Q: Does one exit the fold of Islam if they verbally agree and sign an employment contract with a school who hold and promote fundamental British Values?
If a school has the following fundamental British values:
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.
- Faith comes under equal opportunity and everyone needs to be treated equally regardless their colour and Faith.
الجواب حامدا ومصليا ومسلما ومنه الصدق والصواب
A: One leaves the fold of Islam only by rejecting the same tenets that brings one into the fold of Islam. The essential requirement of faith is to affirm all that which the Prophet sws is definitively known to have brought. Anything beyond that does not bring one in to the fold of Islam nor remove one from the same.
Then, firstly, none of what is referred to as ‘Fundamental British Values’ falls within what is absolutely essential to one’s faith; neither affirmation nor rejection. Secondly, the above values are not absolute values but are relative values, even amongst western societies. Thirdly, they can be congruent with ‘Islamic values’.
Thus, if a Muslim affirms such values, which as explained are all relative, it is not a rejection of any essential tenet which renders the Muslim an apostate.