Ishaq b. ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Hasan says, “It has reached us, and we have heard about a group of people who claim to have knowledge and deen, and also claim to be among followers of Shaykh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab, that they say: Whoever is guilty of Shirk with Allah and worships idols, that individual is not declared to be a Kafir and a Mushrik. According to the person who told me, this happened when he saw one of his brothers, accusing a person who prayed to the Prophet SAW and sought his aid, with Shirk and Kufr. The person said to him, ‘Don’t accuse him of kufr until you inform him of what he is doing.’
This person and his likes do not worry much about mixing with the Mushriks as they travel to their countries. In fact, they seek knowledge from those who are the most disbelieving of all the Mushrik scholars...
In reality, they do not declare a Mushrik to be a kafir except generally. They try to avoid doing so. Their bid’a and misconception then crept into the ranks of some of our respectable brothers, and this is – Allahu Alam – because of their negligence of the books of Usul (al-Din) and the lack of interest in them coupled with the lack of fear from falling into misguidance. They turned away from the letters of Shaykh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab – may Allah sanctify his soul – and the letters of his sons; for their writings are full of explanations to such misconceptions as you will see. Anyone who has a little understanding, if he sees the condition of the people today, and then contemplates on the beliefs of the aforementioned Mashaykh, he becomes really surprised – and there is no power nor might except with Allah! This is because one of those who we are referring to here, I discussed this issue with him and he said: We say to the those who are worshipping these tombs and their dwellers, ‘this action of yours is Shirk’, but he is not declared a Mushrik. If you look, you will see, so thank Allah for guidance and ask for His protection, for this response is some of what al-‘Iraqi responded with, in refutation of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Latif!
The person who informed me of all this also told me that when one of the students asked him about this issue and the respective proofs, he said: We declare the kufr on the action itself, but we do not make takfeer on an individual except after informing him of the enormity of his actions. Our proofs is what we have read in some of the letters of Shaykh Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab – may Allah sanctify his soul – that he restrained from making takfeer on the worshippers of Kuwaz’s tomb and that of ‘Abd al-Qadir, due to their ignorance and lack of someone who could inform them...
The issue that we are discussing here concerns worshipping Allah alone who has no partner and freeing oneself from whatever is worshipped besides Allah, and that whoever worships anyone else besides Allah has committed major Shirk which expels a person from the religion. This is the most basic aspect of all our principles, and it is with this message that Allah sent the messengers, revealed the books, and thereafter proofs were established against the people by the Messenger and the Quran. This is how you will find the Imams responding to questions in relation to such fundamental issues while making takfeer of the one who commits Shirk with Allah. They say that one’s repentance must be sought, and if he does not repent, he is to be killed. They do not mention the need for the person to be informed in fundamental issues. They only mention the need to inform the person in unclear matters where the proofs might be obscure to some Muslims, such as the issues in which some of the heretics have disputed, like the Qadariya and the Murjia, or unclear matters like al-Sarf and al-‘Atf (white magic).
Why should there be a need to inform the grave-worshippers when they are not even Muslims nor are they included within the term ‘Islam’?! When one commits Shirk, what is left of his actions?
Allah has said: They will not enter Paradise until the camel goes through the eye of the needle. He has also said: Whoever assigns partners to Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky, and the birds had snatched him, or the wind had thrown him to a far off place. Allah has also said: Allah does not forgive partners being associated with Him, and there are many other verses of this nature. However, this belief of theirs necessitates something horrendous, that proofs have not been established against this Ummah by the Messenger and the Quran. Allah’s refuge is sought from poor understanding which results in negligence towards the Book and the Messenger.
As a matter of fact, Ahl al-Fatra, to whom the message and the Quran has not yet reached, and they die upon Jahiliyya, they are not to be considered Muslims by agreement, nor are they to be sought forgiveness for. The scholars have only differed over their punishment in the hereafter.
This misconception that we have mentioned, it also occurred at the time of Shaykh Muhammad – may Allah be mercy on him. What is important that if one falls into a misconception, he should try to get it clarified. As for the people whom we have mentioned here, then they turn their belief into a principle with which they pass a general ruling on all of the Mushriks that they must be informed, and further impute ignorance on those who differ with them, and for this reason, they do not get it right. This is because of their ulterior motives and that is to mix with the Mushrikin.” Fatawa al-A’imma al-Najdiyya 3/115-119