Takfir

Takfir is the judgement that a Muslim is an unbeliever; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia devotes a section to the rulings on takfir, including takfir of a Muslim, treating it among the most serious and most cautiously guarded rulings ¹.

The encyclopedia treats the related terms of ta'dil and takfir, then the rulings connected to takfir, foremost takfir of a Muslim ¹.

The seventh 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode debated the difference between kufr and takfir, when judgment is obligatory and who may issue it — the host described its misunderstanding as having 'caused bloodshed and great strife' ². The youth voted: 29% held that whoever does or says what indicates kufr must be declared kafir, 71% held he must not; ³ and 76% held a Muslim has no right to change his religion ⁴.

Panelists drew the rule: 'takfir of the named person' — judging an individual — versus 'takfir of the act': 'this act is kufr' without judging its doer; the example being al-Shafi'i's and Ahmad's exchange on abandoning prayer ^{5 6}. Muhammad al-Banna and Jamil Allam confined the nullifiers to denying 'what is known of religion by necessity' — the categorical fundamentals, not disputed details — and required explaining the doubt, calling to repentance and respite before ruling ^{7 8 9 10}. Salah Abd al-Salam stressed excusing ignorance: Arab illiteracy exceeds 70 million — what then of religious illiteracy ^{11 12}.

The panel divided on the freedom to change religion: one argued making it available is the channel into Islam, another replied the texts concern the warring hypocrites ^{13 14}. The host closed: the exceptions do not cancel the rule — Islam does not collide with religious freedom, and the established text is revered and applied with the etiquette of capability ^{15 16 17}.

The eighth episode continued: is the authority to declare takfir open to any scholar or closed to a defined body? ¹⁸ On whether the apostasy sanction is for breaking the state's order or for merely changing religion, the audience voted 42% versus 58%; ¹⁹ on who may declare takfir, only 6% said any scholar and 88% said an official sharia body that deliberates and verifies — not even a single judge ^{20 21}. And on confronting the takfiri groups: 59% armed confrontation, 41% continued dialogue ²².

On the nature of ridda they divided: Rajab Abu Malih held that merely changing religion is apostasy — announced or not, preached or not — 'religion is greater than the state'; ^{23 24 25} the head of the Manarat centre held that leaving the religion is leaving the state, since its duty is guarding religion — there is no difference between them in Islam ^{26 27}; and Jamil Allam distinguished the hypocrite — who disbelieves inwardly without declaring — from the apostate who disbelieves and declares ²⁸.

The sharpest debate ran over the texts: one guest raised that nearly a hundred verses establish religious freedom ('let whoever wills believe and whoever wills disbelieve', 'no compulsion in religion') against the hadith 'whoever changes his religion', and that the Qur'an rules over whatever collides with it; ^{29 30} the scholars replied there is no contradiction — contradiction is the impossibility of combining, and freedom of belief combines with a sanction on declared, warring exit ³¹.