What is the validity of declaring disbelief upon one who says that the Qur'an is created?

The questioner : May Allah make it easy for us in this session, which Allah has made ... with the distinguished scholar, Shaykh Nasir al-Din al-Albani, before the following questions.

The Shaykh : Leave the traditions alone.

The questioner : Which are necessary.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : What is the validity of declaring disbelief upon one who says that the Qur'an is created?

The Shaykh : We believe in this issue, as in many other issues where some people, whether past or present, contradict the texts of the Book and the Sunnah and the understanding of the righteous Salaf, that it is not permissible to rush into declaring someone a disbeliever. This means expelling the person from the religion and obligating upon him the rulings that are the consequences of ruling upon him as an apostate. I believe that issuing this ruling is not permissible except after establishing the proof, because we all know, if Allah wills, that there are many sects that have contradicted the guidance of the Salaf in this issue, and in others as well. Yet the practice of the Muslims, including the people of the Sunnah and the people of the righteous Salaf, has been to not treat them as apostates from their religion. Rather, they initially, or at the beginning of the matter, would suffice with applying the term "misguidance" to such people. As for rushing to declare them disbelievers, this does not happen, as I mentioned earlier, except after establishing the proof. And those who establish the proof are from among the scholars of knowledge. Because we see in this time that many of our brothers, the students of knowledge, imagine that they have become among those who establish the proof and clarification simply because they have mastered some issues. They say, "We have established the proof against so-and-so, and we have established the proof against so-and-so," and then they follow up by applying the term "disbelief" to them. We know from the biography of our imams, the people of hadith and the Sunnah, that many of the narrators of hadith were deviant in a little or a lot of the Salafi creed. Yet they narrated from them, and what they narrated from them was only because, in the judgment of these imams, they were still within the circle of Islam, even if, as I said earlier, they ruled upon them as being misguided. Perhaps many of those present now know what is regrettable to us all: that the most widespread schools of thought, even today, regarding creed and what they call the science of theology, are the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah. From this, we also know that some of the early imams and those who followed them from these sects, or these two sects, the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah, some of their imams used to adopt such creeds. Yet they were not expelled from the circle of the religion. We know, for example, that Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (may Allah have mercy on him) adopted the school of the Mu'tazilah for a long period and many years. Yet, by explicit text, our imams did not rule upon this person, or the Mu'tazilah in general, as disbelievers or apostates. Rather, they sufficed with ruling upon their misguidance and deviation from the correct creed. Then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guided whom He willed from those Mu'tazilah to the path of the correct Sunnah. At the head of the list of these was Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, and his well-known book is the clearest example that he became upright after that long deviation. But, unfortunately, their followers continued on the school of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in many of his old issues. Among them, for example, is Imam al-Haramayn and others like him, who admitted that they adopted the saying, even if they did not explicitly state or clarify that the speech of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is created, because they used to interpret the divine speech as the mental speech. Yet all the Muslims continued to consider them among the scholars of the Muslims, not just among the Muslims. Then, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guided whom He willed from them, and they explicitly stated that they had been deviant from the straight path and the correct Sunnah. This imam and others mentioned that the reason for that was their good opinion of the imams they were following. From here, we say that it is not befitting to rush to declare misguided, let alone disbelievers, those who are afflicted with taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), whether this taqlid is in creeds or in rulings. And as we mentioned recently and in the past, many lands of the non-Arabs have not heard the call of the Sunnah to this day. Rather, they live on what they found their fathers and grandfathers upon. The proof is established against them only when it becomes possible for some scholars to convey the correct call to them, and for them to be in a position of strength in knowledge, establishing the proof, and also making them understand in their language which they understand. And unfortunately, this is very little in every time and in every place. Therefore, I say briefly what I clarified earlier: it is not correct to rush and hasten to declare disbelievers every scholar whose deviation from some Salafi ideas or creeds has reached us. And on this occasion, we say that a new growth has appeared now, which they have not encompassed, I do not say with knowledge, but with some of the scientific principles. So they have started to declare misguided, if not disbelievers, many of our scholars, the people of hadith and the people of the Sunnah as well, because it appears that they were still on something of taqlid to their fathers in some creeds. I specifically mean Imam al-Nawawi and Imam al-'Asqalani, and they are undoubtedly two great imams in legal and hadith knowledge, and the like of that which relates to the Islamic sciences. It is regrettable, without a doubt, that such imams remain on something of what they inherited from the creed of the later Asha'irah. It is not permissible for us to rush to declare these people disbelievers, nor even to declare them misguided, because we do not believe that the proof was established against them at that time. For this reason, I say in conclusion: it is necessary to be cautious in issuing rulings of takfir (declaring someone a disbeliever) upon these imams. Rather, we are scrupulous about issuing rulings of takfir upon some of the rulers who rule by other than what Allah has revealed, because two things have not become clear to us regarding them: The first thing is that they knew the ruling of Allah as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revealed it. This is first. And secondly, that they denied it with their hearts and tongues. For this, we suffice with ruling upon their misguidance and deviation from the Shari'ah. As for applying the term "disbelief," which entails apostasy and exiting the religion, we do not issue this upon these people, let alone upon others among the scholars of knowledge whom we referred to, due to the lack of clarity that the proof was established against them, as far as we are concerned. This is my answer to what you asked.