Part 54

For this reason, when Muslim jurists debated about the acceptance of a zindiq’s, atheist’s, repentance, it was said that his repentance was accepted. This saying was derived from the cases wherein the Prophet (pbuh) accepted their overt repentance but relied on Allah for the acceptance of their inner repentance. Against this, the author argues that this was the case before the revelation of this verse. Allah says: “They shall have a curse on them: wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain [without mercy]” (33:61). Afterward, they knew that if they persisted in their hypocrisy as they did previously, they would be killed. So they hid it.

As for the person referred to as an zindiq, atheist, he is likewise a hypocrite, and is to be killed by anyone who discovers that he has been concealing his hypocrisy. It has been said that one cannot be certain whether such a person’s repentance is sincere, since the most that one may ascertain concerning what is inside him is what he manifests outwardly, and he may have been displaying belief even though he is a hypocrite. Moreover, if you were to accept the repentance of such atheists, there would be no way to carry out the injunction to kill them, which is the punishment with which they are threatened by the Quran.

In other words, the Prophet (pbuh) judged, on the basis of overt pieces of evidence, that the slave girl was overtly a believer. Otherwise, it was firmly mentioned that when Sa‘d testified that the man was a believer, the Prophet (pbuh) remarked: “ora Muslim,” even though this man manifested more overt belief than that of the slave girl. Hence, one has to distinguish between judgments of overt Iman by people in this world and judgments in the Hereafter concerning reward and punishment. Accordingly, the believer who deserves Paradise must be a believer in his heart as unanimously agreed upon by all of the people of the Qiblah [those who turn toward Makkah to pray]. Even the Karramite sect, who called a

hypocrite a believer, said that Iman is al-kalimah, the word (testimony), and that is to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger and that nothing is beneficial in the Hereafter except inner Iman.

Some have reported that they [the Karramites] considered hypocrites to be among those who will enter Paradise. However, this is an error on their part. For they disputed over the name rather than over the verdict to be issued as to a person’s actual spiritual state due to the specious argument put forward by the Murji’ites to the effect that belief may not be subdivided or ranked as to superior or inferior. For this reason, that which Islamic jurists have primarily based their judgments on with regard to the neck [i.e., the person] who was to be rewarded through penance was one’s outward works. They also disputed the question as to whether a child should be rewarded. Two well-known positions have been taken by the pious ancestors with regard to this question, both of which have been passed down in accounts on the authority of Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal]. According to one position, his emancipation may not be rewarded since belief consists of both a saying and a work, and a child has not believed by himself; rather, judged by worldly standards, his faith is dependent on that of his parents. Nor has anyone laid down the condition that it must be known for certain that he is a believer inwardly. According to the opposing view, the child’s emancipation will be rewarded because emancipation is determined by external judgments, and is something that depends on his parents. For just as he inherits from them and is prayed for, and since only a believer may be prayed for, then he is eligible for emancipation.

Likewise, hypocrites who have not let their hypocrisy become manifest outwardly have been prayed for when they die and have been buried in the same cemeteries as Muslims ever since the time of the Prophet (pbuh). The cemetery that was set aside for Muslims during the Prophet’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of his Successors and Companions was the place where they buried all those who had manifested belief outwardly, even if they had been hypocrites. Hence, there was no cemetery designated for hypocrites, as distinguished from Muslims, in the way there were cemeteries especially for Jews and Christians. Whoever was buried in a cemetery for Muslims would be prayed for by Muslims, although the Quran forbids prayer for anyone who was known to be a hypocrite. This, of course, is based on belief that is displayed outwardly, for only Allah knows the secrets of the heart. Hence, the Prophet (pbuh) used to pray for all Muslims who died, asking Allah to forgive their sins, until he was forbidden to do so. And this [prohibition]

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was explained as being due to unbelief. [However, the Prophet’s former practice] was an indication that it was permissible to pray for anyone not known for certain to be an unbeliever in his heart, even if he was heretical in his doctrines and had committed sins.

If the Imam, prayer leader, or the people of knowledge and religion abandoned prayer for those who show heresy or wickedness when they die, in order to show disapproval of their works, this does not mean that it is prohibited to pray for them or ask Allah for their forgiveness. On the contrary, the Prophet (pbuh) told the ones who used to refrain from praying for those who include among others, the miser, the one who intentionally kills himself, and the one who does not pay his debts: “Pray for your friends.” Moreover, it is related on the authority of the Prophet (pbuh) that he used to ask Allah for their forgiveness in his heart, although he [himself] used to refrain from praying for them publicly, as it was narrated in the hadith of Mulhim Ibn Juththamah.''

In the Book and the Sunnah, people who manifest Islam are of two kinds, either believers or hypocrites. The hypocrites are in the lowest part of Hell. And the believer may have decreased Iman and thus will not be covered by the generalization of this term, or he may have complete Iman. A discussion of this will be included below, if Allah wills, in connection with the question of Islam and belief, along with the names used to describe major sinners who are nevertheless members of a religious community. One should not be regarded implicitly as an unbeliever if he has committed a sin or embraced a heresy, even if he called others to practice that heresy, unless he is a hypocrite. That is, if in his heart he believed in the Messenger and what has been revealed through him but has erred in his heresy, then in principle, he is not an unbeliever. For example, the Kharijites went further than anyone else in manifesting heresy and killing others. In spite of this, however, none of the Companions of the Prophet, neither ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib nor others, ever considered them as unbelievers. They used to treat them in the way wrongdoing Muslims were treated.

Such is the case with the remaining seventy-two branches of Islam. Whoever is a hypocrite is [covertly] an unbeliever. In contrast, whoever is not a hypocrite but [covertly] a believer in Allah and His Messenger is not [covertly] an unbeliever,

"' Mulhim Ibn Juththamah (n.d.) lived during the lifetime of the Prophet and most probably died during the time of Ibn al-Zubayr. (Kitab al-Iman MZ, p. 200.]

even if he has erred in his interpretation [no matter what the error is]. He may also have some degree of hypocrisy, but this does not lead him to the lowest reaches of Hellfire. And whoever attributes unbelief to each of the seventy-two branches, violates what is in the Book and the Sunnah and what the Companions of the Prophet and the four religious leaders and other [scholars] have agreed unanimously upon. For none of them ever accused unbelief to any of the seventy-two branches of unbelief. This will be explained fully in its proper place.

However, authorities on Islam and its teachings have judged this view to be blasphemous, since it is a supposition that is intrinsically impossible. For it is impossible that someone who is a believer in his heart should do none whatsoever of the things which he has been commanded to do, such as prayer, giving zakah, fasting, and going on pilgrimage to Makkah, as well as engaging in whatever forbidden activities he is capable of, such as praying without having done the required ritual ablutions or without turning toward Makkah, or marrying mothers. Rather, one would only behave in this manner on account of an absence of belief from his heart. For this reason, the followers of Abu Hanifah used to declare to be unbelievers various groups who made claims such as the one described here, because of the contempt that such suppositions imply [for the meaning of belief and Islam]. And during the debate over terminology and definitions which took place between Abu Hanifah’s followers and the majority of Islamic scholars, they labeled some of their opponents as apostates. This debate revolved around whether outward works are to be considered a part of belief or not. In this context, some later theologians posed another theoretical scenario that could not possibly take place: namely, someone who has acknowledged that prayer is his religious duty, is called to prayer yet refrains, even though he is called upon three times to repent under threat of death if he does not comply. Moreover, he continues to obstinately refuse until at last he is killed. So the question is: Will such an individual die as an unbeliever or simply as a believer who has committed major sins? On this question, two positions have been taken.

However, this entire scenario is intrinsically impossible. For if one believes that Allah imposes upon him the duty to pray and believes, moreover, that Allah will punish him for neglecting this duty, he would not patiently endure being killed rather than perform a prostration to Allah in prayer without having the slightest

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excuse for such behavior. In fact, such a person would not even endure being beaten, much less being killed, without surrendering to the pressure and praying. And the reason for this is that to be killed is a kind of serious harm that no one would patiently endure except for the sake of some weighty cause, such as a religion to which he holds and which he believes that if he abandoned it, he would perish spiritually. This would apply whether the religion in and of itself were true or false. And if one believes both outwardly and inwardly that some action is his duty, then performance of such an action could not possibly be more difficult for him than enduring death at the hands of others.