Is Everyone Who Commits Kufr or Shirk Called a Kafir and Mushrik or Called a Muslim? | Ibn Uthaymeen

4,264 views·Jun 7, 2026

⚠️ In this clip, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen refutes the false aqeedah and understanding of the extremist Murji'ah who claim that the one who commits shirk akbar by worshipping false gods and prostrating to idols is still a Muslim. 🚫 They deceive the laypeople by conflating the issue of outward legislative names and rulings with the issue of accountability and legislative punishment. ❌ They completely distort the meaning of the statement: "Not everyone who falls into kufr has kufr fall upon him." ❌ They falsely interpret it as referring to the legislative name of kufr, when in reality it refers to the legislative punishment and accountability associated with kufr. ⚖️ Not every person who commits shirk or kufr will necessarily be punished as a mushrik or kafir. Such individuals may be from Ahl al-Fatrah. However, this does not change their outward legislative name and ruling. The scholars differed regarding punishment and accountability, not regarding the outward designation of the one who commits shirk as a mushrik or the one who commits kufr as a kafir. 🎯 Therefore, the one who outwardly commits shirk is called a mushrik, and the one who outwardly commits kufr is called a kafir. The discussion among the scholars concerns accountability and punishment, not the outward names and rulings established by the Shariah. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murji'ah conflate the outward rulings pertaining to legislative names and labels with the inward rulings pertaining to legislative punishments. - The outward ruling is the worldly judgment based solely on a person’s outward statements and actions. It does not depend on what is in the heart. - The inward ruling concerns the hidden reality of the heart, which cannot be known. It is only considered in matters of punishment and the ruling of the Hereafter. Ignorance, coercion, mistake, and denial are considered here, not in the outward ruling. ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Fatwah no. 4400: 👉 (❗) "So clarifying the matter and establishing the proof (Iqāmat al-hujjah) is for the purpose of removing any excuse before carrying out the PUNISHMENT upon him, NOT in order for him to be called a kafir only after the clarification. 👉 (❗) Rather, he IS CALLED a kafir based on the outward act he committed. Such as prostrating to other than Allah, vowing as an act of worship to other than Him, or slaughtering an animal, like a sheep, for other than Allah.” 📚 Source:Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ The methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah: The outward ruling is based exclusively on statements and actions. Matters of the heart are only considered in punishment and the final judgment, in this world by the judge and in the Hereafter by Allah. ✍️ Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852H) in Fath al-Bari (12/272), transmitting consensus: وكلهم أجمعوا على أن أحكام الدنيا على الظاهر، والله يتولى السرائر “THEY ALL UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that worldly rulings are based upon what is outwardly apparent, while Allah alone takes charge of what lies within.” End Quote ✍️ Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H) said in As-Sarim al-Maslul (2/339): فمن قال أو فعل ما هو كفر, كفر بذلك، وإن لم يقصد أن يكون كافرًا، إذ لا بقصد الكفر أحدّ إلًّا ما شاء الله. “Whoever says or does that which is kufr, then he becomes a kafir by that itself, even if he did not intend to become a disbeliever, for no one intends kufr except whom Allah wills.” End Quote ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Question Three from Fatwa No. 11043 Answer: 👉 (❗) This is because their refraining from making takfir of them is due to a shubhah, which is their belief that it is necessary to establish the hujjah upon those grave worshippers before declaring them disbelievers. This is in contrast to those whose kufr carries no ambiguity, suc