# Why is demanding that a scholar make takfir a form of bullying?

*How is the letter bullying? Sectarianism by threat of takfir, and nobody's job to expel people from the deen*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mlnpcjxypqm/s/5/
- Date: 2020-04-06 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: People Attacking Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi | Mufti Abu Layth (15:27–16:52)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNpcjXYpqM&t=927s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mlnpcjxypqm/

**Topics:** Sects, sectarianism and takfir; Views on contemporary scholars

**Question as asked:** How is that bullying?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** It is bullying because it pushes a sectarian agenda by threatening to declare al-Yaqoubi a deviant or a kafir for refusing to pronounce on others' beliefs. The deen belongs to Allah, and it is nobody's duty to expel people from it.

## Longer summary

Reading a comment asking how the letter counts as bullying rather than a request for clarity, Mufti Abu Layth answers that it is bullying because it pushes the agenda of sectarianism on the back of a threat: if you do not comply we will declare you a deviant, and he believes some of them are prepared to call al-Yaqoubi a kafir while others would say he is no longer Sunni or outside mainstream Islam, simply because he refuses to comment on certain people's beliefs or to call certain people kafir. He asks who put anybody in charge of that and says such people treat the religion as their father's property, deciding who is in and who is out. Because of this behaviour, he says, people are sick to death of this religion or of any religion, so we need to calm ourselves: the deen is from Allah and not ours to control; we may teach what we believe its main teachings to be, but it is not our duty to throw this person and that person out of the deen until only oneself and one's village are left.

## Sources and names cited

- Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi
- takfir
- deen
- Sunni

## Transcript (machine tier, 15:27–16:52)

[14:54] like put on that oh really Wow like calm down for God's sake so people I think with that right so so what is going on what is going on is shaykh abdullah bin baya the current dawn of Maliki knowledge no I don't know I don't think so but shaykh abdullah bin BAE is definitely a Maliki scholar he's definitely a great scholar I don't I don't say he's the the dawn somebody asked how is that bullying you see asking for clarity because I'll tell you it's bullying because what you're doing

[15:33] is you're just pushing the the agenda of sectarianism on the back of trying to say if you don't we will declare you a deviant and I believe that some of them are prepared to call him a kafir and others might say he's no longer a Sunni and he's now out of the fold of them mainstream Islam why because he simply refuses to give comments on certain people's beliefs like if he refuses to call certain people a cafe who on earth put anybody in charge anyway you know this ain't you know a to these people I tell them they say your dad's Deen you

[16:12] know you check out who you want and you bring in who you want it's because of this behavior people are sick to death of this religion or of any religion so we need to kind of calm ourselves this Deen is from Allah it's not for us to country we can teach that look this is how we feel the main teachings of Islam are but it's not our duty to chuck him out of the deen and chuck her out of the deen and then Chuck everybody you know until there's just me and my village left in there all right

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment mLNpcjXYpqM/s/5. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mlnpcjxypqm/s/5/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.