Dividing Muslims into practising and non-practising

The Muslim is the one who
believes in the six pillars of faith: He believes in Allaah, His angels, His
Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and the Divine will, both good and bad;
who utters the testimony of belief in Tawheed (Oneness of Allaah) to
proclaim his submission to Allaah alone with no partner or associate; and
follows the sharee’ah which was brought by the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him). 

Everyone who does that is a
Muslim, with the same rights and duties as all other Muslims, unless he
destroys his Islam by saying, doing or believing anything that implies kufr
and demolishes the pillars of faith that are established in his heart. 

But people vary in the
degree of their faith, just as they vary in the level of their adherence to
the rulings of Islam and following its commands. 

The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) told us that faith has many branches and
varying degrees, which means that the believers will vary in their degrees
according to the extent to which they follow these branches and levels.  

It was narrated that Abu
Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said:  The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Faith has
seventy-odd – or sixty-odd – branches, the best of which is saying Laa
ilaaha ill-Allaah, and the least of which is removing something harmful from
the road, and modesty is a branch of faith.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (9) and
Muslim (35).  

In the Holy Qur’aan, people
are divided into three categories: the one who wrongs himself by sinning,
the one who is average in his adherence to  what is obligatory and avoidance
of what is forbidden, and the foremost in good deeds who regularly performs
naafil acts of worship and strives hard to attain high levels. Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning): 

“Then We gave the Book
(the Qur’aan) as inheritance to such of Our slaves whom We chose (the
followers of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم).
Then of them are some who wrong their ownselves, and of them are some who
follow a middle course, and of them are some who are, by Allaah’s Leave,
foremost in good deeds. That (inheritance of the Qur’aan) ___ that is indeed
a great Grace”

[Faatir 35:32]

Division of people into
categories according to their obedience and adherence to the laws of Allaah
is something real and unavoidable, but calling people by those categories is
something which may vary. But in general these categories are acceptable and
correct. 

Although we do not see
anything basically wrong with this categorization, which includes calling
people practising or non-practising, we would like to draw attention to some
mistakes that have to do with the kind of categorizing that is common
nowadays. 

1.

It is not permissible to
limit the concept of “practising” or “being committed” to external matters
only, and apply this label only to one who has a beard and wears a thobe,
rather attention should be paid to complete adherence to Islam and correct
‘aqeedah (belief). A good attitude and morals are the basic foundation of
this category. The thobe, beard and women’s hijabs are part of Islamic
teachings, but not everything; they are outward indications of religious
commitment which should be accompanied by inward commitment too. But this
required balance between inward and outward is lacking in more than a few
cases, unfortunately. Hence it is not permissible to use these
characteristics as a weapon to categorize people incorrectly. The one who
dislikes a person and calls him non-practising or uncommitted, and who likes
another person and describes him as practising or committed, intends thereby
to judge whether people are good or bad, when he is not qualified to do so,
rather he may be lacking in good character altogether. 

We have seen many examples
of this behaviour in many societies, in which Islamic terminology is used to
achieve personal gains. This is a phenomenon that is dangerous and must be
avoided by all. 

2.

With regard to using these
labels as a means of causing division among people, creating disputes among
them and stirring up disunity, this is an evil intention which is not
acceptable in sharee’ah, unless the person who is described as not being
religiously committed has gone to extremes in committing evil openly and
blatantly doing things which the Muslim scholars are unanimously agreed are
wrong; such a person may be described as a sinner and uncommitted or
non-practising. But we see that many people define as religious  commitment
things that they think are part of the religion but which may be matters
that are subject to ijtihaad, then they label people as religiously
committed or otherwise based on the scholarly view that they prefer, without
paying any attention to the actual difference of scholarly opinion
concerning this matter. This is also a serious mistake. 

Hence what we think is most
fair and just and farthest removed from dispute, and more safe before Allaah
is to describe people – when there is a legitimate need for further
description beyond simply calling a person a Muslim – by using clear and
specific words and not general words. For example, one may say: He prays
regularly, or he is of good character, or he reads Qur’aan. These attributes
are clear and specific, and express the fact that is being described,
without introducing personal opinion, or bearing the responsibility of
general words which may be motivated by greed or grudges. As for describing
someone as “religiously committed” or “practising”, these are general and
ambiguous words which require close scrutiny of the person described,
followed by honesty in judgement, which is rarely found nowadays. And it is
well known that most of people’s problems result from general, ambiguous
statements. 

And Allaah knows best.