shafi‘i fiqh 4 :
Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله تعالى said:
If we were to declare every person who was ignorant of this a disbeliever, it would necessitate declaring so-and-so and so-and-so – and he named some well-known scholars who do not deserve takfir, among them al-Ghazali….
Along with this, he clarifies that the scholars of the Muslims who spoke by their ijtihad are not to be declared disbelievers merely for a mistake they made in their speech. And this is good speech, upon which agreement is found: for unleashing the ignorant to make takfir of the scholars of the Muslims is among the greatest evils; and its origin is from the Khawarij and the Rafidah, who declare the Imams of the Muslims disbelievers for what they think are mistakes in the religion.
And Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah are agreed that the scholars of the Muslims are not to be declared disbelievers merely for pure error; rather everyone's words are taken and left except the Messenger of Allah. And not everyone whose words have an error is declared kafir or fasiq; rather, nor does he sin. Indeed, he is not even taken to account, as Allah said: "Our Lord, do not take us to account if we forget or err"; and in the Sahih from the Prophet ﷺ that he said: "Indeed Allah said: I have done so."
If these people of Ta'wil were declared disbelievers, it would necessitate declaring many of the Shafi'is, Malikis, Hanafis, Hanbalis, and Ash'aris - who are not disbelievers by the CONSENSUS of the Muslims.
Majmu al-Fatawa 35/99-101
2026-10-27 19:24:07