Ibn Al Qayyim: Sinners and innovators are "fasiqeen" unlike disbelievers

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Original source of quote

There is a well-known principle in the books of the early Muslim scholars (the Salaf): the people of the qiblah (Ahl al-Qiblah) are not declared kufaar (disbelievers) merely because of sins they commit.

A sin may be practical, such as acts of disobedience and forbidden deeds, or it may be doctrinal, such as religious innovations (bidʿah) and aqeedah (creed) mistakes

Ibn al-Qayyim said regarding fisq (sinfulness/deviation):

"Fisq is of two types: fisq in one's actions and fisq in one's beliefs.

As for doctrinal fisq, it is like the fisq of the people of innovation, who believe in Allaah, His Messenger, and the Last Day; who prohibit what Allaah has prohibited and make obligatory what Allaah has made obligatory. However, they deny much of what Allaah and His Messenger affirmed—out of ignorance, mistaken interpretation (ta'wīl), or blind imitation of their teachers—and they likewise affirm things that neither Allaah nor His Messenger affirmed."

Such people are not kufaar. Rather, they remain among the people of the qiblah and retain the rights of Islam, although they are inferior in this regard to those who adhere to the pure sunnah. Although there are scriptural warnings concerning them, and they may be dealt with more strictly or excluded from certain positions, they are still not outside Islam.

The exception to this consists of extremist sects such as the Jahmiyyah, the Rafidah, the Batiniyya, and similar groups whose members committed kufr bawaah (apparent blatant disbelief) and whose kufr was agreed upon by the leading scholars of Islam.

As for anyone who declares people unbelievers merely on the basis of religious innovations or scholarly errors as a general category, he falls under the meaning of declaring Muslims to be unbelievers because of sins.

Sahnun (companion of imam Malik) said:

"The prayer is not to be repeated behind the people of innovation, whether within the prescribed time or afterward. This was also the view of a group of Malik's companions, including Ashhab, al-Mughirah, Ibn Kinanah, and others. Yet they are not disbelievers, nor does their religion expel them from faith. Whoever declares them unbelievers has adopted the doctrine of the Khawarij regarding excommunicating people because of sins."

Ibn Taymiyyah said quote source from here:

"Whoever says that each of the seventy-two sects is guilty of disbelief that expels one from the religion has contradicted the Quraan, the Sunnah, the consensus of the sahaba -Allaah be pleased with them all- and indeed the consensus of the four Imams and others besides them. None of them declared every one of the seventy-two sects to be unbelievers; rather, they only declared disbelief regarding some of the particular doctrines held by some of them."

Likewise, this also applies to someone who outwardly refrains from declaring them unbelievers but, in practice, does not distinguish between them and disbelievers in legal treatment, claims that their repentance is never accepted under any circumstances, or considers disbelievers superior to them, and similar claims.

Ibn Taymiyyah said:

"Whoever regards a philosopher who approves of the religion of the polytheists, the Jews, and the Christians as better than the seventy-two sects is not a Muslim"