Excuse by Ignorance in Matters of Killing and Matters of Belief
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the distinction between the excuse of ignorance regarding killing, and the lack of excuse for ignorance in matters of belief?
The Shaykh:
Even in matters of belief, if knowledge has not reached him and he has not been informed of anything, he is excused. He has not been informed of anything, like the one who said, “Burn me, for if Allah had the power over me, He would have punished me.” This is an excuse by ignorance. So even in creed, if one is ignorant, he is excused until he learns. Yes.
The questioner:
Please, Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
[Al-Isra 17:15]. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the distinction between the excuse of ignorance regarding killing, and the lack of excuse for ignorance in matters of belief?
The Shaykh:
Even in matters of belief, if knowledge has not reached him and he has not been informed of anything, he is excused. He has not been informed of anything, like the one who said, “Burn me, for if Allah had the power over me, He would have punished me.” This is an excuse by ignorance. So even in creed, if one is ignorant, he is excused until he learns. Yes.
The questioner:
Please, Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
punish until We sent a messenger.
مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّىٰ نَبْعَثَ رَسُولًا
Source
الفوزان -أشرطة- شرح زاد المستقنع مع الأسئلة - 089-كتاب الجنايات - 2-11-25 هـ — archive.org (20:07)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.