Answer:
Praise be to Allah.
The Sahabah,
Tabi’een and the Ahl al-Sunnah who came after them were unanimously
agreed that whoever says or does something which is blatantly Kufr is a
Kafir, without any need to show that he believes it to be permissible.
The scholars agreed that kufr may take the form of denying, disbelieving or turning away.
This may be a
verbal action, such as insulting Allah or His Messenger (salallahu
alayhi wasallam),or mocking the religion and its rulings; or it may be a
physical action, such as prostrating to idols, circumambulating graves,
or offering sacrifices to the jinn and idols.
Or it may be
an act of omission, such as not doing a certain kind of action at all.
Ishaq ibn Taahawayh and others narrated that the Sahabah were agreed
that the one who does not pray deliberately is a Kafir. It was narrated
in Sahih Muslim via Ibn Jurayj from Abu’l-Zubayr al-Makki from Jabir
that the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wasallam) sai: {“Between a man and shirk or al-kufr there stands his neglecting the prayer.”}
The use of
the definite article al- here indicates that Major Kufr (al-Kufr
al-Akbar) is being referred to. But there are some differences among the
Imams of the Madhahib concerning the Kufr of one who does not pray.
Some said that he does not become a Kafir in a complete sense so long as
he does not deny that prayer is obligatory.
Others said that he is guilty of Major Kufr, because there was consensus among the Sahabah on that point, although there were differences as to the point at which he becomes guilty of Kufr by not praying. Some said that he is a Kafir is he neglects to pray one prayer until the time for it is over; others said that he is not a Kafir unless he neglects prayer completely.
To sum up,
Ahl al-Sunnah do not regard a person as a Kafir for general sins or for
every sin, as the Khawarij and Mu’tazilah said when they denounced
people as kaafirs for major sins. They regarded as sins some things that
are not sins, and applied the rulings of kufr in such cases. Sometimes
they would condemn people for the apparent meaning of their words (i.e.,
they were too quick to judge). This is what many of the later Khawarij
and Mu’tazilah do, because when judging people they do not differentiate
between the action and the person, or between one issue and another.
They may denounce as a Kafir anyone who does not agree with them in
these deviations. They were described by the Messenger of Allah
(salallahu alayhi wasallam): {“They kill the people of Islam and leave alone the people who worship idols.”} (Narrated by al-Bukhaari and Muslim from the hadeeth of Abu Sa’eed).
The Ahl
al-Sunnah tread a middle path between the Khawarij and the Murji’ah.
They do not denounce those who commit major sins as Kuffar, so long as
they do not believe their actions to be permissible. Neither do they
agree with the view of the Murji’ah, that sin does not undermine a
person’s faith at all, and that no one can be denounced as a Kafir
unless he is known to believe that his action is permitted. This is
false according to the Qur’an, Sunnah and scholarly consensus (ijmaa’).
So anyone who insults Allaah or His Messenger (salallahu alayhi
wasallam) is a Kafir, with no need to show that he believes his action
to be permissible. Scholarly consensus on this point was narrated by
more than one scholar. Ishaq ibn Raahawayh said that the scholars were
unanimously agreed that whoever insults Allaah, may He be glorified, or
slanders His Messenger (salallahu alayhi wasallam), or rejects anything
that Allah has revealed, or kills one of the Prophets of Allah – even if
he believes in that which Allah has revealed – is a Kafir.
And Allah knows best.
Fatwa by Muslim Aseer, Shaykh Sulaymaan bin Naasir Al-‘Alwaan (may Allah hasten his release from the shackles of the Taghout - AMEEN!)
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