Resolution No.(74): “Cursing Allah The Exalted Turns a Person into an Apostate“
Date: 1/3/1425 AH, corresponding to 21/4/2004 AD.
The Board received the following question:
What is the ruling on living with a husband who curses Allah on regular basis whenever he gets mad, but once he regains calm, he seeks the forgiveness of Allah. However, when he is told that what he had done turned him into a disbeliever, he rejects that and confirms his belief in Allah and that he never intended to get out of the fold of Islam?
Answer: All success is due to Allah.
Cursing Allah The Exalted is a major sin that turns a person into a disbeliever, whether he was joking, serious or mocking, for Allah Says {what means}: “If thou dost question them, they declare (with emphasis): "We were only talking idly and in play." Say: "Was it at God, and His Signs, and His Apostle that ye were mocking?" {At-Tawbah/65}. And this opinion is unanimously agreed upon by the four Muslim jurists; therefore, this person must seek Allah`s forgiveness, make repentance, and return to the fold of Islam.
Moreover, Allah The Exalted Accepts the repentance of such persons for He Says {what means}: “Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them).” {Al-Anfaal/38}. Allah`s Apostle also says: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah." {Bukhari&Muslim}. And this is the opinion of the Hanafite and the Shafite jurists.
This person becomes separated from his wife once her Iddah (waiting period) ends before he makes repentance to Allah The exalted and returns to the fold of Islam. However, if he returns to his wife before the end of her Iddah, she becomes lawful to him, and this is in accordance with the Shafite School of Jurisprudence.
We advise this husband to fear Allah and remember Him constantly since He Says {what means}: "Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of God: for without doubt in the remembrance of God do hearts find satisfaction.” {Ar-Ra`d/28}. It is also imperative that he completely stops cursing Allah The Exalted, makes sincere repentance, and be honestly determined not to commit this sin again for fear that his heart may get stained with the ill that he had done and be sealed by Allah as such, for those whom Allah misguides, none can guide. Allah Says {what means}: “O ye who believe! Turn to God with sincere repentance: In the hope that your Lord will remove from you your ills and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, - the Day that God will not permit to be humiliated the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their Light will run forward before them and by their right hands, while they say, "Our Lord! Perfect our Light for us, and grant us Forgiveness: for Thou hast power over all things." {At-Tahreem/8}. And Allah Knows Best.