There is a verse in the Quran that says: “Those who do not judge by what God has sent down are deniers of the truth.” (5:44)
Similarly, some hadiths contain warnings in which certain actions are described as “disbelief.” For example, a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari reports that the Prophet of Islam said: Abusing a Muslim is sinful conduct, and fighting him is an act of unbelief (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 47).
At first glance, such texts may appear to suggest that any deviation from divine law immediately expels a person from the fold of Islam.
On the basis of these verses and hadiths, some individuals declare other Muslims to be disbelievers if, in their view, they are not acting in accordance with what God has revealed. Under this interpretation, they label many Muslim rulers as apostates and disbelievers, and even consider their killing to be permissible.
This line of thinking is a serious deviation. It has revived, in a more intense form, the phenomenon of Kharijism in the Muslim world. As a result, not only are Muslims killing fellow Muslims, but the image of Islam itself is being distorted into that of a religion that promotes violence and bloodshed.
The correct interpretation of these verses and hadiths is the one given by Abdullah ibn Abbas, the great scholar of the Ummah and a leading authority in Quranic interpretation. He explained that this does not refer to the kind of kufr (disbelief, turning away from a recognized truth) that takes a person out of Islam. Rather, it refers to “kufr duna kufr” (a lesser form of disbelief) (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 2635)—that is, a level of disbelief that does not take one out of Islam.
Such words as used in the Quran and Hadith in this context are intended for moral exhortation (spiritual warning) rather than as strict legal terms. They do not mean that a Muslim who commits such an act is automatically cast out of Islam. They reflect a particular style of expression. In fact, these expressions are meant as strong admonitions, not as legal rulings. This kind of forceful language is commonly used in exhortation—sometimes gently and sometimes sternly. It reflects the difference between legal language and advisory language, not a legal distinction between belief and disbelief, but a difference in the style of moral advice.
Advice is sometimes given in soft words and sometimes in strong words. The examples mentioned above belong to this second category, in which strong language is used for moral correction and awakening, not for issuing legal judgments. (Al-Risala, September 1996)
