The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin

"We call the people of our qibla Muslims and believers, as long as they acknowledge what the Prophet brought and believe him in all he said and reported" ¹.

"We do not declare anyone of the people of the qibla an unbeliever for a sin, as long as he does not deem it lawful" ². He does not say: no sin harms whoever commits it alongside faith ². A servant leaves faith only by denying what brought him into it ².

He hopes for the good-doers among the believers that God will pardon them and admit them to Paradise by His mercy — "but we do not feel secure for them, nor do we testify Paradise for them" — and asks forgiveness for their sinners, fears for them yet does not drive them to despair, for "security and despair remove one from the religion of Islam" ².

"We do not assign any of them to Paradise or the Fire, nor testify against them unbelief, polytheism or hypocrisy, unless something of that appears from them; we leave their secrets to God" ^{3 4}. He says he holds prayer valid behind every righteous and unrighteous man of the people of the qibla, and over whoever of them dies ³. He does not hold the sword against anyone of the umma except one upon whom the sword is due ⁴.

Ibn Qudama says: "We do not affirm for anyone of the people of the qibla Paradise or Fire, except one the Messenger affirmed it for; but we hope for the good-doer and fear for the sinner. We do not declare anyone of the people of the qibla an unbeliever for a sin, nor expel him from Islam for a deed" ⁵. He relates Anas's hadith that part of faith's foundation is "refraining from whoever says: there is no god but God" — not declared an unbeliever for a sin, nor expelled from Islam for a deed ⁵.

After his definition of faith, Ibn Taymiyya says: "They do not strip the sinful believer of faith entirely, nor do they hold him in the Fire forever" — the sinner falls under the unqualified name of faith in some texts and not in others — "and we say: he is a believer deficient in faith, or a believer in his faith, a sinner by his major sin; he is not given the unqualified name, nor stripped of the name unqualifiedly for his major sin" ⁶.

In "the account of the sum of the saying of the people of hadith and sunna" in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari presents what the people of hadith and sunna hold, ending: "And in all we have mentioned of their saying we speak, and to it we go" ⁷. He relates there that they "do not declare anyone of the people of the qibla an unbeliever for a sin he commits — such as adultery, theft and the like of the major sins — they are believers by the faith they hold, even if they commit the major sins" ⁸, and "they do not testify the Fire for anyone of the people of major sins, nor judge Paradise for anyone of the monotheists; their affair is with God — He may punish them or forgive them" ⁸.

This entry presents the positions of the 'Aqida al-Tahawiyya, Ibn Qudama's Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Taymiyya's al-Wasitiyya, and what al-Ash'ari related in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of the people of hadith and sunna and declared his own — each attributed to its book. The sayings of the Maturidis and the remaining Sunni and non-Sunni schools from their own books have not yet been added; the entry needs specialist review before promotion.