Why Killing a Muslim is Kufr
Understanding the Hadith on Muslims Fighting with Swords: Kufr Al-Asghar vs Kufr Al-Akbar
Summary
This lecture analyzes a hadith narrated by Abu Bakr in which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) states that if two Muslims fight each other with swords, both the killer and the victim will be in hellfire. The speaker explains the significance of the Prophet's specific wording, emphasizing that killing a Muslim is described as an act characteristic of disbelievers. The lecture explores the distinction between kufr al-asghar (minor disbelief referring to acts of disbelief) and kufr al-akbar (major disbelief that removes one from Islam), clarifying that fighting fellow Muslims is considered an act of disbelief while not necessarily making the perpetrator an apostate. The speaker uses examples from the Quran to illustrate how Islamic rhetoric conveys multiple layers of meaning through economical wording.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah.
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Forch.
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Abu Bakr narrates here that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said, "If two Muslims meet one another with their swords, then the killer and his victim are both in the hellfire." Notice the wording here. If the killer if the if two Muslims meet one another with their swords then both the killer and his victim are in the hellfire. Here the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam is saying a whole lot in this one sentence. The wording that he chose, if two Muslims because it is of the actions of the kufur, meaning killing a Muslim is the sole domain of those who disbelieve in Allah. They epitomize this act. And for this reason the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said alkari hadith of Omar.
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And notice what the wording is. He says, he said to the companions, he announced to them, "Do not go back on your heels after my death, after my departure. Do not go back to kufur. Do not go back to being disbelievers. each of you striking the neck of the other meaning in battle fighting with each other. Do not go back to being disbelievers. He also said that insulting a Muslim is fulfing him is kufur is disbelief. What's that mean? Does that mean that the mere act of fighting a Muslim makes a person a disbeliever? This is the sole act of a disbeliever. Meaning it's one of the proprietary features of disbelief. What is one of the most prominent features or one of the most prominent descriptions of a disbeliever? One one of the things that the disbeliever is most known for. If I were to say who is the Muslim and we said the Muslim is the one who faces the of the Muslim, the one who eats from the slaughtering of the Muslim, the one who prays the prayer of the Muslim. This is the Muslim. The prophet defined the Muslim in this in this way. menus. He said whoever faces our and prays our prayer and eats from our slaughtering then he is the Muslim. For him what is for the Muslims and against him is what? The Muslims. So we say that praying is Islam. It is not all of Islam. It is part of Islam. It's one of the most prominent features of Islam. Correct? Same thing with Hajj is does that mean that if a person just goes stands on and that's all he does that he is now a Hajj? No. His hajj wouldn't be valid according to the consensus of the scholars. However, this is to articulate the importance of this pillar of Haj which is standing on same thing if we were to say Allah says about the the he refers to salah in the Quran as the of not the salah of the Quran of so does that mean that if I Don't pray I just recite Quran at that I have made salah. No, of course not. You have to make and make your sujud and you have to make and you have to correct. However, this is its most prominent feature. So it's okay to to refer to the entire unit by its most prominent feature. Correct? And the same thing goes when the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam says do not go back to being disbelievers after me. Fighting a Muslim is disbelief. The mere act does not take a person out of the fold of Islam. And we understand that from his words here. If the two Muslims meet each other with their swords, he called them Muslims even though they're fighting each against each other. Correct. He says subhanahu wa ta'ala if two factions or two sides of Muslims fight one another. So Allah referred to them as what? Muslims even though they're fighting each other. This is what the scholars of Islam refer to as the actions of the actions of the and so this act itself is kufur meaning it's one of the proprietary traits of disbelief but there's a difference between kufur and al kufur there's a difference between disbelief a disbelief and the disbelief belief. So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is saying a lot here when he says man.
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When he says if the if two Muslims meet each other with their swords then both the killer and his victim are in the hellfire. We understand from this that what has landed them into hellfire is the act but not the disbelief that is in the hearts that will cause a person to never be able to enter paradise. Very clear. The same, the same type of speech, the same rhetoric is used in the Quran by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when economizing on words. Instead of spelling every single thing out, he uses as few words as possible to articulate as much knowledge as possible. And so this is why when we read these types of narrations, we understand that what is meant by disbelief here is the acts of the disbelievers, right? The acts of the disbelievers. Just if a non-Muslim were to give charity or if a non-Muslim were to make Hajj or if a non-Muslim were to fight against evil. These are acts of e but that doesn't make them a what? A mmin. There's a difference because eman being a mman a believer this has prerequisites. It has conditions. It has pillars. And so some of the companions Abbas referred to this asbu.
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This is kufur which is the lesser of the two types of kufur or referred to as by others as minor kufur. Minor kufur. Minor kufur means the acts of the kufur. Major kufur mean this person has left Islam. They have departed from the fold of Islam. Now the prophet sallall.aii Wasam said both of them are in the hellfire. We understand a lot that he didn't say. What he said here was if two Muslims meet each other with their swords then both the killer and his victim are in hell. So what does that mean? What's really being said and what's implied here is if two Muslims meet each other with the intention to kill one another and then fight resulting in one of them killing the other, both the killer and his victim are in the hellfire. That's what the sentence really means. That's the full sentence. These are things that are implied by the statement. And so what articulated that meaning when he said with their swords and this is an important point which we will end with and that is I don't know what's in the heart of another person. I don't know could be good could be bad could be they're truthful could be they're lying through their teeth I don't know the knowledge of what is in the hearts of men is the sole domain of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. However, I do use evidence of what a person says and behaves as an evidence of what is in this person's heart. Right? So for instance, as we mentioned yesterday, if we looked at the situation of two people attacking each other with deadly weapons, all right, the sword is not used to, you know, , put someone in line. It's not used as a sportsmanlike fight or squabble. A sword is used to take life. That's its sole purpose. That's why it was designed. It was designed for everything that. similar to a handgun or a rifle, even worse. These are instruments of death, they have been designed from the ground up to take life. And so if a person uses a weapon that, even if they claim, I didn't mean to hurt him. I didn't mean to kill him. I just meant to scare him, we wouldn't accept that. Why? Because the action now speaks it articulates what is in the heart and what the intention is. We'll pick this point up inshallah tomorrow morning.