Question:

I ask Allah, the Most Generous, to bless us with your long life, granting you success in all good and keeping you safe from all harm. It is important to me to present to you a major issue by which Muslims in our land have been afflicted, due to it coming from a man who claims knowledge, whom people respect for his good companionship and pleasant character. He is a well-known preacher in a large mosque in a prominent city called Alway—among its scholars is Sheikh Muhyiddin Alway, formerly a teacher at the Islamic University of Madinah.

The matter is that this man said to a righteous man: “O so-and-so, you are a disbeliever because of your claim that it is obligatory for Muslims to obey the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) absolutely. Because worship means absolute obedience, and that is the right of Allah alone, singling out Allah with that obedience is Monotheism (Tawhid), while obeying anyone else absolutely is Shirk (polytheism).”

A group of Muslims now believe that this individual has himself become a disbeliever because of his declaring a righteous believer to be a disbeliever. We hope that your Eminence will graciously provide the Muslims with a definitive answer that resolves this dispute, knowing that all Muslims listen to and submit to your answer, and by the grace of Allah, you are the focal point of the Muslims’ trust in our land.

May Allah preserve you as a treasure for Islam. And peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Answer:

Obedience to the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is absolute and unconstrained, because Allah the Almighty commanded it in His decisive revelation in many verses in an absolute manner. Examples include His saying: “Say: ‘Obey Allah and obey the Messenger, but if you turn away, he (Messenger Muhammad ﷺ) is only responsible for the duty placed on him (i.e. to convey Allah’s Message) and you for that placed on you. If you obey him, you shall be on the right guidance. The Messenger’s duty is only to convey (the message) in a clear way (i.e. to preach in a plain way).’“ [An-Nur: 54]

His saying: “He who obeys the Messenger (Muhammad ﷺ), has indeed obeyed Allah,…“ [An-Nisa: 80]

His saying: “And obey Allah and the Messenger (Muhammad ﷺ) that you may obtain mercy.” [Ali ‘Imran: 132]

And many other verses.

Furthermore, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “Whoever obeys me has obeyed Allah, and whoever disobeys me has disobeyed Allah” (agreed upon) ¹.

From this, it is known that what this Imam said is pure error and a grave mistake that contradicts the legal proofs from the Quran and Sunnah, as well as the consensus of the scholars. However, he is not declared a disbeliever until his error is made clear to him; if he persists in it and does not repent, he is judged to be a disbeliever.

And with Allah is all success, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions.

1. It was narrated with this wording from the Hadith of Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) by: Ahmad (2/252-253, 270, 313, 386, 416, 467, 471), Al-Bukhari (4/8, 8/104), Muslim (3/1466, no. 1835), An-Nasa’i in Al-Kubra (7/187, 231, 8/73, nos. 7786, 7894, 8674), and in Al-Mujtaba (7/154, 8/276, nos. 4193, 5510), and Ibn Majah (1/4, 2/954, nos. 3, 2859). ↩