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Fatwa CenterQuestionnaire asking Christians' opinion on the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. I was asked by my local masjid to send a questionnaire to non-muslims containing questions of the type: 1) Do you believe in the existence of God? 2) Was Muhammad a good man? And more of the same. I wanted your opinion on this topic because I refused to do it because I said that if I asked the second question about the prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, and they answered, "No," then I would be responsible before Allah since answering 'no' to this question would be an insult to the prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam. They said that there is nothing wrong with asking such questions and that we need to ask these type of questions since we want people who have a bad opinion to answer, 'no' in order to know how much people have a bad opinion of the prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, and know what to do as far as da'wa (proselytization) is concerned. I wanted your opinion on this topic since I was alaways told that willing for someone to say (words of) kufr (disbelief) is (in itself) kufr, and this is what asking these type of questions leads to.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His Slave and Messenger.
It seems that it is better not to use this means, i.e. questionnaire, that may give a chance to non-Muslims to insult the Prophet undermine his refined status, and attack his message. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {And do not insult those they invoke other than Allaah, lest they insult Allaah in enmity without knowledge...} [Quran 6:108] If there is a real benefit to be realized through such a questionnaire, then another method should be used to realize that benefit.
It is not accurate to say that in general when someone drives another to verbally declare disbelief, then he himself has committed an act of disbelief. It has been reported that the Messenger of Allaah once passed by children amongst whom there was Ibn Sayyaad. The children ran away, but Ibn Sayyaad kept sitting there and it seemed as if the Messenger of Allaah did not like it (his behaviour) and said to him, "May your nose he besmeared with dust, do you not bear witness that I am the Messenger of Allaah?" Thereupon he said, "No, but you should bear witness that I am the messenger of Allaah..." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] The question of the Prophet was the reason that Ibn Sayyaad verbally declared disbelief.
Allaah knows best.
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