he is merely sinful? Ahmad withheld judgment on whether he is a disbeliever and whether he should be executed. He said: “He is to be punished, flogged, and imprisoned until he dies or recants from that.” This is the well-known position in Malik’s school. It was also said: he is a disbeliever if he deems it lawful; whereas the school’s position is that he is to be subjected to discretionary punishment, as mentioned earlier at the beginning of the chapter on discretionary punishments.”
His statement, “if he deems it lawful”: It is well known that those who revile the Companions deem this lawful. Rather, they consider reviling them to be part of the religion, and hold that they must revile them, with the exception of only a few individuals. On this basis, such people are disbelievers, because they deem it lawful to revile the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; indeed, they regard it as a religious act and an act of worship by which they draw near to Allah. We ask Allah for safety and well-being.
He said: “In al-Fatawa al-Misriyyah, it states that he deserves severe punishment by agreement of the Muslims. They differed, however, as to whether he should be punished by execution or by a punishment less than execution.” He then said: “As for one who goes beyond that, such as one who claims that they apostatized after the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, except for a small number not reaching even a dozen, and that they became immoral: there is likewise no doubt that whoever makes such a claim is a disbeliever. Indeed, whoever doubts his disbelief is himself a disbeliever.” End of the abridged quotation from al-Sarim al-Maslul.
Whoever denies that Abu Bakr was the Companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has disbelieved, due to His saying, Exalted is He: “When he said to his companion...” [al-Tawbah: 40]. Likewise, whoever denies the obligation of the five acts of worship, or any one of them—including purification—or denies the lawfulness of bread, meat, or water; or declares fornication and the like lawful; or abandons the prayer; or declares lawful any of the manifestly prohibited matters upon whose prohibition there is consensus, such as pork, wine, and the like; or doubts any of this—when it is something a person in his position could not be ignorant of—has disbelieved. Likewise, whoever deems it lawful to kill those whose lives are inviolable and to take their property without any specious justification or interpretation has disbelieved.