Al-Istiqama - Ibn Taimiya - (1/463)

Al-IstiqamaIbn Taimiya

And He says:
“We send down of the Quran that which is healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss.” [Surah al-Isrā’ 82]

It is well known that repentance encompasses the return from evil deeds to good deeds. Hence, nothing erases all evil deeds except repentance. Apostasy encompasses the return from good deeds to evil deeds. Hence, nothing nullifies all good deeds except apostasy from faith.

Likewise, what we have mentioned concerning the varying degrees of evil deeds applies to disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience: some disbelievers are less evil than others. Thus, in their chapters on apostasy and embracing Islam, the jurists discuss a person’s passage from one religion to another—as when one spouse changes religion—as a passage to a religion better than, worse than, or equivalent to the former religion. They say that when a person belonging to the People of the Book becomes a Magian or a polytheist, he has moved to something worse than his former religion. When a polytheist or a Magian joins the People of the Book, he has moved to something better than his former religion. When a Christian becomes a Jew, or vice versa, he has moved to a religion equivalent to his own. By consensus, adherents of Magianism are allowed to remain in their religion. As for polytheism, according to some scholars, only certain people are allowed to remain in it. The Sabeans fall into two categories according to scholars who have carefully investigated the matter, while other scholars hold two differing views concerning them. Knowledge of the relative ranks of religions is needed in many contexts to understand the relative ranks of good deeds.

The jurists discuss this in order to determine the rulings concerning these people, their intermarriages, their slaughtered animals, the protection of their lives, fighting them, and allowing them to remain in their religion upon payment of the jizyah imposed on them, along with other rulings brought by the Book and the Sunnah concerning religious communities and factions

وَقَالَ وننزل من الْقُرْآن مَا هُوَ شِفَاء وَرَحْمَة للْمُؤْمِنين وَلَا يزِيد الظَّالِمين إِلَّا خسارا [سُورَة الْإِسْرَاء ٨٢] وَمَعْلُوم أَن التَّوْبَة هِيَ جماع الرُّجُوع من السَّيِّئَات إِلَى الْحَسَنَات وَلِهَذَا لَا يحبط جَمِيع السَّيِّئَات إِلَّا التَّوْبَة وَالرِّدَّة هِيَ جماع الرُّجُوع من الْحَسَنَات إِلَى السَّيِّئَات وَلِهَذَا لَا يحبط جَمِيع الْحَسَنَات إِلَّا الرِّدَّة عَن الْإِيمَان وَكَذَلِكَ مَا ذَكرْنَاهُ فِي تفَاوت السَّيِّئَات هُوَ فِي الْكفْر وَالْفِسْق والعصيان فالكفار بَعضهم دون بعض وَلِهَذَا يذكر الْفُقَهَاء فِي بَاب الرِّدَّة وَالْإِسْلَام انْتِقَال الرجل كَأحد الزَّوْجَيْنِ من دين إِلَى دين آخر انْتِقَال إِلَى دين خير من دينه أَو دون دينه أَو مثل دينه فَيَقُولُونَ إِذا صَار الْكِتَابِيّ مجوسيا أَو مُشْركًا فقد انْتقل إِلَى شَرّ من دينه وَإِذا صَار الْمُشرك أَو الْمَجُوسِيّ كتابيا فقد انْتقل إِلَى خير من دينه وَإِذا تهود النَّصْرَانِي أَو بِالْعَكْسِ فقد انْتقل إِلَى نَظِير دينه والتمجس يقر عَلَيْهِ بالِاتِّفَاقِ وَأما الْإِشْرَاك فَلَا يقر عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا بعض النَّاس عِنْد بعض الْعلمَاء والصابئة نَوْعَانِ عِنْد الْمُحَقِّقين وعَلى قَوْلَيْنِ عِنْد آخَرين وَمَعْرِفَة مَرَاتِب الْأَدْيَان مُحْتَاج إِلَيْهَا فِي مَوَاضِع كَثِيرَة لمعْرِفَة مَرَاتِب الْحَسَنَات وَالْفُقَهَاء يذكرُونَ ذَلِك لأجل معرفَة أحكامهم وتناكحهم وذبائحهم وَفِي دِمَائِهِمْ وقتالهم وإقرارهم بالجزية المضروبة عَلَيْهِم وَنَحْو ذَلِك من الْأَحْكَام الَّتِي جَاءَ بهَا الْكتاب وَالسّنة فِي أهل الْملَل والأحزاب