The Meaning of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) Saying: “He Who Does Such-and-Such Is Not One of Us”

Question:
Our brother asks and says: There are hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in which He says: “He who does such-and-such is not one of us” and “He who does such-and-such is not one of us.” Does the word “not” (laysa) expel a person from the religion? And if it does expel him from the religion, is he to remain in the Fire eternally—may Allah protect us from that? And how do you reconcile these hadiths with the hadiths of intercession which say: May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
These hadiths that contain “He is not one of us…” are, in the majority and most cases, from the category of warning, caution, and intimidation regarding the sins mentioned in them. They do not expel their doer from Islam if he does not consider them permissible, but they contain a warning, intimidation, and caution. For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith: meaning: in the case of a calamity. This is a warning, not disbelief.
And his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith: All of these are from the category of caution and intimidation against blameworthy character traits, and exhortation to noble character traits, and so on with what is similar to that.
The believer fears what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against and stays away from it. These sins diminish faith and weaken faith. An example of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): the hadith, meaning: complete, obligatory faith. It does not mean that it is disbelief: the thief is not a disbeliever, and the one who commits unlawful sexual intercourse is not a disbeliever if he does not consider it permissible, if he knows that it is a sin, but his desires and Satan lead him to be a sinner, his faith is weak and deficient, and he is exposed to the warning and in danger of entering the Fire.
And so with the drinker of intoxicants, unless he considers it permissible. If they say: “Unlawful sexual intercourse is lawful,” he commits major disbelief. And so if he says: “Drinking intoxicants is lawful,” he commits major disbelief. And so if he says: “Oppressing people and stealing from them is lawful,” it becomes major disbelief. And so if he says: “All of riba (usury or interest) in all its types is lawful, all types of riba are lawful,” it becomes major disbelief. But if he commits some riba and does not consider it permissible, he commits some riba; he is a sinner, he has committed a major sin, or he engaged in types of riba, but did not consider it permissible, rather he obeyed his desire and committed riba; this is a sin, his faith is weak, his faith is deficient, and he is exposed to the Fire—the warning of entering the Fire. And so with one who is undutiful to his parents, or cuts off his family ties, and does not consider this permissible, he has exposed himself to the warning, he is in danger of entering the Fire, and he is under the will of Allah .
The point is: that these expressions do not indicate major disbelief, but are from the category of warning: “He is not one of us… He is not one of us…” or “None of you is a believer…” and so on. Rather, it is known that it is major disbelief from other evidence.