Is one excused by ignorance if he grew up in a disbelieving society?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Your Eminence the Shaykh, the questioner says: Those who are born in disbelieving societies and grow up in disbelief and do not believe.
The Shaykh:
What? Those who are born in disbelieving societies. Those who...
The questioner:
They are born in disbelieving societies, grow up in disbelief, and know nothing about Islam. What is their ruling, Your Eminence the Shaykh?
The Shaykh:
There is a distinction regarding these people. If one grows up in a disbelieving land and the Qur'an of Islam does not reach him, he is among the people of the period of ignorance (al-fatra), and his case is left to Allah on the Day of Resurrection; he is not a Muslim, and his case is left to Allah on the Day of Resurrection. But if he hears the Qur'an, hears the Sunnah, has Muslims around him, and does not pay attention or care, then he is a disbeliever. The Muslims fought the disbelievers, their leaders and their common people; they fought the Jews and the Christians, their leaders and their common people, and their common people were ignorant, following them.
Your Eminence the Shaykh, the questioner says: Those who are born in disbelieving societies and grow up in disbelief and do not believe.
The Shaykh:
What? Those who are born in disbelieving societies. Those who...
The questioner:
They are born in disbelieving societies, grow up in disbelief, and know nothing about Islam. What is their ruling, Your Eminence the Shaykh?
The Shaykh:
There is a distinction regarding these people. If one grows up in a disbelieving land and the Qur'an of Islam does not reach him, he is among the people of the period of ignorance (al-fatra), and his case is left to Allah on the Day of Resurrection; he is not a Muslim, and his case is left to Allah on the Day of Resurrection. But if he hears the Qur'an, hears the Sunnah, has Muslims around him, and does not pay attention or care, then he is a disbeliever. The Muslims fought the disbelievers, their leaders and their common people; they fought the Jews and the Christians, their leaders and their common people, and their common people were ignorant, following them.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 116 هل يعذر بالجهل من نشأ في مجتمع كافر؟ للإمام ابن باز — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.