or it was a slip of the tongue, as sometimes happens, then it causes no harm, praise be to Allah.

He said: “Such as one who intended to say, ‘O Allah, You are my servant and I am Your Lord’; or an act whose perpetrator the Lawgiver has described as having committed disbelief: this is lesser disbelief, which does not take one outside Islam, such as claiming someone other than his father as his father, or going to a fortune-teller and believing what he says. It is a stern warning and disbelief, but it does not take one outside Islam.” This is not unconditional; rather, it requires further detail. There is no doubt that this is an act of disbelief, but it is not disbelief that expels one from the faith—unless it is accompanied by something that entails disbelief, such as believing that the soothsayer possesses knowledge of the unseen, which none knows except Allah, and the like. In that case, it is disbelief, not from this particular aspect, but from another aspect.

He said: “Or if he makes a statement that takes him outside Islam, such as saying, ‘He is a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian,’ or, ‘I disavow Islam, the Quran, or the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,’ or if he worships the cross, and the like, as they have mentioned in the chapter on oaths.” Whoever says any of this is an apostate disbeliever, and we hold him to this statement of his. If he says, “That was not what I intended,” then, if there is an indication showing that he is truthful, we leave him alone; but if there is none, we execute him unless he repents.

He said: “Or if he reviles the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, or his mother”—and likewise his wives, according to the stronger view—“or believes that the universe is eternal.”

There is lengthy disagreement over this issue: is the universe eternal in its essence, eternal in its type, or eternal in its genus? There is disagreement on this matter. The best thing to say regarding this dispute is that it is idle talk, and that what introduced it into the Ummah