Can a Layman Make Takfir and Call the One Who Commits Shirk a Mushrik or Kafir? | Salih al-Fawzan

4,057 views·May 18, 2026

📌 In this video, Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan tackles an important misconception and doubt used by the extremist contemporary Murjiah to affirm Islam for those who commit actions and statements of shirk and kufr. ❌ One of the doubts used by the extremist contemporary Murjiah is the claim that the person who utters the shahadatayn, yet commits shirk and kufr in his statements and actions, is still a Muslim because takfir is supposedly restricted only to the major scholars and senior ulama. All of this is an attempt to suspend and nullify the outward rulings so that the one who openly commits clear statements and actions of shirk and kufr continues to be called a Muslim. 📚Takfir is of two types: 1️⃣ Takfir al-Ismi: the outward ruling of names and labels. 2️⃣ Takfir al-Hukmi: the legislative penal rulings and punishments connected to those labels. ✅ The name and outward ruling are applied once the action or statement becomes clear. As for the legislative punishments, they are only carried out by the Islamic authority in this world or by Allah in the Hereafter. The questioner mentions that when he falsely restricts the outward rulings only to the ulama, they (rightfully) accuse him of Irja. So the Shaykh clarified two important principles: 1️⃣ Outward takfir is not conditioned upon anything except the appearance of the action or statement. 2️⃣ The outward ruling is not restricted to the ulama alone. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Authentic and True — From the Scholars to You ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Islam #Quran #Sunnah #Aqeedah #Salafi #salafiyyah #Bidah #IslamicAdvice #IslamicReminders #SeekingKnowledge #Tawheed #Muslim #Fiqh #scholarsofsunnah #AhlusSunnah #IslamicClips #IslamicShorts #Creed #IslamicEducation #IslamicLecture #MuslimYouth #Knowledge #IslamicGuidance #Shariah #Reminder #ShirkAkbar #ExcuseOfIgnorance #Takfir #Iman #Kufr #SalafiDawah #AhlusSunnahWalJamaah #ManhajSalaf #IslamicCreed #UsulAlDeen #KitabAlTawhid #ScholarsOfIslam #IbnBaz #IbnUthaymeen #LajnahDaimah #Clarification #Refutation #SeekKnowledge #Ilm #Dawah #Truth #Guidance #SunnahWay #Hajj #DhulHijjah #EidAlAdha #DaysOfDhulHijjah #Pilgrimage #Udhiyah #Qurbani #Hajj2026 #IslamicReminder #LabbaikAllahummaLabbaik #Sacrifice #Sunnah #Tawhid #Arafah #DayOfArafah #Eid #MuslimPilgrimage #PropheticSunnah #IslamicKnowl