Introduction
All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils within ourselves and from the consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomever He allows to stray, none can guide. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partner. He—glorified and exalted—is the One who says:
“O you who believe! Believe in Allah, His Messenger, the Book which He has sent down upon His Messenger, and the Scripture He sent down before. Whoever disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, or the Last Day has indeed gone far astray.” (4:136) [al-Nisāʾ]
He also says:
“O you who believe! Whoever among you turns back from his religion, Allah will bring forth a people whom He loves and who love Him—humble toward the believers, firm against the disbelievers, striving in the path of Allah, and fearing not the reproach of any critic. That is the bounty of Allah; He bestows it upon whom He wills. Allah is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing.” (5:54) [al-Māʾidah]
And He says:
“Whoever of you turns back from his religion and dies while he is a disbeliever—their deeds will come to nothing in this world and in the Hereafter, and they are the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein forever.” (2:217) [al-Baqarah]
May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon His servant and Messenger Muhammad, who said: “Whoever changes his religion, execute him.” (1)
To proceed:
This is a commentary on the epistle of the reviver Imām Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (may Allah have mercy on him), entitled “The Nullifiers of Islam,” delivered by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Barrāk at the al-Khulayfī Mosque in Riyadh.