Questions on Aqaa'id (Beliefs)
Q. When a person committed kufr what are the consequences?
A. When a person becomes a kaafir –Allah forbid – he loses his Imaan, and his nikah terminates forthwith. He has to repent, renew his Imaan and also his nikah. All his past deeds are obliterated by his kufr. Even if he had performed Hajj before, he will again have to perform Hajj if he is by the means. A Muslim who reneges from Islam is termed murtad. If he dies without having repented and renewing his Imaan, he will suffer everlasting damnation in the Hereafter.
Q. What is Takfeer?
A. Takfeer in the terminology of the Shariah means to declare that a person is a kaafir. When a person denies an established teaching of Islam or he mocks it or he misinterprets it to change its meaning from the established meaning which has come down from the Sahaabah, or he commits an act of kufr, e.g. worships in a temple/church, or he dresses like a Hindu pundit, or he approves of a kuffaar system thereby derogating and displacing the Islamic system then such a person becomes a ‘kaafir’. Rejection of any established practice of Islam is kufr. The Fuqaha say, for example: “Miswaak is Sunnat, but its denial is kufr.”
