The second group is a crop of upstarts that has sprung up in this age. They have been granted only a scant measure of sacred knowledge, especially knowledge relating to the principles of jurisprudence, the scholarly principles derived from the Quran and sunnah, and the way of the righteous predecessors. Yet they have been deluded by their knowledge and have set out to condemn leading scholars and jurists as innovators, and perhaps even to declare them disbelievers, on account of some misunderstanding or lapse on the scholars’ part. They observe neither ties of kinship nor covenant toward them. What the scholars at large know of their faith, righteousness, and knowledge does not avail them at all.

This is only because they are ignorant of the true nature of the disbelief by which a person departs from faith: namely, the rejection and denial of the proof and knowledge that have reached him. As Allah Most High says concerning Pharaoh’s people:

“When Our signs came to them, clear to see, they said, ‘This is obvious magic.’ And they rejected them, though their souls were convinced of them.” [Al-Naml 27:13–14]

And He says concerning those who disbelieved in the Quran:

“That is the recompense of Allah’s enemies: the Fire. Therein they shall have the everlasting abode, a recompense for having denied Our signs.” [Fussilat 41:28]

For this reason, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said in one of his fatwas (Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, 16/434):

“It is not permissible to declare everyone who opposes the sunnah to be a disbeliever. Not everyone who errs is a disbeliever, particularly in matters over which the Ummah has had extensive disagreement.”

He was referring to such matters as Allah’s Speech and its being uncreated, seeing Allah in the Hereafter, Allah’s istiwāʾ (rising over His Throne), and His being above His creation. Faith in these matters is a duty, and denying them is disbelief. Yet it is not permissible to declare disbelievers those among the Muʿtazilah, Khawarij, and Ashʿaris who interpreted them away because of some doubtful argument that had arisen for them—except one against whom the proof has been established and who then persists obstinately.

This is the example before us: the grave robber. Despite his doubt concerning Allah’s power to resurrect him, Allah forgave him, because he was not a rejecting and obstinate denier. Rather, owing to his ignorance, he had general faith in Allah and in the Resurrection, though not detailed faith. Shaykh al-Islam said, after citing the hadith in one of its narrations: