Nawaqid al-Islam
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Nawaqid al-Islam ("The Nullifiers of Islam") is a concise theological treatise by the Saudi jurist and Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baz (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE) outlining the primary actions, beliefs, and statements that invalidate a Muslim's faith and cause apostasy.
Composition and Publication
Ibn Baz prepared the tract while serving as General President of the Departments of Scientific Research, Ifta, Da'wah, and Guidance. It was published in Majallat al-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah in Riyadh in its seventh issue, spanning Rajab through Shawwal 1403 AH. The treatise has since been included within his compiled works, Majmu Fatawa wa-Maqalat Mutanawwiah, and published alongside his creedal treatise al-Aqidah al-Sahihah wa-Ma Yudadduha ("The Sound Creed and What Opposes It").
The author framed the work as an advisory summary for Muslims, drawing upon the rulings outlined by classical jurists under the legal category of apostasy (bab hukm al-murtadd). While noting that scholars have identified many actions that take a person out of Islam, Ibn Baz focused on ten specific nullifiers characterized as the most severe and widespread, which had previously been enumerated by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1206 AH) and other scholars.
Content and Structure
The tract presents the ten nullifiers concisely with supporting scriptural proofs and brief elucidations:
- Polytheism in worship (shirk): Directing worship to other than God, including supplicating the deceased, seeking their aid, and making vows or ritual slaughter for tombs or the jinn.
- Setting intermediaries: Appointing intermediaries between oneself and God to supplicate them, seek their intercession, and place reliance upon them.
- Refusing to declare disbelievers as such: Failing to deem polytheists disbelievers, doubting their disbelief, or validating their religious systems.
- Preferring external guidance or judgment: Believing that any alternative guidance is more complete than the Prophet's guidance, or that human legislation and man-made systems are superior to Islamic law (sharia). Ibn Baz notes that this includes believing Islamic law is unsuitable for modern application, that it caused Muslim backwardness, or that religion should be confined to private worship without governing public life.
- Aversion to prophetic teachings: Harboring hatred toward anything the Messenger brought, even if one complies with it in practice.
- Mockery of religion: Deriding any part of the religion, its promised rewards, or its punishments.
- Sorcery (sihr): Practicing or approving of magical arts, such as spells of estrangement (sarf) and attraction (atf).
- Aiding polytheists against Muslims: Supporting and assisting disbelievers against the Muslim community.
- Belief in exemption from prophetic law: Believing that any individual is permitted to operate outside the Sharia of Muhammad ﷺ, drawing an invalid parallel to the narrative of al-Khadir and Moses.
- Total turning away from religion (al-i'rad): Neglecting God's religion by neither learning its fundamentals nor practicing it.
The text concludes by noting that these nullifiers apply equally whether committed in jest, in earnest, or out of fear, with the sole exception being one acting under duress (al-mukrah).
Classification and Application
In his broader discussions on creed, Ibn Baz divided detractions to faith into two categories: major breaches that completely invalidate belief and cause apostasy, and minor infractions that weaken faith without expelling the individual from Islam. He categorized all invalidating acts as occurring through four avenues: speech, physical action, conviction, or doubt and hesitation. Regarding legal implementation, he maintained that when a specific person commits an act of apostasy, evidence must be established (iqamat al-hujjah), and legal verdicts and executions remain the responsibility of legitimate judicial authorities via the Sharia courts rather than individuals.
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