Matters known from the religion by necessity are known to many people; is the ignorant person excused for his ignorance?

The questioner : ... Matters known from the religion by necessity are known to many people?

The Shaykh : This is not a general rule. We are often asked this question in this country and in others. The traditional question is: Is the ignorant person excused for his ignorance or not? My answer is: He may be excused, and he may not be excused. If the ignorant person lives in an Islamic country where knowledge of Islam prevails, especially regarding its beliefs, and more specifically regarding what relates to the oneness of Allah (tawhid), then this person is not excused for his ignorance. This is because he lives in an Islamic atmosphere where it is assumed that he should have learned the correct belief from the good environment in which he lives. And without a doubt, a person can also imagine various scenarios. The Islamic atmosphere—praise be to Allah—is such that the Saudi country is still at the peak in terms of the correctness of its belief. However, many Arab or non-Arab Muslims visit it to conduct their affairs, and sometimes for their acts of worship, such as Hajj or 'Umrah. One of them may have resided in this country for a period of time, but due to the shortness of that period, he was unable to become acquainted with the belief of tawhid, for example. He still carries in his thoughts some deviations from the correct tawhid. So, although he resided in an Islamic atmosphere, his tawhid cannot be measured by that of one who was born in this country, lived in it, grew up, and learned there. There is a great difference between the first and the second. Therefore, if we take this first example, namely an Islamic country with correct tawhid and belief, and compare it with another country that is not an Islamic country, such as Muslims who convert to Islam in lands of disbelief, like Europe, for example, or America and the like, then if these people do not understand some of the Islamic beliefs in their correct form, they are excused. This is because they do not find the atmosphere that gives them the meaning you referred to earlier when you said: "It has become known from the religion by necessity." This is only valid in the first society, with the detail I mentioned: one who grew up and was raised in it, and not for one who came to it temporarily for a short period of time.
The Shaykh: Then we take, for example, other examples between the first good example and the other bad example. Then we take, for example, Egypt, where there are shaykhs and scholars of al-Azhar. And what do you know about the scholars of al-Azhar? In terms of al-Azhar al-Sharif, and so on. And yet, you find shirk (associating partners with Allah) firmly established in al-Azhar and in the mosques, such as the Mosque of al-Husayn and others. The Egyptian lives there as a poor soul and does not hear the voice of tawhid at all. So, this is not like the one who lived in the first society. Therefore, it is of great danger, while keeping in mind this detail and what I am pointing to regarding what has not been mentioned, to say that the ignorant person is not excused because he lives in an Islamic country. It is required that this Islamic country have beliefs that are well-known, and as I said: known from the religion by necessity.
The Shaykh: Let us assume, as we said earlier, a French or German man who converted to Islam. What drove him to Islam? Something of the greatness of Islam. So he said: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. But do you think that merely by declaring his Islam and returning to his people, he knew Islam in its details? Of course, the answer is: No. He may be living with his wife, and his wife is still uncovered and displaying her adornment as she was before his conversion, and indeed as she was before her own conversion. They live together as brothers and sisters, and she appears before him as she appears before her husband. Is he excused or not?
The Shaykh: He is excused, because he is new to Islam. And therefore, we find in some hadiths what can be taken as evidence that the statement that the ignorant person is not excused is contrary to the practical Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). What do we say today if a Muslim in an Islamic country shouts loudly in his prayer, continues his prayer, and does not repeat the prayer? Is his prayer valid or invalid?
The Shaykh: His prayer is invalid. But the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not invalidate the prayer of one who shouted in his prayer, because he excused him for his ignorance. And that is only because he was new to Islam. And on this basis, this sensitive issue is measured. So it is not said absolutely: "The ignorant person is excused," nor is it said absolutely: "The ignorant person is not excused." Rather, the issue involves many details, some of which I mentioned earlier.
The Shaykh: I referred in my last example to the story of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami (may Allah be pleased with him), who is, obviously, not Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan al-Umawi. He narrated, as it came in "Muwatta' al-Imam Malik," "Musnad al-Imam Ahmad," and "Sahih al-Imam Muslim" with a sound chain from him: That he prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). A man next to him sneezed, so he said to him, while he was in the row in prayer: "May Allah have mercy on you." So they looked at him with the corners of their eyes to silence him. This matter weighed heavily on him, so he shouted at the top of his voice while praying: "Woe to my mother! Why are you looking at me?" So those around him began to slap their thighs to silence him.
The Shaykh: It seems that the man realized, even if after a delay, that he had made a mistake in what he did of speaking and shouting. So he said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me.
The Shaykh: Imagine the psychology of this person. Imagine a worshipper in this time if he did what that person did, and the imam came to him. What would he imagine? He would insult him and curse him, if not hit him. It seems that this Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) imagined something of that when he saw the Messenger coming toward him. But his imagination was disappointed, because he is the Messenger of Allah. He said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me. And by Allah! He did not humiliate me, nor did he overpower me, nor did he hit me, nor did he insult me. Rather, he said to me: .
The Shaykh: The story of the man ended here, but it seems from the perspective of the soul that when he saw this Prophetic gentleness, it encouraged him to learn, because he knew that he was ignorant, shouting in prayer as you heard, and the Messenger of Allah said that he: . So he was encouraged to direct some questions to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He kept coming with these questions, one after another. What was mentioned in this hadith was that he said: O Messenger of Allah, there are some people among us who take omens. He said: . He said: . So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . He said: O Messenger of Allah, I have a female slave who grazes my sheep in al-Uhd. One day, a wolf raided my sheep, and I am a human being who gets angry as humans get angry, so I struck her a blow, and upon me is the freeing of a slave. So he (peace be upon him) said: . He said to her (peace and blessings be upon him): . She said: In the sky. He said to her: . She said: . So he turned to her master and said to him: .
Now, if this Prophetic question were directed to some of the Shaykhs of Al-Azhar—“Where is Allah?”—they would raise objections against you, let alone that they would not be able to give the answer the slave girl gave. They would not say to you, “Allah is in the sky.” Even if they possess some knowledge, they will try to attack the authenticity of this hadith. And if they concede its authenticity, they will offer explanations for the slave girl’s answer that, without their knowing or realizing, end up casting doubt on the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). I do not see a need now to go into the details of this matter; it is enough for me to connect this statement to what came before. If some of the Shaykhs of Al-Azhar, who are the vast majority in Egypt for example, do not adopt the Salafi creed that the noble verses have explicitly stated and that the authentic Prophetic hadiths have consistently affirmed—that it is none but Allah (Mighty and Majestic) who has the attribute of being above—then what is the creed of the general Egyptian people? Do they believe as this slave girl believes, while the Shaykhs of Al-Azhar do not believe it?
Therefore, we should say that these common people in Egypt and in similar countries, whether Arab or non-Arab, are excused. This is because they do not live in that Islamic environment from which the slave girl learned that correct creed. How could the slave girl, who was a shepherdess, know this creed that the scholars of Al-Azhar do not know? She learned it from the environment of the Companions: her master and mistress, and all the people around her, all professed one religion and adopted one creed. So she learned this creed from the society in which she lived. Perhaps she also read and followed the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in reading Surat Tabaarak, which is recommended for the Muslim to read every night before lying down to sleep. In it, our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) says: . So this slave girl—and in some weak narrations she is described as non-Arab—received this correct creed from the environment in which she lived, and her creed was sound. As for the Egyptian environment and the environment of other non-Arab countries, which is plagued and in which individuals do not find the correct creed, I believe they are fully excused.

The questioner : ... If we establish the proof against them, the people of the land, if we establish the proof against them... then does any of them... if the proof is established against them?

The Shaykh : If the one who establishes the proof is from the people of knowledge and the matter ends there, then he is not excused for his ignorance.