 39:53] And it is known that among the disbelievers are those who curse Allah, and yet their repentance is accepted. And this is the correct opinion, except that the repentance of one who curses the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is accepted, and he must be killed, unlike one who curses Allah, whose repentance is accepted and who is not killed. Yes, not because the right of Allah is less than the right of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but because the right of Allah is for Allah, and He has informed us that He forgives all sins. Whoever repents, Allah accepts his repentance. As long as Allah has informed us of His pardon for His right when the servant repents to Him, we do not kill him. We accept his repentance and say, "May Allah keep you firm on what you have returned to." As for one who curses the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), two matters are connected to him: a legislative matter because he is the Messenger of Allah, and a personal matter because he is from the children of Adam. The legislative matter, because he is the Messenger of Allah, is accepted, or is it not? It is accepted if he repents. So we say his repentance is accepted, but he must be killed for the right of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). He must be killed for the right of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And when we kill him, we wash him, shroud him, pray over him, and bury him with the Muslims. We kill him as a Muslim because we have accepted his repentance. And this opinion is the choice of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him). He wrote a book on this titled "The Drawn Sword: The Drawn Sword on the Necessity of Killing the One Who Curses the Messenger", and that it is necessary to kill him in all cases. If you say, "Has it not been established that some people cursed the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted it from them and released them?" The answer is that we say, yes, this is true, but when was this? During his lifetime, and he pardoned them. But after his death, we do not know. And we implement what we see as obligatory regarding this one who cursed the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Yes?
The questioner : ... the man who clung to the curtains of the Ka'bah ...
The Shaykh : Yes, yes, yes.
The questioner : ... the fact that we do not know whether he will be pardoned or not necessitates withholding judgment ...
The Shaykh : No, it is not ... withholding judgment, because the matter occurred through cursing. The matter now occurred through cursing, and the removal of the effect of this cursing is not known, and the original state is its continuation, or is it not? The original state is its continuation.
The questioner : But ... the common case is that they were pardoned.
The Shaykh : Yes, but it is necessary. We do not know about this thing now. And perhaps, even during the lifetime of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), if he pardoned, the benefit might remain, and there might be reconciliation in that. Just as he (peace and blessings be upon him) knew the specific identities of some of the hypocrites, and yet he did not kill them, he did not kill them. And he saidSahih al-Bukhari 4907 But we now, if we knew a specific person among the hypocrites, we would kill him. As Ibn al-Qayyim said: "The non-killing of the known hypocrite is only during the lifetime of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)" Yes.
The student: The second.
The Shaykh : It appears to be the second option: one who jokes with something involving the mention of Allah, such as the Qur'an, for example. Or do we say the author mentioned the Qur'an? The author mentioned it. It involves the mention of Allah, such as the rulings of the Shari'ah, or the Qur'an, meaning, or one who jokes with the Qur'an or the Messenger, or one who jokes with the Messenger. The intended meaning of "the Messenger" here is the generic term, not the specific person. So the "al" here is for the generic sense, not for the definite article, meaning it is not intended to refer only to the Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), but to the genus of messengers. As for the Qur'an, it is clear that it refers to the speech of Allah revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
And his statement "one who jokes"—joking means to mock and to ridicule, to mock and to ridicule, and... to play, not in seriousness. The ruling, the author says, "The Chapter on One Who Jokes," meaning what is its ruling? Its ruling is that he becomes a disbeliever; he is a disbeliever by the consensus of the scholars. The one who mocks Allah, or mocks the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), or mocks the Qur'an, or mocks the Shari'ah, yes. And if you wish, say: one who jokes with Allah, or with His cosmic or legislative signs, or with His speech such as the Qur'an, or with His messengers. Whoever jokes with any of these becomes a disbeliever. This is because the contradiction between ridicule and faith is a great and major contradiction. How can one mock and ridicule a matter in which he believes and which is a great matter? Because the one who ridicules is sitting there laughing. How can we say that this man believes in Allah while he ridicules Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or believes in the Qur'an while he ridicules the Qur'an? The one who believes in something must hold it in high esteem and have in his heart a degree of reverence for it that befits it. As for mocking, this contradicts faith with a great contradiction. For this reason, the scholars have agreed that whoever mocks Allah, or His books, or His messengers becomes a disbeliever, even if he is joking. If he says, "I am just kidding," we say, "Well, joking contradicts faith. Joking contradicts faith completely." For this reason, they say that disbelief is of two types: disbelief of turning away and disbelief of opposition. The disbeliever who turns away turns away from the religion, but he does not ridicule it or harm it in any way. But the one who ridicules, his disbelief is disbelief of opposition, and may Allah protect us, because he mocks the religion and ridicules it, so he is greater, greater than one who merely prostrates to an idol. And this issue is very serious. And perhaps a word has caused its owner to fall into calamity and destruction, and he is not aware. A person may speak a word of the anger of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not giving it any thought, and thereby plunge into the Fire, a distant place. Therefore, one must be cautious in such matters. Whoever ridicules something of the Shari'ah, such as ridiculing, for example, prayer, or zakah, or Hajj, or fasting, or prayer, even if it is voluntary, becomes a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims. And likewise, whoever jokes with the cosmic signs and says, for example, that the existence of such and such is nonsense and foolishness, such as the existence of cold in the days of summer, or the existence of heat in the days of winter, this is foolishness. We say this, and may Allah protect us, is disbelief that expels one from the religion. Because the Lord (Mighty and Majestic), all His actions are wisdom. Nothing issues from Him, whether from matters of the Shari'ah or the divine decree, except for a great wisdom that we may not be able to, indeed we are not able to, reach. The conclusion now is that whoever jokes with Allah, or with His cosmic or legislative signs, or with His books, or with His messengers, is a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims, a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims. And his disbelief is greater than the disbelief of turning away, which turns away from the religion but does not confront it. He turns away from it and does not confront it. He turns away from it and does not confront it. Because this, and may Allah protect us, combines the two things: turning away from the religion and confronting it with cursing and abuse.
Then the scholars differed: is the repentance of one who curses Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or curses His Messenger, or curses His Book, accepted? They differed on this in two opinions. The first opinion is that his repentance is not accepted. This is the well-known view from the madhhab of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: that his repentance is not accepted, and that he is killed as a disbeliever, even if he returns, even if he says he has repented, even if he says he made a mistake, his repentance is not accepted. He must be killed as a disbeliever. He is killed and not prayed over, and no supplication for mercy is made for him, and he is buried in a place far from the graves of the Muslims, even if he repents. Because they say that this apostasy is a great and major matter, and repentance does not benefit in it. And some of the scholars said, rather, that he repents, rather, that his repentance is accepted if we know the truth of his repentance and his return to Allah, and he acknowledges his mistake and describes Allah the Exalted with the attributes of reverence He deserves, then we accept his repentance. Because the verses regarding the acceptance of repentance are general, and nothing is excluded from them, such as His saying (the Exalted):
Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins
قل يا عبادي الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم لا تقنطوا من رحمة الله إن الله يغفر الذنوب جميعاThe questioner : ... the man who clung to the curtains of the Ka'bah ...
The Shaykh : Yes, yes, yes.
The questioner : ... the fact that we do not know whether he will be pardoned or not necessitates withholding judgment ...
The Shaykh : No, it is not ... withholding judgment, because the matter occurred through cursing. The matter now occurred through cursing, and the removal of the effect of this cursing is not known, and the original state is its continuation, or is it not? The original state is its continuation.
The questioner : But ... the common case is that they were pardoned.
The Shaykh : Yes, but it is necessary. We do not know about this thing now. And perhaps, even during the lifetime of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), if he pardoned, the benefit might remain, and there might be reconciliation in that. Just as he (peace and blessings be upon him) knew the specific identities of some of the hypocrites, and yet he did not kill them, he did not kill them. And he said