Shaykh Hamza Yusuf gave a lecture in which he made a number of enlightening points which shifted my perception of belief and disbelief. It is ultimately a matter between the individual and God. In this world, we make legal and technical judgements upon people to categorize each other, but it is God that knows the secrets within ourselves.
Below is a transcript from the teaching, and the video is referenced as well.
“One of the problems with modern Muslims is they assume everybody's a Kafir if they’re not Muslim.
These verses aren’t talking to everybody who's not a Muslim. They’re talking about people who are arrogant, puffed up, filled with pride and wouldn’t give you the time of day.
Read the descriptions of the Kuffar in the Quran. They are Jabbar (tyrannical), Mutakabbir/Yastakbirun (arrogant), Mukhtalin Fakhur (braggart boasters), Dhalimun (oppressors).
These are the attributes that Allah gives them. Most people are Nas (people). A lot of them are just in Ghaflah (heedlessness), they’re just Nas.
That’s why Allah first calls people Ya ayyuhan nas (Oh people…) before He calls them Ya ayyuhal kafirun (Oh disbelievers…) or Ya ayyuhal lathina kafaru (Oh those who disbelieve…).
Initially he didn’t call the Arabs Ya ayyuhal kafirun, because they were not Kafirun. But after seeing miracles, after witnessing everything that they had witnessed, and treating Muhammad (ﷺ) the way they treated him for doing nothing other than calling them to their own success, Allah said Haqq al qawl:
This is too much, you can’t get away with this.
So it's important that people should not apply these things to people that they see out there walking around. The majority of these people, even though they have a legal status which is outside of Islam, you don’t assume about people.
I’ll give you an example, an example from my own experience. I made a statement right after 9/11 where I said in an interview with a newspaper, that if there were any martyrs in that event, it would have been the firefighters.
And somebody went to my teacher in Saudi Arabia, Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah and said that I said ‘the Kuffar (disbelievers) were Shuhada (martyrs).’ Now, it's very interesting. First of all, Shaykh Abdullah said ‘What word did he use, did he say Shahid?’ He said ‘No, he said martyr.’ He said ‘Martyr, it's true, they’re martyrs because in French, a martyr is one that gives his life for other people.’
That’s called Manduha (leeway). The thing about Muslims is they’re actually supposed to look for excuses for people, so he was just being a good Muslim.
But anyway, my point is, the assumption was that they were Kuffar. Did you check those firemen? Did you go and ask them what they believe?
The basis is not Kufr (disbelief), it's Iman (belief). People are believers before they’re disbelievers. The assumption about people is belief before its disbelief, because belief is a Fitrah state. Isn’t our Din, Din al Fitrah? Don’t we believe that people are actually by Fitrah inclined to believe in Allah?
So their inherent state is belief, and disbelief is actually a state that comes later because of arrogance for whatever reason.
It’s just simple, Kuffar. It just makes everything easy. The red sea, split it. We’re on that side, they’re on that side. Well not me, you know, I’m a convert. So I know what it's like on both sides because I’ve been on both sides.
And by the way,
You were the best people, past tense. No seriously. That’s the Tafsir. Read it for yourself.
Muslims talk about it and think it's the present tense, that we’re the best people. No, what are you doing for humanity right now? Where is your great medical discovery? Where is your aid to starving countries? What are you doing for Darfur?
Right, and then what,
It's not just Iman billah (belief in God). You have to be actually out there, doing things to get the Khayriyya in this Ummah. But that’s a past tense. That group were all converts, for people that your daughter’s too good to marry to the convert because you got your tree that goes back twelve generations and he does not even know who his great grandfather was.
Just something to think about.”
References
Hamza Yusuf- Who are the Kuffar? - YouTube Clip
