| Radd al Salafiyya - Refutations |
| Written by Al-Shaykh Jamil Effendi al-Siqdi al-Zahawi |
12: The Wahhabis' takfir of the one who swears, makes a vow, or sacrifices by other than God
May God the Exalted fight the Wahhabis because they are intent on establishing reasons to declare Muslims unbelievers. They have shown that takfir is their highest ambition. You see them declaring as disbelievers persons who implore God for the sake of the Prophet and seek his help by intercession to God to accomplish their needs, while not feeling the slightest shame in seeking help from unbelievers of the foreign states of Europeft1 in order to carry out their plans which are to subject the Muslims to their control, make war against them, and, in rebellion from the authority of the Commander of the Faithful, renounce allegiance to him and the obedience to him which God has ordered in the Qur'an as we have explained earlier. They have taken the enemies of Islam as intimate friends, asking them to aid them with military support in their corrupt purpose and using that support to perpetrate their stubborn harassment and error. Yet God has said: "O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors" (5:54). May our Lord remove the Wahhabis from the face of the earth. Do they not know that those same "friends" they make in order to subjugate Muslims to their tyranny, will, once they have gotten a foothold, in turn, subjugate and oppress them as well along with whomever else they consider adverse and opposed to their plans?
We have shown that the practice of the Wahhabis is to declare all Muslims disbelievers. As we already said, they claim they are unbelievers because they implore God for the sake of prophets and saints and, in addition, call on them for help. Wahhabis also claim that Muslims are unbelievers if they swear by the name of someone else than God and make vows to other than Him and sacrifice animals for their sake.
For the sake of argument, let us grant that certain doctrines which the Wahhabis attribute to Muslims are held by them and do in fact constitute disbelief, and that it is correct to say that the person asserting them has acted contrary to Islam. Even then, it would still not be correct to pronounce the entire community of Muslims guilty of unbelief or even a specific Muslim individual. For the latter might have made such a statement lacking knowledge of whatever texts would obligate acknowledgment of the truth. Or it might be the case that such knowledge has not been suitably established in his view. Or perhaps he has not understood it and had what confuses him laid out in a fashion that allows him to beg forgiveness before God and seek proper excuses for his error. For the one who believes in God and His Messenger, God is a Forgiver of sins whether committed in thought, word, or deed. As for the more severe aspect of what He has revealed in the Qur'an concerning those who perpetrates those sins, it comes in the form of threats and, as it says, is meant for: "Whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide therein" (4:93); and "Those who unjustly eat up the property of orphans, eat a fire into their own bodies: they will soon be enduring a blazing fire" (4:10); and: "Those who disobey God and His Messenger and transgress His limits will be admitted to a Fire, to abide therein: and they shall have a humiliating punishment" (4:14).
In his book Madarij al-salikin, Ibn al-Qayyim has made the statement, the gist of which is as follows: The adherents of the Sunna of the Prophet are in complete agreement that God's friendship and enmity might be found in the single individual in two different respects: there might exist in him faith and hypocrisy, as well as faith and unbelief together. In addition, he will be close to God in one respect more than the other. Hence, of the people in one respect the Qur'an says: "They were that day nearer to unbelief than to faith" (3:167). Associating a partner with God -- shirk -- falls into two classes: hidden and manifest. Hidden shirk might be forgiven. As for manifest shirk, there is no forgiveness for it without express repentance.
Now swearing by someone other than God -- Ibn Qayyim continues -- does not remove the one who does it from Islam, even though there is mentioned in a hadith narrated on the authority of Ibn `Umar that: "Whoever swears by someone other than God has associated a partner with Him."ft1 And in another narration of the same hadith: "Whoever swears by someone other than God has committed an act of kufr." The leading scholars of hadith in the schools of Shafi`i, Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali law all construe kufr here to mean kufr al-ni`ma or the failure to acknowledge God's favor or blessing. As for the shirk mentioned in the first narration, they find it to be al-shirk al-khafi or the kind that is hidden rather than manifest such as occurs when one performs an act of piety in order to show off. That does not remove a person from Islam. Yet it defeats the religious purpose of that act. On this much the ulama have reached a consensus so that those who follow the school of Imam Shafi`i, for example, say that it falls into the category of what is makruh tanzihan or reprehensible for purposes of scrupulous observance, rather than makruh tahriman or reprehensible to the point of prohibition and reprobation. Therefore, the mode of swearing about which the ulama disagree over whether it is reprehensible or prohibited cannot be said to make its perpetrator an unbeliever and thus remove him from Islam. ft1
As for the vow to someone other than God, both Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim -- who are among the most critical concerning this question -- said that it is not permissible and that it constitutes an act of disobedience. Neither said that it constitutes an act of unbelief or of shirk such as would remove one from Islam. Their position is that fulfilling such a vow is not allowable, but that if the vow is to give alms to some deserving person among the poor, then, it is good for him in the sight of God. Now, if the one making the vow to someone other than God were an unbeliever then they would not have ordered him to perform an act of charity since charity is unacceptable from an unbeliever. Rather, they would have ordered him to renew his Islam.
As for the sacrifice for the sake of someone other than God, Ibn Qayyim categorizes it under things prohibited, not under act of unbelief, except when one sacrifices to something worshipped besides the Creator. Similarly, those versed in knowledge record that it is prohibited because it is for the sake of someone other than God. Nevertheless, they do not declare the one who performs such a sacrifice an unbeliever.
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