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What is the ruling on one who sits in a gathering of disbelief while inwardly disapproving of it, and does he become a disbeliever by that or not?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We have discussed this issue previously in Fatwa No. 124358. Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, in his interpretation of the verse: {Make no excuses; you have disbelieved after your belief. If We pardon a party of you, We will punish another party because they were criminals}, stated that the pardoned party was disobedient, not disbelieving, either by hearing disbelief without denouncing it, or by uttering words that were not disbelief. This clarifies that merely hearing disbelief and sitting with its perpetrator is not disbelief unless the one sitting approves of it; rather, it is an act of disobedience. The certainty of Islam is not removed except by a similar certainty. A Muslim must be wary of sitting with those who delve into the verses of Allah and should know that he is in great danger if he remains silent about evil, but excommunication is not an easy matter.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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