who declare others unbelievers according to their whims. You need look no further than the words of al-Kawtharī, this writer’s teacher, declaring Shaykh al-Islām and other adherents of the Sunnah unbelievers.

Al-Kawtharī, whom the writer delights in describing as “the imam and hadith scholar—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him”—is in fact a misguided innovator; may Allah give him what he deserves. He says of Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him: “His unbelief became a matter of consensus.” He also says: “There was agreement that he was misguided, an innovator, and a heretic,” and: “He does not belong to any of the seventy-three sects”1.

Of Ibn al-Qayyim, he says: “An unbeliever or an ass,” “An ass or a he-goat,” “The heretic,” “The vile one,” “The accursed one,” and “His unbelief has reached a point about which it is impermissible to remain silent”2.

Were I to quote al-Kawtharī’s statements, attacks, curses, and declarations of unbelief against these two imams and other imams of the Muslims, the quotations would fill dozens of pages. Suffice it to say that you can scarcely read a page of his book Tabdīd al-Zalām (Dispelling the Darkness) without finding it reeking of the profusion of abuse, curses, and accusations of unbelief directed at the imams of guidance, the eminent figures of the early generations, and the scholars of the Sunnah.

Who, then, declares Muslims and their scholars unbelievers, you deluded writer?

“Inform me with knowledge, if you are truthful.” 3

As for declaring someone who denies that Allah alone is to be worshipped an unbeliever, this is not a matter of dispute, for such denial is the religion of the polytheists, as Allah relates of them in the Quran, in these and other verses:

“Indeed, whenever they were told, ‘There is no deity except Allah,’ they were arrogant and would say, ‘Are we to abandon our gods for a mad poet?’” 4