موانع تکفیر اور فقہاے اہل سنت: ایک تجزیاتی مطالعہ

The Criteria of Takfir in Sunni Legal Discourse: An Analytical Study of Obstacles to and Conditions of Takfir

Abstract

Takfir—to declare a Muslim a kafir or murtadd i.e., an apostate or unbeliever—is considered as a highly sensitive issue in the Islamic legal and theological discourse for its dangerous consequences and, therefore, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) warned of accusing a fellow Muslim of kufr (i.e. denial/disbelief or apostasy). The last few decades have surprisingly witnessed an increase in trends of takfir across the globe. The mainstream sunni jurists are of the view that a Muslim becomes an unbeliever/apostate if he denies—verbally or by an action—a fundamental principle of Islamic belief, but they have also identified certain obstacles and conditions necessary to be observed before declaring a Muslim fellow a kafir (apostate or a non-Muslim). This paper attempts to elaborate the said conditions of and obstacles to takfir, relying upon the sunni fiqh genre.  The conclusion reached by the author is that takfir has nothing to do with a Muslim when one of the following four major obstacles to takfir is present: ikrah (fear of death), khata (a genuine mistake without intention), jahl (lack of knowledge or unawareness) and tawil (an interpretation, whether or not literal, analogical, allegorical/esoteric, symbolic or mystical, of the divine text, which may sometimes lead to an unpopular or the least possible conclusion).