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Monday, May 02, 2016

A Murji Principle: Declaring Takfeer Can Only be Professed on Issues of Consensus [Part 21]

From the beliefs of the Murji’ah is that they refrain from declaring a person as a disbeliever (a declaration known as at-Takfeer), unless it be on an issue that there is scholarly consensus upon. This is undoubtedly a mistake purely because scholarly consensus is not the only source that rulings are derived from in the Sharee’ah. Rather, the Quraan and the Sunnah are the primary sources.

So if the Quraan has described the characteristics of disbelievers and has placed rulings upon certain actions of theirs as being actions of disbelief, then it becomes mandatory upon us to declare those who fall under such rulings as also being disbelievers (after the conditions of making at-Takfeer have been met). This is how one acts and conforms to the Statements of Allaah. The same principle applies to evidence found within the Sunnah, as this is the very essence of the meaning of bearing witness to belief in Allaah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, that we obey them both.

Declaring others to be disbelievers is a religious ruling and religious rulings can only be concluded after their being a firm basis of evidence derived from the Quraan or the Sunnah or scholarly consensus known as al-Ijmaa’.
So whomever Allaah has Ruled upon as being a Kaafir in the Quraan, then it is binding upon us to make Takfeer of such a person, in order for us to be counted as those who act in accordance to the Quraan. Again, the same applies to the Sunnah; whomever the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] has declared to be a Kaafir,then we must follow such a ruling. Following these sources is the very essence of the testimony of faith, where one declares that there is no god but Allaah and that Muhammad in His Messenger.

Therefore, declaring others as disbeliever becomes a religious ruling, and in order for us to come to such a ruling, it must be based on the evidences found within the texts of the Sharee’ah. It is not a condition that religious rulings can only be established once scholarly consensus appears on a given issue. The evidence for this is the statement of the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him], “Do not revolt against the Muslim ruler unless if you see a clear act of disbelief (Kufr), which will then be a proof for you with Allaah.[1]” The point of evidence here is that the Prophet made the religuous texts as a source of declaring a ruler as a disbeliever, and there was no mention of scholarly consensus in this narration.



[1] Reported by al-Bukhaaree in his Saheeh (7056) on the authority of ‘Ubaadah.

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