Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

 

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Mercy-Giving

 

All praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad.

 

We cannot speak on behalf of Allah; no one and not even the Prophet can arrogate to himself the power to punish or forgive. Allah says in the Qur’an:

 

“You have no authority to decide whether God relents toward them or punishes them – for they are wrongdoers. To God belongs everything in the heavens and on earth: God forgives whom He will; and God punishes whom He will, and God is most forgiving, most merciful.” (Aal `Imran 3:128-129)

 

So we must leave the judgment of sinners as long as they adhere to the fundamentals of Islamic belief and practice; as long as they do not denounce Islam.

 

One of the fundamental doctrines of Ahl al-sunnah is that we do not declare someone a kafir because of sins he or she commits.

 

A person goes out of the fold of Islam by denouncing it.

 

The differences in such matters are due to differences of interpretation; I am not saying that there may be certain interpretations which might be too extreme or far-fetched.

 

The issue of triple divorce, touching wife in wudu, details about postures in Salah, as well as other differences among various schools of jurisprudence,  should not give us the right to condemn those who differ from us.

 

The Muslim consensus is that the mainstream schools are all within acceptable boundaries.

 

The differences in the determination of dates of Eid also fall in the same category. We are not allowed to denounce each other because of such differences as they belong to the details and thus have any bearing on the fundamentals of religion.

 

Almighty Allah knows best.