What is the difference between kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associating partners with Allah) for which one is excused due to ignorance?
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: What is the criterion by which we distinguish between kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associating partners with Allah) for which one is excused due to ignorance?
Answer:
What, my brother, is excused due to ignorance is only the one who lived isolated from the world and to whom nothing reached. He remained upon his original state and nothing reached him; this person is excused due to ignorance until it is clarified to him, and his ruling is the ruling of the people of the period of interruption (al-fatra). As for the one to whom the Qur'an reached, and to whom the Sunnah reached, and to whom the words of the scholars of knowledge reached, but he did not accept them and did not pay attention to them, and he continued in what he was upon, then this person is not excused due to ignorance, because the proof reached him, and he understands it. Even if something is difficult for him, he is able to ask.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: What is the criterion by which we distinguish between kufr (disbelief) and shirk (associating partners with Allah) for which one is excused due to ignorance?
Answer:
What, my brother, is excused due to ignorance is only the one who lived isolated from the world and to whom nothing reached. He remained upon his original state and nothing reached him; this person is excused due to ignorance until it is clarified to him, and his ruling is the ruling of the people of the period of interruption (al-fatra). As for the one to whom the Qur'an reached, and to whom the Sunnah reached, and to whom the words of the scholars of knowledge reached, but he did not accept them and did not pay attention to them, and he continued in what he was upon, then this person is not excused due to ignorance, because the proof reached him, and he understands it. Even if something is difficult for him, he is able to ask.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما الفرق بين الكفر والشرك الذي يُعذر فيه بالجهل؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.