Living The Quran
From Issue: 691 [Read full issue]
Islamic Status
Al-Nisa (The Women) - Chapter 4: Verse 94 (partial)
"Say not to those who greet you with peace (al-salam): 'you are not a believer.'"
Determining the faith or disbelief of a person is to be based entirely on obvious and explicit evidence without any reference to the hidden thoughts and feelings of people, which are known only to God. This is the implication of this Quranic verse.
If just the utterance of the salam is evidence enough to establish a presumption in favour of a person being a believer, then it is obvious that the Quran does not permit inquisitions of any kind to establish the Islamic status of individuals. All that a person may do when he suspects that disbelief, heresy or apostasy is being committed by another is to give him good advice in the true spirit of the Quran.
Compiled From:
"Freedom of Expression in Islam" - Mohammad Hashim Kamali, pp. 187-189