and that from sunset to midnight, is a disbeliever in Allah the Almighty. He is given three days to repent. If he does not repent and says, ‘Abandoning it does not constitute disbelief,’ he is to be beheaded—meaning one who abandons it and makes that statement. But if he performs the prayer and makes that statement, this is a matter of scholarly judgment.”
He said:
“The scholars who came after them, down to our own time, followed them in what we have described, except those who parted from the community and followed divergent whims. Those are people whom Allah holds of no account, because they have parted from the community.”
The imam Abū ‘Ubayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, who authored a book on faith, said:
“These are the names of those who held that faith consists of words and deeds and increases and decreases.
From Mecca:
‘Ubayd ibn ‘Umayr al-Laythī; ‘Atā’ ibn Abī Rabāh; Mujāhid ibn Jabr; Ibn Abī Mulaykah; ‘Amr ibn Dīnār; Ibn Abī Najīh; ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Umar; ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthmān; ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Jurayh; Nāfi‘ ibn Jubayr; Dāwūd ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-‘Attār; ‘Abd Allah ibn Rajā’.
From Medina:
Muhammad ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī; Rabī‘ah ibn Abī ‘Abd al-Rahmān; Abū Hāzim al-A‘raj; Sa‘d ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Awf; Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Ansārī; Hishām ibn ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr; ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar al-‘Umarī; Mālik ibn Anas; Muhammad ibn Abī Dhi’b; Sulaymān ibn Bilāl; ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn ‘Abd Allah—meaning al-Mājishūn; ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Abī Hāzim.
From Yemen:
Tāwūs al-Yamānī; Wahb ibn Munabbih; Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid; ‘Abd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām.
From Egypt and Syria:
Makhūl; al-Awzā‘ī; Sa‘īd ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz; al-Walīd ibn Muslim; Yūnus ibn Yazīd al-Aylī; Yazīd ibn Abī Habīb; Yazīd ibn Shurayh; Sa‘īd ibn Abī Ayyūb; al-Layth ibn Sa‘d; ‘Abd Allah ibn Abī Ja‘far; Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sālih; Haywah