Chapter: A Rebuttal of Those Who Declare a Person an Unbeliever on Account of Sin

I said: Imagine someone were to claim, “Whoever commits a sin is a disbeliever.” What argument overturns his position? One replies to him: Allah the Exalted has said, “The Man of the Fish (Dhu al-Nun) went off in anger, thinking We would not constrain him, and he cried out in the darknesses, ‘There is no god but You; glory be to You! Truly I have been among the wrongdoers’” (Q 21:87). He was a wrongdoer, yet still a believer—neither an unbeliever nor a hypocrite.

Likewise, the brothers of Joseph said, “Our father, ask forgiveness for our sins; we have indeed been in error” (Q 12:97). They were sinners, not unbelievers.

Allah the Exalted also said to Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“so that Allah may forgive you your earlier and later sin” (Q 48:2). He did not say, “your disbelief.”

And when Moses killed the man, his act was a sin, but it did not render him an unbeliever.