ordained by Allah has opposed Allah in His command. Whoever knowingly argues in support of falsehood remains under Allah’s displeasure until he desists. Whoever attributes to a Muslim something that is not true of him will be confined in Radghat al-Khabāl until he extricates himself from what he said.”

Thus, anyone who intercedes to prevent the prescribed punishments from being carried out opposes Allah in His command, for Allah has commanded punishment for transgressing His limits. A believer must therefore not let compassion for those who practise religious innovation, wickedness and sin, or for oppressors, overcome him.

All of this is summed up in Allah’s description of the believers:

“Humble towards the believers, firm towards the disbelievers.”

And His saying:

“Firm against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves.”

All these major sins are branches of disbelief. A Muslim does not become a disbeliever merely by committing a major sin, but he forfeits the description of having the required degree of faith. Thus, in the authentic hadith collections, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“A person who commits unlawful sexual intercourse is not a believer while committing it.”

And so the hadith continues. Their deficiency in faith warrants withholding compassion and mercy from them, and that branch of disbelief makes them deserving of severity proportionate to it. There is no contradiction in one and the same person being shown mercy and loved in one respect, yet subjected to punishment and hated in another, or being rewarded in one respect and punished in another.

The position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah is that both can coexist in the same person, contrary to what the Khawārij and others like them among the Muʿtazilah claim. According to them, anyone among those who face the qiblah who deserves punishment will never leave the Fire. They thus held that such people who worship Allah alone must remain there forever. They also maintained: “Whoever deserves punishment does not deserve reward.”