Part 10

works, and associate no partner in the worship due only to his Lord.

ʹOn this same subject of Lesser Shirk, the Prophet, may Allah bless him

and grant him peace, said,

ʹWhoever swears an oath by other than Allah has associated something

'This was related by Abu Dawood and others. 68 However, it is well known

that swearing an oath by something other than Allah does not take one out of the

community of the Muslims, and it does not make someone a disbeliever. In the

same vein the Prophet said,

ʺShirk in this Ummah is stealthier than creeping antsʺ. 69

68 Abu Dawood, Kitab al‐Iman, 3/570, (3251) Tirmidhi, Kitab al‐Iman 5/253 (1535); also ash‐

Shawqani in Nayl al‐Awtar, 8/257, stating that al‐Hakim says it is Sahih.

69 Imam Ahmad, al‐Musnad 4/403; al‐Albani includes it in his al‐Jamiʹa as‐Saghir, 3/333, (3624)

saying that it is sahih

ʹShirk, disbelief, corruption, oppression and ignorance may all be divided

into two sorts: a kind that takes a person out of the community and another that

does not. This is the same again for hypocrisy, since a person may be a convinced

hypocrite or may only sometimes act like a hypocrite. It is the convinced and

confirmed hypocrites whom Allah has denounced so severely in the Qurʹan,

promising them the deepest pit of Hell. As for someone with the behaviour of a

hypocrite, the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be on him, is

reported in a sahih hadith to have said,

ʺThere are three signs of a hypocrite: when he speaks he lies; when he

makes a promise he breaks it; and when you trust him he betrays you.ʺ 70

ʺThere are four characteristics by which you can recognise the total

hypocrite; whoever exhibits one of them exhibits an attribute of

hypocrisy: when he speaks he lies; when he makes an agreement he

breaks it; when he argues he behaves despicably; and when you trust

ʹThis is the behaviour of a hypocrite; it does not necessarily rule out faith,

but if it takes root and establishes itself, it could in time completely remove a

person from Islam, even if he still prays and fasts and claims that he is a Muslim.

Faith should correct the hypocritical behaviour of the believer, but if there is no

faith, then the growth of hypocrisy will proceed until, like a cancer, it completely

ʹAccording to Ismail ibn Saad, 71 this was supported by Imam Ahmad. He

said, ʺI asked Ahmad ibn Hanbal for his opinion about the condition of someone

who, while continuing to pray and pay zakah and fast, is afflicted by persistent

major wrong actions that he finds impossible to resist. He replied that this is the

ʹThe fornicator is not a believer while he commits fornicationʹ. 72

'This means that he is no longer a believer, but he is still a Muslim. The

70 Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitab al‐Iman, 1/89, (33,34); Sahih Muslim, Kitab al‐Iman 1/78, (58,59)

71 One of the companions of Imam Ahmad; see Ibn Abu Yaʹla, Tabaqat al‐Hanabila, 1/104.

72 Sahih Muslim, Kitab al‐Iman, 1/76, (57).

ʹan imbiber is not a believer while he is engaged in drinking; a thief is

not a believer while he is in the act of stealingʹ.

Ibn Abbas also said this about the ayah:

"And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are

ʺI asked Ahmad, ʹWhat is this disbelief?ʹ

He said, ʹIt is the disbelief that does not take you out of the community. It

is not like believing in part of the Revelation and disbelieving in another

part of it; this is real disbelief, about which there is no doubt in anyoneʹs

ʹThe point is that someone can combine in his heart faith and disbelief,

devote himself to Allah alone and at the same time associate something else with

Him, be God‐fearing and also boldly defiant, be hypocritical and sincere. This is

one of the fundamental positions of the ahlʹul‐sunnah, who differ in this with

lovers of innovation and invention in religion, the Kharijites, 73 and the

Muʹtazilites, 74 the Qadirites, 75 and their like.

ʹThe other point that this matter raises relates to the doctrine that

maintains that sinners may be brought out of the Fire or may remain in it. There

is ample evidence from the Qurʹan and the Sunnah to support this, as well as that

provided by the agreement of the companions and by natural reasoning. Allah

And most of them do not believe in Allah without attributing partners

'Here Allah confirms their belief in Him together with their Shirk. ʹAnd

73 The Kharijites believed that committing major wrong actions turns a Muslim into a disbeliever

74 The Muʹtazilites believed that the Qurʹan was a created thing and that it is impossible for Allah

to be seen. They did not believe in the punishment in the grave, nor in intercession.

75 The Qadirites believed that the creation has free will, inde‐pendant of the will of Allah, and

rejected the doctrine of ʹqadr waʹ1‐qadaʹ.

The Arabs say: ʹWe believe.ʹ Say (to them, O Muhammad): ʹYou do not

believe, so rather, say, ʺWe submitʺ, for faith has not yet entered into

your hearts. And if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not

withhold anything from you of (the reward of) your actions. Surely

'So their submission and obedience to Allah is confirmed, while their faith

ʹWhen faith is mentioned in the Qurʹan, it means absolute faith; for

Surely the (true) believers are only those who believe in Allah and His

Messenger and then do not doubt, but struggle with their wealth and

their selves in the way of Allah. (49:15)

ʹThese people are not hypocrites in the real sense of the word: they are

Muslims by virtue of their obedience to Allah and His Messenger; however, they

are not believers, even though there was some faith in them that brought them

out from among the disbelievers.

ʺWhoever comes with these four things, meaning fornication, theft,

drunkenness or brigandage, or four like them, or even more than four, is

still a Muslim, but you cannot call him a believer. If he comes with

something less than this, we say he is a believer but deficient in faith. This

is indicated by the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant

him peace, when he said,

ʹWhoever has one of these characteristics has one of the attributes

This proves that a man may be a hypocrite and a Muslim at the same

'In this way showing off is regarded as Shirk, for if a man hopes to be seen

doing good works then he has combined Shirk with Islam. And if one rules a

land by something other than what Allah has revealed, or does something that

the Messenger of Allah has called disbelief, while he is at the same time devoted

to Islam and to the observance of its Shariʹa, then he has combined disbelief with

ʹWe have already said that every disobedient person is one of the people

of disbelief, just as all of those who are obedient should be counted among the

people of faith. So when you see an obedient person you may call him a believer

or you may not. Likewise when you see a disobedient person you may call him a

disbeliever and then again you may not. It is not a matter of saying absolutely

this way or that: this one is a Muslim that one is not. Rather, we are dealing here

with two things: one is a name, a word, while the other is a legal category.

ʹAs for the word, we can easily say that if the shoe fits then wear it, but as

for the category, the question is, does a particular trait or characteristic actually

constitute disbelief or not? When we speak of words and what they designate we

speak about something that may be legal or linguistic; but when we speak about

specific categories of this kind then we have narrowed the meaning to the strict

legal sense of the term.

ʹOur final point is that just because someone possesses one of the

characteristics of faith, it is not necessarily accurate to call him a believer; and

conversely, just because someone possesses one of the characteristics of disbelief,

it is not necessarily accurate to call him a disbeliever. One would not, for

example, call everyone who had some knowledge a scholar, for knowledge is not

the same as understanding. Not everyone with some knowledge of fiqh is a

faqih; nor would you say that everyone who knows something about medicine is

ʹNevertheless, this does not mean that you are prevented from calling

someone a believer, a hypocrite, or a disbeliever, if his behaviour justifies it. As

the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,

ʺWhoever abandons it has disbelievedʺ

"Whoever swears an oath by other than Allah has disbelievedʺ

"Whoever comes to a fortune teller and believes in what he has been

ʹAn attribute of disbelief is not in itself proof of total disbelief, so when

someone does something that is forbidden we call it a corrupt act by which he

has transgressed, but we do not call him a corrupt person himself, or at least not

until corruption overpowers him.ʹ 76

76 This section is taken entirely from Ibn al‐Jawaziyaʹs Kitab as‐salah, pp. 25‐31.

Disbelief in Action and Conviction

A few of the terms that appear in the preceding text of Ibn al‐Qayim al‐

Jawziya have been misunderstood in the past, especially those dealing with

political rule. Ibn al‐Qayim has pointed out that to rule by something other than

what Allah has revealed is lesser disbelief. It is felt that some further explanation

of this is necessary in order to avoid any confusion.

The Muslim community was founded on the adherence to and application

of the Shariʹah right from the time of its establishment by the Messenger of Allah,

may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This was also the case in the time of

the rightly guided Caliphs, and the Umayyads continued their tradition.

Although some of them twisted it, the law that they applied to the people

was the Shariʹah, whose protection, guidance and justice everyone enjoyed.

When the Abbasids succeeded them, the law by which they ruled was again the

Shariʹah, although at times people were hard pressed to realise it. Finally, the

Tartars arrived and Hulaqu imposed their traditional law, known as the ʹYasaqʹ,

upon the subject peoples. We will return to this subject again later.

Everything else being equal, the opinions of the founders of the Muslim

community, such as Ibn al‐Qayim, are beyond reproach; and if a ruler is guilty of