Is it inappropriate to perform general takfeer on the Shia?

Regarding certain sects, there are various opinions of the scholars. Regarding the 73 sects that the Prophet (ﷺ) spoke about, when he said that the Jews and the Christians were divided into several sects and as for this Ummah it will be divided into 73 sects, all of them will be in the Hell fire except for one.

It was narrated from ‘Awfa bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“The Jews split into seventy-one sects, one of which will be in Paradise and seventy in Hell. The Christians split into seventy-two sects, seventy-one of which will be in Hell and one in Paradise. I swear by the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad, my nation will split into seventy-three sects, one of which will be in Paradise and seventy-two in Hell.” It was said: “O Messenger of Allah, who are they?” He said: “The main body.” [1]

Prophet Mohammed (ﷺ) described them as, “Those who are upon what me and my companions are upon.” So, the scholars differed regarding performing takfeer on the sects. It is the opinion of Shaykh-ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah that we can perform general takfeer of the Shia, meaning that in general, the Shia are outside the fold of Islam. As a general statement, they are not Muslims, the scholars of the Shia are definitely kuffar; they are disbelievers because they know that their beliefs are contradictory to the Qur’an and Sunnah.

As for the layman, the general followers who are ignorant, who don’t know anything and are just following it, they are not kuffar and are not outside the fold of Islam until it has been proven to them that the Qur’an and Sunnah are contradictory to the beliefs of the Shia. In general, the followers of the Shia do not know the five beliefs of the Shia. The Shia scholars read in their books the clear cut-statements of kufr, such as cursing the companions, cursing Aishah (radiAllahu anha), claiming that the Qur’an is distorted, even distorting the Qur’an, and also saying Jibreel (alaihis salam) did not fulfill his mission because he brought the message to Muhammed (ﷺ) whereas he was supposed to send it to Ali (radiAllahu anhu), which is a clear-cut statement of kufr. However, the layman does not know about these things, so we do not make takfeer of the layman.

And Allah knows best.

Reference:

[1] Sunan Ibn Majah, Vol. 1, Book 36, Hadith 3992