Part 9

Rather it is sincere belief in the necessity of obedience and of following the heart.

Guidance, too, does not simply mean knowing the truth and the arguments

which support it. It also means that you realise the necessity of following it and

of acting in accordance with it. Without this realisation, guidance is neither

complete nor is it sufficient, just as simply believing that the message is sincere

does not in itself constitute sincerity of faith.

ʹDisbelief, too, is of two types: one is disbelief by inner stubbornness and

recalcitrance, and the other is by outer action.

ʹThe first means to stubbornly deny that the Prophet, may Allah bless him

and grant him peace, came with knowledge from his Lord, knowledge of His

Names and Attributes, knowledge of His works and knowledge of His Shariʹah.

This kind of disbelief contradicts faith totally.

ʹAs for disbelief in deed, it may be divided into a disbelief which

contradicts faith, and one which does not. Some of the acts which contradict faith

are the worship of idols, the ridiculing of the Qurʹan, and the killing or

slandering of a prophet. Ruling by something other than what Allah has revealed

and abandoning the prayer are also, undoubtedly, acts of disbelief. It is not

possible to say that we should not call someone who does any of these things a

disbeliever, since Allah and His Messenger have both referred to such people in

this way. According to what the Prophet, may Allah bless and grant him peace,

has said, whoever rules by other than what Allah has revealed, or abandons the

ʹA distinction between action and conviction remains, however, and while

we can say that, because of some action, a person is a disbeliever, this is not proof

that he does not believe. We know that Allah does not call someone who does

not rule by what He has revealed a disbeliever, in the absolute sense of disbelief,

nor did the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, call anyone who

had abandoned the prayer a disbeliever, absolutely. 63 In fact, the Prophet denied

this in the case of the fornicator, the thief, the drunkard, and in the case of the

man who troubles his neighbours.

Also, we have the hadith:

"Whoever consults a fortune teller and believes what he says, or

commits sodomy with his wife, is free of what has been revealed to

63 Sahih Muslim, Kitab al‐Iman, 1/88, (87).

64 Abu Dawud, Kitab at‐Tibb, 4/225; also Mishkat al‐Masabih, 2/1294, (4599); al‐Albani said that it

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said:

"If a man says to his brother"O disbeliever!ʺ, then one of them has

ʹA person may keep the law of Allah, not exceeding the limits nor

approaching what has been forbidden, hastening to good works and the

fulfillment of Allahʹs commands, only according to the depth of his faith.

ʹAllah has referred to someone who observes part of the Revelation and

leaves part of it aside as believing in the part that he observes and disbelieving in

the part that he does not. He says:

"And when We made a covenant with you not to spill one

anotherʹs blood, nor to drive one another away from your homes, you

agreed and you were witnesses to it. But now you kill one another, and

you drive your own people out of their homes; supporting one another

against them, in sin and enmity. And if some of them came to you as

captives you would ransom them; but driving them out (in the first

place) was forbidden to you. Do you believe in part of the Book and

disbelieve in part of it? What is the reward of whoever does this other

than dishonour in this world? And, on the Day of Resurrection they will

be returned to an even more terrible punishment. And Allah is not

unaware of what you do." (2:84‐85).

ʹAllah says that they agreed to His covenant, which He also commanded

them to keep. Part of it was that they would not kill each other, or drive each

other out of their homes. He then says that they disobeyed His commands and a

party of them then attacked the other and drove them away. This was how they

disbelieved in the Revelation that came to them. Then He ends by saying that

they would ransom some of the defeated party out of respect for their covenant

with Allah. So they believed in the part of it that they observed, and disbelieved

in the part of it that they ignored.

ʹIn action and conviction, faith is the opposite of disbelief. In a well known

hadith, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, makes a

distinction between action and conviction when he tells us:

ʺTo curse a Muslim is despicable, to kill him is disbelief.ʺ 66

65 Sahih Muslim, Kitab al‐Iman, 1/79, (60).

'The conviction is in cursing and the action is in killing: he regarded

cursing as despicable but not evidence of disbelief, while killing is, apparently,

proof of disbelief. It is well known that what he meant by this was disbelief in

action, not in conviction. This kind of disbelief can not take someone completely

out of the circle of Islam, just as the fornicator, the thief and the drunkard may

still be called Muslims, but not believers.

'This is the understanding of the Prophetʹs companions, may the blessings

and peace of Allah be on him and on his family and on his companions, who

knew the Book of Allah better than anyone else: they knew the meaning of

submission and the meaning of disbelief and they knew the distinction between

them. We do not accept anyone elseʹs opinion about this.

ʹLater, some people who failed to understand this split up into two

groups. The first group said that those who commit major wrong actions should

be excluded from the Muslim community, and were thought to be condemned to

Hell for ever. The second group said that such people should still be considered

believers. 67 The first group over‐exaggerated and the second turned a blind eye.

Of course, the correct position is to follow the Prophetʹs Sunnah, may Allah bless

him and grant him peace, which is to follow the guidance of Allah.

'The lesson of the Sunnah implies that there is a disbelief that is less than

disbelief, a hypocrisy that is less than hypocrisy, a shirk that is less than shirk, a

corruption that is less than corruption, and an oppression that is less than

oppression. Ibn Abbas said that the ayah:

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

Refers to an act of disbelief.

Also, we have the hadith,

ʹWhoever consults a fortune teller and believes what he says, or

commits sodomy with his wife, is free of what has been revealed to

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said,

66 Sahih Muslim, Kitab al‐Iman, 1/81, (64)

67 This refers respectivly to the positions of those who adopted the Murjiʹa and Khariji heresies.

ʹIf a man says to his brother, ʺO Disbeliever!ʺ, then one of them has

ʹWhile from the point of view of their outward actions we can say that

they are disbelievers, we can not claim that these same deeds constitute

recalcitrance in the face of, or rejection of, belief. This explains the words of the

Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he said,

ʹDo not turn on each other like disbelievers after I have gone,

ʹHe disbelieves in them, but it is not like the one who disbelieves in

Allah and his Angels and his Books and his Messengers.ʹ

'This was related in a separate report as ʹdisbelief that does not take one

out of the communityʹ, and again, ʹdisbelief that is less than disbelief, oppression

that is less than oppression, and corruption that is less than corruption.ʹ ʹThis is

clear to whoever really understands the Qurʹan, for Allah has called the man

who rules by other than the Revelation a disbeliever, and He has called whoever

disputes what has been revealed to His Messenger a disbeliever, but these two

are not cast from the same mould. ʹConsider:

The disbelievers, they are wrongdoers. (2:254)

and, with reference to the laws of marriage and divorce:

And whoever goes beyond the limits of Allah certainly wrongs himself.

Speaking in the Qurʹan the Prophet Yunus says:

There is no god but You, Glory be to You! Surely, I have been a

Our Lord we have wronged ourselves. (7:23)

My Lord, surely I have wronged my self, so forgive me. (28:16)

'It is clear that we are dealing with two kinds of wrong doing here. In the

Qurʹan, the disbelievers are called ʹcorruptʹ:

"And He misleads by it only the corrupt; those who break the covenant

of Allah after ratifying it." (2:26‐27)

"Truly We have revealed to you clear signs, and only the corrupt will

ʹThere are many more such examples; but the believer too is called

ʹcorruptʹ, as these ayat show:

O you who believe! If a corrupt person brings you some news, then

verify it, or else you may unknowingly cause hardship to people, and

then be sorry for what you have done. (49:6)

(This was revealed with reference to an incident involving al‐Hakam ibn

alʹAs, who was not literally ʹcorruptʹ.) And again:

And those who accuse honourable women but do not bring four

witnesses, whip them (with) eighty lashes and never (afterward) accept

their testimony. They indeed are corrupt. (24:4)

ʹWhile the term is applied to Iblis:

So he rebelled against his Lordʹs command. (17:50)

it may also be applied to the pilgrim:

Whoever is minded to perform the pilgrimage therein (let him

remember that) there is (to be) no lewdness nor corruption nor angry

conversation on the pilgrimage. (2:197)

So corruption is not always of the same degree or type.

ʹWe find the same duality in the case of association of some object of

worship with Allah, since there is an act of association called Greater Shirk, that

takes one out of the community and there is another, Lesser Shirk that does not.

This lesser one could be as simple a thing as showing off. ʹAbout Greater Shirk

Surely whoever ascribes partners to Allah, for him Allah has forbidden

the Garden. His abode is the Fire. For wrongdoers there will be no

For whoever ascribes partners to Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the

sky and the birds had snatched him or the wind blown him to a far off

ʹAbout showing off He says:

And whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous