The Creed of the People of the Sunnah and the Community Regarding the Committers of Major Sins

Question:
This is the first question received from the listener Haytham al-Muhtaar from Damascus, Syria. He says: Allah the Exalted said: [An-Nisa: 93] And He said regarding riba (usury or interest): [Al-Baqarah: 275] He says: In this is evidence for the eternal abode of the killer in the Fire if he does not repent, and likewise the eternal abode of the one who consumes riba if he does not repent. And the saying of Allah the Exalted: It is noted that He did not say: "And He forgives everything else," but rather He said: [An-Nisa: 48] And this means: It is possible that there are major sins that can reach in their danger the degree of shirk. For example: abandoning prayer, and likewise consuming riba and killing the believing soul, due to the arrival of evidence for the eternal abode in the Fire of the one who commits these sins. Then, there are major sins that come in the second degree after these; among them are:
Undutifulness to parents, false testimony, and consuming the orphan's wealth. And in the third degree are drinking intoxicants and gambling, and zina (unlawful sexual intercourse). So the major sins of the second and third degrees do not reach the degree of the greatest major sins which are not less than shirk, but rather they equal it.
Then we have a question about the killer of the believing soul: what are the conditions for his eternal abode in the Fire? And we also have a question about insulting the religion and the Lord: is it from the nullifiers of Islam, or is it practical kufr (disbelief)? And likewise, swearing by other than Allah? So what is your opinion regarding these observations sent by this listener?

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace be upon His servant and messenger, and His choice from His creation, our Prophet, our Imam, and our Master Muhammad ibn Abdullah, and upon his family and his Companions, and whoever follows his path and is guided by his guidance until the Day of Judgment. As for what follows:
Indeed, Allah has clarified in His great Book the ruling of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and the ruling of what is less than it. So He, the Exalted, clarified that shirk is not forgiven, and that He forgives what is less than it for whom He wills. So it is known thereby that all sins less than shirk are under the will of Allah. Included in this is killing the soul without right, and included in this is consuming riba, undutifulness to parents, false testimony, drinking intoxicants, and other of the rest of the sins, such as gambling, severing family ties, and all the rest of the sins are under the will.
As for distinguishing between them and some of them, this is at the degree of shirk and this is less than that; there is no evidence for this, and it is contrary to the saying of the People of the Sunnah and the Community. For the People of the Sunnah and the Community are the followers of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who followed their path, and they are all in agreement that all sins less than shirk, and that their owners, if they die upon them without repenting, are under the will of Allah. If our Lord wills, He forgives them and pardons them, and if He wills, He puts them in the Fire and punishes them therein according to the measure of their crimes. As came regarding the killer: [Al-Baqarah: 275] And regarding the one who consumes riba: [Al-Baqarah: 275] And regarding the killer: [An-Nisa: 93] And there came regarding other major sins various types of warnings.
So all this warning does not take them out of being under the will; because Allah may pardon and not carry out His warning, and breaking a warning is from the attributes of perfection, unlike breaking a promise. So Allah does not break His promise , meaning: His promise of good. But breaking His warning, this is from the noble morals if He pardons. The one of noble morals among the children of Adam, how much more so Allah who is the most generous of the generous, and the most merciful of the merciful? So if He, the Exalted, pardons, then He has the favor, and He has the generosity and the nobility . And the poet says:
And I, even if I warn you or promise you
I am the breaker of my warning and the fulfiller of my promise
So fulfilling the promise is what one is praised and commended for, and breaking the warning out of pardon and favor is what one is praised for. So Allah has clarified that shirk is not forgiven except for the one who repents from it.
And as for what is less than that, it is under His will . And this is the saying of the People of the Sunnah and the Community from the followers of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who came after them on their good path, contrary to the Khawarij, and contrary to the Mu'tazilah. For the Khawarij declared people disbelievers for sins and major sins, and took them out of Islam thereby. And likewise the Mu'tazilah took them out of Islam, and made them a station between the two stations, and they agreed with the Khawarij in their eternal abode in the Fire. And this is false, contrary to the mass-transmitted texts from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as it is also contrary to the text of the Qur'an in the saying of the Exalted: [An-Nisa: 48].
And the reports have been mass-transmitted from the Messenger of Allah -may the prayers and peace be upon him-: And this is general for all the people of sins.
As for shirk, no; for this reason the scholars said: The eternal abode is of two types:
Eternal abode that is permanent: and this is the eternal abode of the disbelievers. So this is a permanent eternal abode from which they do not come out of the Fire ever, as He, the Exalted, said regarding them: [Al-Baqarah: 167] And He said regarding the disbelievers also: [Al-Ma'idah: 37] This is the state of the disbelievers.
As for the second eternal abode: it is the eternal abode of some of the people of sins, as came regarding the killer, and regarding the fornicator in His saying -Exalted and Majestic is He-: [Al-Furqan: 69] So He combined shirk, killing, and zina.
So the eternal abode for the one who commits shirk is a permanent eternal abode, and the eternal abode for the killer, the fornicator, the one who consumes riba, and the like of them is a temporary eternal abode. The Arabs use the term "eternal abode" for a long stay, such as their saying: "They stayed and became eternal," meaning: they lengthened the stay and extended it. So this is the truth according to the People of the Sunnah and the Community. The killer, if he did not consider killing permissible. But if he considered killing permissible and saw that the blood of the Muslims is lawful, this is kufr (disbelief) and apostasy from Islam. And likewise the one who considers zina permissible, or considers intoxicants permissible, and the proof has been established against him, so this one becomes a disbeliever who has apostatized from Islam. And likewise the one who considers riba permissible after the proof has been established against him becomes a disbeliever.
As for the one who abandons prayer, this is above the major sins. This is shirk according to the people of truth, according to the most precise of the people of knowledge: that abandoning prayer is an independent major kufr, not of the kind of major sins that are less than shirk. For this reason he -may the prayers and peace be upon him- said: Narrated by the people of the Sunan and Ahmad with a sound chain, and Muslim narrated in the Sahih from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: So this indicates that it is major kufr.
And Abdullah ibn Shaqiq al-'Uqayli, the noble Tabi'i, said: "The Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not consider any of the deeds whose abandonment is kufr except prayer." So this indicates that abandoning prayer intentionally is major kufr, we seek refuge in Allah. And if he was negligent but did not deny its obligation, but if he denied its obligation, he became a disbeliever by consensus, there is no disagreement in that. And the disagreement is only if he abandoned it out of negligence, not denial of its obligation. So this is the place of disagreement.
And the stronger of the two sayings of the scholars and the most correct of them: that it is major kufr. As for insulting the religion and insulting the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and insulting the Qur'an, this is apostasy from the nullifiers of Islam according to the people of knowledge by consensus. Insulting the religion, insulting Islam, insulting the Lord , insulting the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), insulting the Qur'an, and criticizing it, this is major apostasy, and major kufr, and from the nullifiers of Islam by the consensus of the people of knowledge.
And by this the questioner knows and the listener knows the distinction between the major sins and shirk. So the major sins according to the People of the Sunnah are from among the sins, and their owner does not have a complete eternal abode in the Fire, a permanent eternal abode. But rather some of them may have a special eternal abode, which is the long stay in the Fire, we seek refuge in Allah. But it must have an end, and Allah takes him out of the Fire to Paradise, after his purification and cleansing from the sins he died upon without repenting.
And as for the eternal abode of the disbelievers, the worshippers of idols, the worshippers of statues, the deniers of what Allah has made obligatory, or what Allah has forbidden, the critics of Islam, the insulters of Allah and His Messenger, all types of disbelievers, major kufr. Their eternal abode is permanent, lasting forever according to the People of the Sunnah and the Community, they do not come out of it ever. But rather their punishment therein is established, as He, the Exalted, said: [Al-Isra: 97] And He said : [An-Naba: 30], [Al-Baqarah: 167].
As for the people of sins, they have a limit to which they will reach, even if it is long, and it is called eternal abode, but they must be taken out of the Fire, by the grace of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) . Among those regarding whom eternal abode is mentioned are those previously cited: the one who kills a soul, the fornicator, and the one who kills himself. Eternal abode was mentioned regarding them, but it is a temporary eternal abode with an end, unlike the eternal abode of the disbelievers. This should be known, and the believer should be alert to it and alert others to it, so that he does not fall into the belief of the Khawarij and the Mu'tazilah without realizing it, for their belief is defective according to the people of the Sunnah, whether they say by declaring someone a disbeliever, or say by eternal abode in the Fire without declaring them disbelievers as the Mu'tazilah say. Both are false statements. The sinner is not a disbeliever if he does not consider the sin permissible, and he is not eternally abiding in the Fire according to the people of the Sunnah and the community.
As for the statement of the Khawarij, it is false, and likewise the statement of the Mu'tazilah is false; because it contradicts the texts and the scholarly consensus of the people of the Sunnah and the community. And Allah is the One to be sought for help. Yes.

The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.