Question Summary:
If someone says, “I was doing the acts of the mushrikeen – being a mushrik,” and he means what people wrongly believe to be “shirk”, is that statement kufr?

Question Detail:

 
Thank you for answering my question 28279. I have one or two specific examples about statements of kufr which are made without meaning them/believing them. I'll send them through one at a time inshaa Allah.
The first example is what many people in my country say as a response to Wahabbis. For example some Wahabbis consider merely visiting the tombs of the awliya to be shirk (even if one does not do any haram actions while there but merely reads Yasin at the tomb).
For example once I asked a Sunni Sheikh of mine, where were you today, and he said "I was doing the acts of the mushrikeen - being a mushrik" meaning that he was doing something which everybody knows to be halal, but which certain misguided groups consider to be shirk. In Arabic this is called a qawl istinkari like a rhetorical statement in English.
Many people say these kinds of statements not as a joke but as an istinkaar - such as people who say "Oh because your know we are mushrikeen just for following our madhab" for example....
Imam al-Shafi said something similar, in his famous statement, 
"If love of the Aal al bayt is rafdh, Then let the jinn and mankind testify that I am a Rafidhi."
Of course Imam Shafi is not saying that he is an extremist Shia with kufr beliefs but he is making istinkaar.
What is the hukm of statements of kufr made in istinkaar like of that of my sheikh made above (when the intention is as if to say "no way am I a mushrik - but this is the common incorrect belief"...)?

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
If it was clear from the context that by the statement, “I was doing the acts of the mushrikeen - being a mushrik,” the person intended what the misguided groups wrongly assume to be “acts of the mushrikeen” and “being a mushrik”, this will not constitute kufr.[1]
However, such ambiguous words should be avoided and a person must be careful in uttering words that may be construed as kufr.
And Allah Ta‘ālā Knows Best
Zameelur Rahman
Student Darul Iftaa
UK
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
www.daruliftaa.net