The excuse of ignorance in the matter of shirk (associating partners with Allah)
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
This questioner says: O teacher of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), I ask you for the sake of Allah to clarify for us the issue of the excuse of ignorance.
The Shaykh:
My brother, we have explained it. If you do not understand, the Shaykh is weak. We say that the one who is excused for his ignorance is the one who has not heard anything about Islam in an isolated place where he hears nothing, has not heard the Qur'an, has not heard the hadiths, and the call has not reached him. As for a person who lives with Muslims, in Muslim lands, hears the adhan (the call to prayer) all the time, and sees people praying to the right and left, this indicates that he is not excused for his ignorance. This is the one who is ignorant of himself, who does not seek knowledge and does not seek the truth, so he remains as he is. This is not known.
The questioner:
That is, in the continuation of his question, he says: If a person grows up in a remote desert or is new to Islam, is he excused for his ignorance if he calls upon other than Allah while claiming to be a Muslim?
The Shaykh:
If he calls upon other than Allah, we rule that he is a disbeliever and we treat him as a disbeliever. However, if it is as he mentioned, that nothing has reached him, then his case is left to Allah. But we rule according to the religion he is upon, which is kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associating partners with Allah), specifically regarding the worship of graves. We rule that he is upon this, which is what appears to us. As for whether he has an excuse with Allah, that is a matter left to Allah. They say this would make him one of the people of the period of ignorance (al-fatrah), one of the people of the opening (al-fatah), those to whom nothing has reached them. Yes. But today, as you know, today nothing from the media is an opening, and the Qur'an is heard in every place in the world now. The Sunnah is heard, preachers speak, Islam is widespread, and there is almost no country on earth that Islam has not entered, is there? Is there a country here that has no mosques, no Islamic centers, no Muslim minorities? Islam is widespread now, and the rituals are performed in the lands of disbelief. So the argument is established, praise be to Allah. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
This questioner says: O teacher of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), I ask you for the sake of Allah to clarify for us the issue of the excuse of ignorance.
The Shaykh:
My brother, we have explained it. If you do not understand, the Shaykh is weak. We say that the one who is excused for his ignorance is the one who has not heard anything about Islam in an isolated place where he hears nothing, has not heard the Qur'an, has not heard the hadiths, and the call has not reached him. As for a person who lives with Muslims, in Muslim lands, hears the adhan (the call to prayer) all the time, and sees people praying to the right and left, this indicates that he is not excused for his ignorance. This is the one who is ignorant of himself, who does not seek knowledge and does not seek the truth, so he remains as he is. This is not known.
The questioner:
That is, in the continuation of his question, he says: If a person grows up in a remote desert or is new to Islam, is he excused for his ignorance if he calls upon other than Allah while claiming to be a Muslim?
The Shaykh:
If he calls upon other than Allah, we rule that he is a disbeliever and we treat him as a disbeliever. However, if it is as he mentioned, that nothing has reached him, then his case is left to Allah. But we rule according to the religion he is upon, which is kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associating partners with Allah), specifically regarding the worship of graves. We rule that he is upon this, which is what appears to us. As for whether he has an excuse with Allah, that is a matter left to Allah. They say this would make him one of the people of the period of ignorance (al-fatrah), one of the people of the opening (al-fatah), those to whom nothing has reached them. Yes. But today, as you know, today nothing from the media is an opening, and the Qur'an is heard in every place in the world now. The Sunnah is heard, preachers speak, Islam is widespread, and there is almost no country on earth that Islam has not entered, is there? Is there a country here that has no mosques, no Islamic centers, no Muslim minorities? Islam is widespread now, and the rituals are performed in the lands of disbelief. So the argument is established, praise be to Allah. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
شرح نواقض الإسلام [ صالح الفوزان ]، الناقض التاسع : من اعتقد أن بعض الناس يسعه الخروج عن شريعة محمد - صلى الله عليه وسلم - كما وسع الخضر الخروج عن شريعة موسى - عليه السلام -؛ فهو كافر — islamhouse.com (31:13)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.