The Ruling on Excusing Ignorance in Matters of Creed

Question:
A brother asks and says: Your Eminence the Shaykh! May Allah prolong his life, is a Muslim excused for what he holds in his creed?

Answer:
The default is that he is not excused, because creed is the foundation of everything and the capital. Allah has clarified it for the ignorant through His great Book and the Sunnah of His trustworthy Messenger. So whoever is among the Muslims and the people of knowledge is not excused, except for one who is in lands far from Islam, in lands of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah) to which the message of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not reach, and who did not know the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This is the ruling for the people of the periods (ahl al-fatarat); they will be tested on the Day of Resurrection and asked. If they answer with the truth, they will enter Paradise, and if they answer with falsehood, they will enter the Fire. Yes. He says: We were not loved until we sent our Messenger. So He, Blessed and Exalted is He, said: meaning the Qur'an. He said: And the best of this All-Powerful is that We warn you thereby whoever it reaches. And he, (peace and blessings be upon him), said: And otherwise, let his hand not be idle, not glorifying by any of the mothers, whether a Jew or a Christian, then he dies without believing in him, so he will be from the people of the Fire. This is the polytheist in Sahih. So the default is to establish the argument against those who are among the people of Muslims, and it was not for the Bedouin, or for al-Husayn, or for Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, or for so-and-so or so-and-so in any place. So when the caller to Allah comes to them, they overpower him, and perhaps they fight him or kill him; because their hearts were confused by this disbelief and they lived upon it. We ask Allah for safety. Yes.