The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-4.

So, the fourth, and this one will be a little bit shorter. The fourth thing that is mentioned here is making Takfir or declaring to be non-Muslim, the people who leave Tawhid. So, just the first, you know something to talk about before getting into this topic, is the idea of or the phrase here used is Takfir, and this is something which people probably hear very often and it creates something in their heart, or they feel uncomfortable when they hear it.

This is a product of many factors that have come about and things that have gone on in the Ummah in the last 60 years, and the way that this phrase is used by certain groups to scare people away from certain aspects of Tawhid, because in and of itself, what does Takfir mean? It means saying someone isn't a Muslim, that’s all takfir means. So, from this, we can see that it's not a good word nor it's a bad word.

If someone comes up and says “I'm Jewish”, then you say he's not a Muslim, that's Takfir. No one would say you’re crazy to say that, everyone would accept that. If you see a priest and he’s not Muslim, this is takfir. So, in and of itself this word isn’t something good and it’s not something bad, it’s just the calling someone non-Muslim.

At the same time, if someone walks in here and sees a row of Muslimin praying and he says these people are all kuffar, this is also takfir. No one would say that, that’s something acceptable either, calling a Muslim, who’s confirmed as being Muslim, calling him a Kafir, it’s a sinful thing and it’s a very grave matter to do. At the same time, not calling Kuffar, Kuffar is also something that's a very grave thing. So, if you see a Kafir and you say it’s okay we can call him a Muslim, or he’ll enter Jannah. So, on the other side, there’s just as dangerous things that come from the opposite aspect of this issue of Takfir.

Just be careful when you hear that word that it's not being used in a way that's just a means to scare you away from certain aspects of Tawhid. Obviously, if someone doesn’t do anything which takes them out of Islam, we can’t call him a Kafir, and it would be haram upon us to do that, and we have to give him his rights of Islam and all this. But at the same time, you’ll find people who say if you call a Jew or Christian or someone who’s Druzi or someone who’s a Rafidi and you say this guy’s not Muslim, they’ll freak out and say he’s making Takfir. But what else am I going to do, I’m not going to call him a Muslim because he’s obviously not a Muslim, he’s worshipping ‘Ali, he’s making Tawaf on graves and he doesn’t even call himself a Muslim to begin with, how am I not going to call him a Kafir or how am I going to call him a Muslim. 

So, don’t let that fear that people will try to use that word to push you away from aspects of Tawhid, but also don’t fall into the other side of taking people who are Muslim, out of Islam. So, insha’Allah by learning what is actually Islam and what is actually Kufr and Shirk, this is the best defense from falling into these aspects.

So, you don't let your emotions take over, you look what does the Qur’an and Sunnah say, these are Muslims, I’ll obviously give them the rights of Islam and treat them as Muslimin and these aren’t Muslims, I’m not going to call them Muslimin, and I’m going to call them what they are, which is disbelievers. So, the best defense isn’t to let your emotions take over, or your fear, or zeal to follow Islam that it starts making you call people who are maybe sinners to leave Islam.

So, insha’Allah that’s just kind of an introduction or some points I wanted to mention before because there is this tendency when that word is mentioned, everyone starts to run away but insha’Allah you’ll see that it shouldn’t be looked at that way. 

Allah says:
“Say: O you disbelievers...” [109:1]

Allah told the Prophet (saws) to say ‘O you disbelievers’. So, Allah told the Prophet (saws)  to call them disbelievers, and they were Quraysh. Calling someone a non-Muslim isn’t a problem as long as they’re a non-Muslim. If they’re a Muslim, it's an issue.

Allah says:
“And they set up rivals to Allah in their worship, in order to mislead others from His Path, say: ‘take pleasure in your Kufr for a while, surely you are the companions of the Fire.’” [39:8]

Here we see that Allah declared non-Muslims to be non-Muslims or Kuffar and He declared acts of Kufr to be acts of Kufr, so there's no danger in calling something what it is, if something is this, there’s no problem in calling the thing that, all you’re doing is stating something that’s part of reality.

Allah said: “Say: O you disbelievers”, Allah told us to address them in that way. This is something I actually heard people say and I saw someone get in an argument one time with someone that he said something about some people, and he said they’re kuffar, and this guy freaked out, he said you can’t call them kuffar and he said well they’re not Muslim, and he said “they’re not Muslim, but there’s a difference between saying you’re not Muslim and saying you’re a Kafir”, and you think where are you getting this stuff.

There’s only two options, you're either a Muslim or a Kafir, there’s no third. Even Munafiqin, technically they’re kuffar, and fussaq, technically they’re Muslim, so all these other categories fall under these two categories.

If something is an act of Kuffar, we should call it an act of Kufr, we shouldn’t dance around the issue and say maybe it’s not like that or what do you say that, if it’s Kufr it’s Kufr, people need to know that. If someone’s not Muslim, last week we talked about this idea about bringing together the Abrahamic faiths, and we talked a little bit about Ibrahim was the first one to call us Muslims, and now we’re trying to bring people who he argued against or he argued against their concepts of Shirk, and now we’re trying to bring them and say we’re all from the same person, so we’re all good.

Like, this idea that, they’re Jews and they believe in Ibrahim in their own way, which is not the correct belief because if it was they would’ve entered Islam, same thing with the Christians, then by not openly saying this stuff, we’re not doing us ourselves any good, because we’re not openly declaring our Islam, and we’re not openly declaring something that’s wrong to be wrong, and we’re also not doing them any favours either. If we’re really concerned about making Da’wah to people, why are we telling them, we’re all from the same thing and it’s all good, we’ll have meetings together, then they’re going to say, “If we’re so alike, why would we change then, why don’t you come to us then or why don’t we stay how we are because the state that we’re in now really isn’t that big of a deal.”

So, we’re not even doing them any favours, so this idea that it’s for da’wah, it’s not for da’wah at all, if it was for da’wah, you don’t go to someone and say you want them to stop doing something, so you tell them that it’s good, no-one would ever say that. You want your kid to stop doing something, you don’t go good job keep doing that, you say don’t do that, this is wrong to do, stop doing it. Same thing with da’wah, you say we’re Muslimin, we believe you’re on batil and here’s why, and depending on who it is, you would go to them in a different manner. If it’s someone who’s very academic, you might deal with them in an academic way.

In the end, the idea that not bringing up anything, it’s going to make them mad then they’re going to runaway, so in the end they still didn’t enter Islam. You clarify what’s correct in the religion but point out the wrong too, what’s the point of just saying “We believe God created earth too”, and in the end what did you do for them.

These are the types of things we’ll get into more when we talk about specific acts, but these are some of the ridiculous things you might see and hear through your daily life when you deal with Muslims in the masajid, especially ones who for whatever reasons are trying to do good and have good intentions, but they really just don’t have knowledge behind what they’re doing, so they’re trying to do good, and may Allah guide them towards the right way to do this good, but they haven’t really come up with enough knowledge with what they’re doing. So, they’re kind of doing themselves a mis-service and everyone else who they’re trying to help.

The last thing just on this point, the last Verse is that, we can say that Allah said:

“And what is after the truth, except falsehood.” [10:32]

So, we know that anything that’s not the truth is falsehood, so Allah defined things, they’re either true or they’re false. So, if we want to say that something isn’t wrong, then we’re saying it’s the truth. If there’s only two categories and you’re saying it’s not from this category, then you’re putting them in the other category, and there’s no getting away from that. So, we can understand from this that there's either Muslim or there’s a Non-Muslim; there’s nothing in between, there’s either truth or falsehood, or there’s either Haqq or Batil. So, there’s no third category, so this idea that we won’t say that he’s a Muslim, but we won’t also call him a kafir, we’ll say he’s not Muslim. You’re putting him into one of these categories either way.

Someone might say yes we don’t say that they’re right but what is the point in saying they're not Muslim, what do we get out of that?

Sure, if I say that if someone worships ‘Ali, or they worship one of the Imams of the Rafidah, or he says that there’s a Prophet after the Prophet (saws), or he says there’s a book after the Qur’an, if he does any of these things, yes it’s Kufr, but what is the point of me calling him a Kafir.  What do I get out of that. Or I say that the actions kufr, but him I’m not going to talk about him, I’m not going to say anything about him and it’s just left up to Allah.

This is an issue that has been talked about from the time of the Salaf, and what they call this issue is ‘not declaring someone who's clearly a disbeliever to be a disbeliever, makes that person a disbeliever.’. So, what does this mean?

If someone walks in here now, and he does something that’s clear Kufr, like we talked about last week, he puts a statue in front of the rows so everyone’s going to worship it, or he stands up and he swears at Allah, and throws the Qur’an on the ground, any of these types of things. If someone came now and said this is an act of Kufr, but I’m not going to call him a Kafir, that’s not allowed and I can’t say anything like that.

The scholars from the time of Salaf, would say that, if you won't call him a Kafir, then you yourself are a Kafir. And what they mean by that is because this person has done something and they’ve left Islam, if you’re not going to declare that he’s actually left Islam, and you’re going to continue to call him a Muslim, then you’re saying that someone can be a Muslim and still do these acts.

So, this is what they mean by it, so essentially, you’re rejecting part of the Qur’an is what they say, because if Allah said to be a Muslim you need to do this, or the Prophet (saws) made something obligatory upon you to be Muslim, and someone won’t do that, and you’ll say he’s still a Muslim. You’re saying I’m not accepting this verse, or I’m not accepting this hadith.

This is part of our Din, knowing what’s truth and falsehood, telling people what’s truth and what’s falsehood, telling people if they’re on the truth or not, when we know that they’re not on the truth, declaring something “you’re no longer a Muslim”, telling that to them so they know, telling that to them so other people see that I can’t act like this and still be a Muslim.

All these things, this is the reason why. If anyone walked in and did whatever they want, and no one ever said anything. Just imagine some guy now, he put a statue, this is a very clear example, and nobody ever said anything and they said he’s still a Muslim, or some other guy walked in and said I guess you can still do these stuff and still be Muslim, and there’s no problem with it.

The point of it is to show those people what they are, hopefully that they’ll turn away from it, show other people what they are so they don’t fall into it, and even in the end to keep your Islam clear to yourself that this is something we reject and something that we’ll never accept as Muslimin. So, those are the benefits of it.

This is a matter that there’s a consensus upon, and we talked with those who were in the Fiqh lesson, Ijma’ as we know is a hujjah, so if the Ummah or the scholars of the Ummah agrees on something, then we know that it’s something that’s correct, and we know that it’s a Hujjah, and we know that it has to be followed. So, this idea that taking something, or finding someone who’s not Muslim and saying he’s not Muslim, that that’s obligatory on us and to clarify, if someone is known to us to be not Muslim, we can’t call him Muslim and the opposite as well, this is a matter where there’s a consensus upon.

This rule is from the time of the Salaf, one of the quotes that we can mention is al-Qadi Iyadh who was from the major scholars of the Maliki madhab, that he talked about some issues that there’s Ijma’ that it’s Kufr, so worshipping someone other than Allah, and so on, he talked about some of these issues and he said, “And due to this, we declare to be a Kafir anyone who follows a religion other than the Millah of the Muslimin, or he withholds regarding them, meaning he won’t declare people who don’t follow Islam, he won’t call them Kuffar, or he doubts about it, or he declares their Madhab to be correct.”

So, we see here that he considers that, if you say that their Madhab or their Din is correct, or if you doubt whether it’s correct or not, or if you just withhold calling it wrong, that these are all the same. And he said, “Even if he openly declares Islam and believes in it”. So, if he prays, and pays Zakat, and he says La ilaha ila Allah, and he actually believes in it, even saying these things, if you believe in Islam, and you show Islam, and practice it but you say Christianity is correct, or you won’t say that it’s wrong, then he says, “this person is a Kafir, due to what he displays that contradicts it.”

So, he showed something that contradicts Islam, which means that Islam from the condition, of correct Islam or if you know what Islam is correctly, then you’ll say that everything other than Islam is Batil. So, when you say, yes I believe in Islam and follow it, but I’m not going to call the other thing Batil, then they say that you’ve done something that clearly contradicts what you said, and you’re not Muslim. And this is a matter of Ijma’.

Sulayman ibn ‘Abdillah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhab, he said: “If he doubts the Kufr or their kufr, or he’s ignorant of it, you clarify it to him the evidence from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger (saws) concerning their Kufr, then if he doubts after that or he hesitates, then he is a disbeliever or a Kafir according to the consensus or the Ijma’ of the ‘Ulama, that whoever doubts the Kufr of the Kuffar, he himself is a Kafir.”

So, if someone doubts that the Christians are kuffar, then this person himself with a doubt, he’s also a disbeliever, and what does that go back to? If you know Islam is correct, and you know that Christianity contradicts Islam, from its basis with Shirk and rejection of the Prophet (saws) and all of the other aspects of Kufr of it, but then you won’t call it Kufr, or you say I’m not sure if it’s wrong or not, or whether this is Kufr or not, this shows that you weren’t sure of Islam, meaning there’s something missing there which means that you’re not Muslim. So, this is the point he’s saying, and we see here that he mentioned that this is a matter of consensus, or a matter of Ijma’.

Some people may say that this is something that people nowadays say, or this is only from the time of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab or they’ll say it was only from the time of Ibn Taymiyyah. So, some of them will go this far back and say these things. But we see that even Muhammad ibn Sahnun who was from the major Imams of the Malikiyah, and he died in the beginning of the 3rd century, so this was very very early on, he mentioned that there’s Ijma’ that whoever says that the Qur’an is created, or whoever says that one of the Attributes of Allah is a creation, then he is a disbeliever, and whoever doubts in his disbelief, he’s also a disbeliever.

The point is not about the creation of the Qur’an, we’ll get into that, but the point is that even on this issue which wasn’t well known to everyone until later on, the Scholars as far back as the beginning of the 3rd century and even earlier than this, held this rule to be correct, that if someone is clearly non-Muslim then you need to say that he’s non-Muslim, you can’t beat around the bush, you can’t say he’s Muslim. This is something from Islam, and this Ijma’, or this is consensus was also mentioned by Abu Husayn al-Malati ash-Shafi’i, and he died at the end of the 4th century. So, this was also another person who mentioned the consensus.

So, we have Muhammad ibn Sahnun from the Malikis, we have Sulayman ibn ‘Abdillah who was a Hanbali, and he was from the later scholars, and we have al-Malati who was from the Shafi’I scholars, all these people mentioning the consensus, and Ibn Taymiyyah also mentioned this a lot in one of his books, which talks about the ruling on somebody who swears on the Prophet (saws), he talked about the issues a lot, aspects of Iman and Kufr, he also mentioned that there’s a consensus on this as well.

Sharh Risālah Aslu Dīn Al-Islām wa Qā’idatuhu (The Foundation of Islam and its Principle) - By Shaykh Haytham Sayfaddeen

TO BE CONTINUED INSHA'ALLAH...

TO READ OTHER PARTS, CLICK:

• The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-1
• The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-2
• The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-3
• The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-5
• The Foundation of Islam & its Principle, PART-6 (LAST)