Excuse of Ignorance in Kufr and Shirk Akbar: When Do We Label Someone a Kafir? | Ibn Uthaymeen

3,161 views·Mar 14, 2026

📌 In this video, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, clarifies the ruling on the one who commits major shirk and the obligation of judging by what is outwardly apparent. 📌 Orignal Video (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuIVMT31Ae0 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ The Shaykh explains that whoever is witnessed witnessed committed shirk then we rule upon him outwardly to be a kafir. This is the clear and established foundation in the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of Ahl al Sunnah. ❌He refutes the doubts of those influenced by irja who claim that such a person is still Muslim even if the actions are witnessed until he affirms inward denial. ✅ Establishing the proof has nothing to do with the outward ruling. The Shaykh clarifies that the outward ruling is based on what is witnessed from statements and actions. As for accountability, punishment, and the establishment of the proof, this is a separate matter connected to the Hereafter and the Islamic courts. ✍ 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 disbeliever only after the clarification.Rather, he IS CALLED a disbeliever 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...” End Quote 📚 Source:Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murjiah confuse the outward ruling with the inward ruling. - 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 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 the reason for their refraining from declaring those grave-worshippers to be disbelievers It is due to a MISCONCEPTION they hold, namely their belief that it is necessary to establish the proof against those grave worshippers before outwardly judging them to be disbelievers This is unlike those whose disbelief has no conceivable doubt, such as the Jews, the Christians, the Communists, and their likes. For regarding these there is no doubt about their being disbelievers, nor is there any doubt about the disbelief of whoever does not declare them to be disbelievers. 📚 SOURCE: Fatwas of the Permanent Committee - First Collection Vol. 1, p. 99. https://shamela.ws/book/8381/1238#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Authenti