Sheikh Naeem Abdul-Wali

Losing faith

q and a

Sheikh Atabek Shukurov

Apostasy

Sheikh Abdullah Adhami

Shariah, Apostasy, Music and interacting with non-Muslims

Sheikh Atabek Shukurov

Shirk/polytheism or idolatry

“Dear son do not associate partners to Allah, Truly idolatry is a great injustice.” Luqman 31:12


“Allah does not forgive idolatry, yet he will forgive other than that, to whomever he pleases.” The Women 4:48

Shirk in the Arabic language means to co share or to share


In the sacred law it means to make a partner to God, in essence or worship

There are six types of Shirk:


1. Shirk Istqlal: Autonomous idolatry – to belief in separate deities i.e. Zoroastrians


2. Shirk Tab’ad: separate idolatry – to say God is one of three


3. Shirk Taqrib: approximate idolatry – to say that they are worshipping idols to get closer to God.


4. Shirk Taqlid: Imitative idolatry – to follow fathers


5. Shirk Falsafa: idolatry of the philosophers – to believe that there is a power other than God


6. Shirk Al-Gharad: idolatry of intention – this is carry out actions for other God, in intention

The first four are considered as disbelief/kufr


The fifth: we have to find out: a) if he believes that something has independence power then it is kufr, b) if they believe that they have a power by God then this is innovation/Bi’da
The sixth is a sin

Shirk/idolatry is minor and major.


One to five are major idolatry and number six in minor because of the hadith that it is minor idolatry when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) warned the companions. The Prophet said, "I only fear for you minor idolatry.” The companions asked, “What is minor idolatry?” He replied, “Ostentation.” (Imam Ahmed Musnad 23119)



According to other scholars they state idolatry is three kinds:


1. Idolatry in Lordship/Rububiyyah by two things: a) to deny God and say he is created, b) to say someone can create other than God.

2. Idolatry in Uluhiyyah: this is worship of other things, this is major and the minor shirk has been explained before


3. Idolatry in names and attributes of God, this is of two types: A) to consider something similar to God, someone can forgive other than him. B) To make god similar to creation

Sheikh Atabek Shukurov

Disbelief/Kufr





“Allah is not satisfied with disbelief for his servants.” (Sura Az-Zumar 39:7)




“Surely, Allah does not forgive that a partner is ascribed to Him, and He forgives anything short of that for whomsoever He wills. Whoever ascribes a partner to Allah commits a terrible sin.” (Sura the women 4.48)








We need to know about disbelief to protect ourselves from it and not to accuse others of it.
In the Arabic language Kufr means to cover up or hide. A farmer is known as a kafir because he covers seeds in the ground.








In the sacred law kufr/disbelief is to deny anything that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) brought, with the condition that it is definite and two to deny or refuse something that is definite


This is either something well known about the religion to the Ashari’s or something that is just definite to the Maturidi’s.


Others say it is to deny something that is well-known by Islam, for example to deny fasting during Ramadan








Something definite is something that is in the Quran or widely transmitted hadith.




The Ashari’s and the Maturidi’s are two groups of Sunni theological belief and the main groups of this time





There is major and minor disbelief:




Major is disbelief as described above




Minor is when someone is an ingrate about blessings





The conditions for disbelief/kufr are:




1. Sanity: a person has to be sane, an insane persons is not taken to task




2. Awake: if they say it in their sleep, it does not count




3. Forced: if someone is forced then it does not count





The definition of faith/Imam is acceptance of the heart with affirmation on the tongue
With the conditions:



1. Not to do an action of disbelief.



2. And not to jest about it. (jest about religious matters)





The levels of disbelief/kufr are:
1. Kufr Inkari/ Denial disbelief: denies belief
2. Kufr ‘Inadi/ beliefs inside but rejects on his tongue like Abu Jahl
3. Kufr juhudu/ungrateful disbelief: knows the beliefs and rejects
4. Kufr Nifaq/hypocrisy disbelief: no belief but he says he is a believer





Action does not take one out of Islam as action is not included in faith according to the Maturdi’s.








To disbelief in Allah someone has to give him human attributes








Disbelief in the Prophets (upon them peace) is to deny their prophethoods which have been accepted by consensus. Examples which are not accepted by consensus are Dhulqarnan, Dhulqifal, Luqman and Khidr.








Disbelief about religion is to say something is halal/permissible when it is prohibited/haram. For example to say fornication is halal without marriage








Disbelief about the companions is say that a companion is going to hell when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said they are going to paradise, like the ten promised paradise and the Bayat ul-Ridwan/the oath of acceptance. Cursing the companions does not constitute to disbelief but denying that Abu Bakr as a companion does, because he mentioned in the Quran during the migration to Medina. Also to say that the Angel Gabriel made a mistake and should have gone to Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) instead.








Disbelief about scholars is when someone hates a scholar without valid reason. Also to make fun of the circles of knowledge or to say something else is better than Islamic knowledge.


Black magic is a major wrong action but is not disbelief unless you think that it has a power on its own.








A person can fall into disbelief but disbelief does not fall onto a person








A word of disbelief does not mean that the person leaves Islam and the only person who judge this is a Judge/Qadi. The Qadi has to know one school correctly, some information of other schools and he has to be close to someone who can derive his own rulings a mujtahid.








It is not permissible for an average person to call another Muslim a disbeliever because the hadith prevents us. “If a man calls his brother a disbeliever then one of them deserves the description.” (Key to Paradise page 78 hadith from Bukhari 6045, 6103 and Muslim 60, 61)

The prophetic narration, "The difference between a man and disbelief; is leaving prayer." (Muslim) Ibn Abbas was asked about this and he said this was about kufr an-Na'ma/ingratitide of blessings; minor not major disbelief.

No one can guarantee that they will die on Islam

A person who has pronounced the words of disbelief must:

1. Repent to Allah

2. Repeat testification of faith: “There is no deity except Allah...”

3. Reject previous position

4. Re-marry if necessary

5. Repeat necessary actions like Hajj – disbelieve will destroy all their previous actions

To protect ourselves from disbelief you can say the following:

اللهم إني أعوذُ بِك ان أُشركَ بِك شيئٌ وأنا أعلمُ وأستغفرُكَ لِما لا أعلم وأنتَ علام الغيوب







O’Allah I seek refuge with you; if I have associated with you anything; and I know; and I seek forgiveness to what I do not know; and you know the unseen.







Allahumma inni aa'du bik an urshrika bik shayyan wa ana a'lamu wa astaghfiruka lima la a'lamu wa anta 'alam al-ghayub

Sheikh Abdallah Adhami

The right to change one's religion
by Shaykh Abdallah Adhami
23 October 2007

New York, New York - From the Code of Hammurabi to the Code of Maimonides, most major systems of law have affirmed that apostasy must be punished.

In the renowned code of the Roman emperor Justinian (483-565 CE), corpus juris civilis — the basis of all Roman canon law and of modern civil law — apostasy was "to be punished by death" and there was "no toleration of dissent".

The Biblical codes stipulate that the "one who doubts or ridicules one word of the Torah — or of the rabbinical authors — is a 'heretic' in the fullest sense, an infidel ... and there is no hope for him." The laws concerning such an unbeliever are very strict: "he may be killed directly". Or as Maimonides, the 13th century Andalucian rabbi and philosopher, advised regarding the abeyance of apostasy law in his era, "his death may be caused indirectly."

Islamic law, (shari'a), likewise stipulated killing in cases of established public apostasy. Though there is little literature on the emergence and application of apostasy law in the early periods of Muslim history, its actual application usually depended upon whether its declaration was public or private. Within the Islamic state, what minorities — religious and otherwise — did in their private lives was left to their own discretion, even if it may have been technically termed "deviant" or against Islamic teaching.

Shari'a, like all religious law, governs rites of worship and codes of individual and communal conduct and ethics. Contrary to stereotypical notions of religion, the earthly realm within shari'a is in fact pragmatically understood to be essentially secular.

From the point of view of religion, the fundamental nature of the human being is to yearn to worship God unencumbered. The private realm of apostasy had thus always reflected more complex dimensions that make ultimate human judgment impossible. The mysteries of the heart and mind are as beyond theology as they are barely fathomable to neuroscience.

It is our creative encounter with earthly, secular life that reveals our capacity for usefulness to others, and it is the premier instrument by which our own spiritual station is elevated. Authentic, sincere worship ultimately becomes the daily barometer of our spiritual state.

Free, rational debate had always been accommodated within the religious context of shari'a. This was a uniquely Islamic phenomenon, as true in European Cordoba as it was in Arabian Baghdad. Neither the theological abstraction of the Mu'tazilites, a 9th century group of philosophers, nor the unmitigated foreign dialectics by the secretive 10th century group, Brethren of Purity, for example, was ever grounds for removing one from the fold of Islam.

The most salient evidence for not punishing "private" apostasy in Islam is the perennial existence of the so-called hypocrites amidst Medinan society despite grave Qur'anic passages against them. Moreover, private "heretical" thought was neither censured nor censored; as long is it was not publicly preached, it was not condemned as such, nor were there articulations of a need to suppress it.

Outward or visible stability in the earthly domain is what allows the institutions of civil society to continue.

The non-violent resistance of the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca and his diplomacy during the Treaty of Hudaybiyah taught his companions a similar lesson. Under this Treaty, the Prophet allowed people to emigrate without any reprisal, despite the fact that they were abandoning Islam in the process (some having only adopted the new religion for reasons of self-interest).

No prophet was ever given the license to pass judgment over the faith of a human being — as the Qur'an repeatedly reiterates, judgment is ultimately with God alone. Hence, constructive service of our sacred traditions lies in showing their relevance as a vehicle of infinite creativity, not in demoting them to preoccupation with judgment of contemporary culture.

We need to acknowledge and affirm that diversity and difference are part of the divine intent for creation — that we were made as nations and tribes so that we may "learn about and be enriched by the ways of each other" (Qur'an, 49:13). Provincialism and relativism will always challenge diversity — especially when the latter is disguised as tolerance; and not because people are inherently incapable of living together, either.

We need a renewed devotion to the truth, and to seeking it freely through our established non-sectarian, scholarly institutions. Thomas Jefferson exhorted: "Truth is ... the proper and sufficient antagonist to error." It is only through respectful free argument and debate that ideologies can be judged and challenged on their own merits.

The reformation that is direly needed — across the entire globe — is the honest reassessment of the original sources of all our oppressive cultural myths and tyrannical modes of thinking.

As Muslims, we need to establish a higher barometer for what constitutes competence in the service of the scholarly disciplines of shari'a. This would equip us with greater clarity and confidence and prevent us from thoughtlessly demonstrating in passionate protest every time a passing wind seems to challenge our faith.

As religious leaders of all faiths, we need to acknowledge our responsibility for much alienation and estrangement among the faithful around the world. This would begin to re-establish the credibility of our institutions, which would eventually re-ignite the religious imagination of the masses.

Lastly, we need a renewed commitment to focus on an ethos of compassionate, selfless service as a public trust; and this is certainly more becoming of the example of the Blessed Messengers that we claim loyalty to.



* Shaykh Abdallah Adhami is an Arab-American imam and a leading scholar of Islam. He is currently working on an exploration of the linguistic implications of apparently problematic verses in the Qur'an. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 23 October 2007, www.commongroundnews.org