“Someone Who Commits Shirk Under Coercion Is Also Not a Mushrik”

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This claim relies on the state of ikrah to support their argument. In Islamic sources, the principle of excuse due to coercion is mentioned, and it is indeed valid and justified. According to this principle, under certain circumstances, a Muslim is permitted to outwardly make polytheistic statements.

The argument presented here is as follows: “If the mukrah/the coerced one does not become a mushrik despite committing polytheism, then this means that an ignorant mushrik can also be considered a Muslim.”

In reality, the situation is as follows: What is outwardly observable in a coerced person is that he is worshiping something other than Allah, renouncing Islam, or committing a similar act.

In the case of a kufr statement, the default ruling in Islamic law is to consider the person a non-Muslim. It would not be permissible to speculate: “This person made a clear statement of kufr, but perhaps he still maintain iman internally.”

For the early Muslims, the principle of the connection between the inner and outer (at-talazumu bayna dh-dhahiri wa-l-batin) was accepted by consensus. If this connection could be arbitrarily severed, then no ruling of the shari'ah and no Islamic legal judgment would remain valid. Whenever someone makes a statement, it could always be dismissed with the argument that the person might believe something different in his heart.

Only a few early Islamic sects, particularly the jahmiyyah, arrived at such an absurd conclusion. It would go beyond the scope and focus of this book to examine this group in detail. However, it is important to note that even this misguided sect never went so far as to consider a polytheist a Muslim.

When observing historical developments, it becomes clear that the false principles established by these sects were rarely carried out to their final consequences. Even the jahmiyyah hesitated to accept certain conclusions, or perhaps some of these implications never even occurred to them.

Furthermore, the jahmiyyah would not excuse a person for his ignorance regarding the foundation of Islam, since for them, knowledge was precisely the determining factor that made someone a Muslim.

The connection between the inner and the outer is thus a firmly established principle in Islamic theology and jurisprudence. The suspension of this connection in specific cases requires explicit evidence from Islamic sources.

One such exceptional case is that of ikrah. In this situation, a Muslim observer is instructed not to judge based on outward appearance.

Regarding this, the Qur'an states:

If a person could be considered a Muslim despite making a clear statement of kufr or shirk, even without being coerced, then this verse would have no meaning. If that were the case, there would be no need to make an exception for the state of ikrah in the first place.

Thus, this verse explicitly mentions both the exception of ikrah and the connection between the outward and the inward.