Chapter Nine The Distinction Between Not Declaring the Doer of Disbelief as an Infidel, and Calling His Disbelief Faith.

Know, my dear brother, that it is necessary to clarify the distinction between not declaring the doer of disbelief as an infidel, and calling his disbelief faith in a way that conforms to Sharia. Otherwise, you will fall into declaring Muslims as infidels without any Sharia evidence. This is because the extremists did not differentiate between the two; they declare as infidels everyone who is ignorant of the Sharia ruling on declaring the doer of disbelief who is attributed to Islam as an infidel. They claim that not declaring him an infidel necessitates calling his disbelief faith, and that whoever calls disbelief faith has ignorance of Tawhid and has thus apostatized from Islam, and we seek refuge in Allah.

We clarify the invalidity of this by saying: Whoever does not declare the doer of disbelief who is attributed to Islam as an infidel, due to ignorance or misinterpretation, is not declared an infidel by us. This is not because of his lack of knowledge of faith or Tawhid, nor because of his failure to differentiate between disbelief and faith, nor because he equates them. Rather, he does not declare him an infidel because he is ignorant of the specific Sharia ruling on the rulings of apostasy (from the conditions, pillars, and impediments of apostasy). In reality, he is not ignorant of faith, but rather ignorant of the rulings of apostasy. This is when he disassociates himself from what the infidel is upon of disbelief. Likewise, when he affirms Islam for the doer of disbelief, he affirms it for the outward manifestations of Islamic rituals that the doer of disbelief has shown, not for the act of disbelief he has shown. Therefore, the one who is ignorant of the Sharia ruling on declaring the doer of disbelief who is attributed to Islam as an infidel is not declared an infidel by a Muslim, because this is not from the fundamental principles of religion upon which Islam is established, such as the two testimonies.