The Ruling on Excusing Shirk Due to Ignorance
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Is one who dies upon shirk (associating partners with Allah) not excused even if he is ignorant? And did the Companions fall into minor or major shirk?
Answer:
My brother, no one is ignorant of shirk among the apparent matters. The apparent matters are those one is not excused for being ignorant of; the hidden matters are those that require clarification. As for shirk, its matter is apparent in the Qur'an; the verses regarding it are clear, so ignorance does not occur in it, because Allah clarified it and prohibited it. The excuse of ignorance is only for hidden matters, whereas for apparent matters, ignorance is not an excuse. Yes, this is the view of the Murji'ah, or the extremists among the Murji'ah. Yes.
The questioner says: Is one who dies upon shirk (associating partners with Allah) not excused even if he is ignorant? And did the Companions fall into minor or major shirk?
Answer:
My brother, no one is ignorant of shirk among the apparent matters. The apparent matters are those one is not excused for being ignorant of; the hidden matters are those that require clarification. As for shirk, its matter is apparent in the Qur'an; the verses regarding it are clear, so ignorance does not occur in it, because Allah clarified it and prohibited it. The excuse of ignorance is only for hidden matters, whereas for apparent matters, ignorance is not an excuse. Yes, this is the view of the Murji'ah, or the extremists among the Murji'ah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل يعذر من مات على الشرك جاهلا؟ هل وقع الصحابة في الشرك؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.