Excusing disbelief in the case of one who interprets the text
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Your Eminence! Some people say that the statement of Allah, Mighty and Majestic: [An-Nisa: 48] implies that there is a type of shirk (associating partners with Allah) that Allah forgives, and they cited as an example the hadith in the two Sahihs of the man who said to his sons: (If I die, burn me, then grind me to powder, then scatter half of me in the sea and half on the land, for by Allah, if Allah has the power over me, He will punish me) .
So they said: They say that this man was a disbeliever who associated partners with Allah, but Allah forgave him due to his ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). What is your comment? May Allah reward you with good.
We say, may Allah bless you: If a person does something based on ta'wil (figurative interpretation) while believing in the essence of what he did, he does not become a disbeliever.So if we look at the apparent action of this man, we would say: This man was in doubt regarding the power of Allah. There was no shirk (associating partners with Allah) in his case, but rather a deficiency in his view of Allah. He thought that if they did this to him, Allah would not have the power over him. So it was a doubt about His power, not an explicit denial of it, but he assumed that Allah could not reach him.
Why did he do this? Out of fear of Allah. So he believed in Allah, but he interpreted the matter and made a mistake. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, forgives the mistake of one who interprets. Every person who does something based on ta'wil (figurative interpretation), Allah the Exalted forgives him and does not hold him accountable for it; because if He held him accountable for something he did based on interpretation, that would be imposing on souls what they cannot bear, and Allah the Exalted has negated that.So he said: [Al-Baqarah: 286] Have you not seen that when the Companions were told by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): (None of you should pray the 'Asr prayer except in Banu Qurayzah) after the Battle of the Confederates, and they set out and the time for prayer caught up with them, so some of them prayed on the way, and some did not pray until after Maghrib in Banu Qurayzah. These people delayed the prayer from its time, but they were interpreting the command, and therefore the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not rebuke them.
And 'Amir ibn Yasir was in a state of janabah (major ritual impurity) while traveling, and he began to roll in the dust as a beast rolls, thinking that this was the obligatory act for one who is in a state of janabah and has no water. The Messenger informed him of the ruling. The point is that this man was interpreting the matter.
And this is one of the pieces of evidence that the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) cited to prove that a person is excused for kufr (disbelief) if he is ignorant or interpreting the matter.
Your Eminence! Some people say that the statement of Allah, Mighty and Majestic:
Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يَغْفِرُ أَنْ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُSo they said: They say that this man was a disbeliever who associated partners with Allah, but Allah forgave him due to his ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). What is your comment? May Allah reward you with good.
We say, may Allah bless you: If a person does something based on ta'wil (figurative interpretation) while believing in the essence of what he did, he does not become a disbeliever.So if we look at the apparent action of this man, we would say: This man was in doubt regarding the power of Allah. There was no shirk (associating partners with Allah) in his case, but rather a deficiency in his view of Allah. He thought that if they did this to him, Allah would not have the power over him. So it was a doubt about His power, not an explicit denial of it, but he assumed that Allah could not reach him.
Why did he do this? Out of fear of Allah. So he believed in Allah, but he interpreted the matter and made a mistake. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, forgives the mistake of one who interprets. Every person who does something based on ta'wil (figurative interpretation), Allah the Exalted forgives him and does not hold him accountable for it; because if He held him accountable for something he did based on interpretation, that would be imposing on souls what they cannot bear, and Allah the Exalted has negated that.So he said:
Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity
لا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْساً إِلَّا وُسْعَهَاAnd 'Amir ibn Yasir was in a state of janabah (major ritual impurity) while traveling, and he began to roll in the dust as a beast rolls, thinking that this was the obligatory act for one who is in a state of janabah and has no water. The Messenger informed him of the ruling. The point is that this man was interpreting the matter.
And this is one of the pieces of evidence that the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) cited to prove that a person is excused for kufr (disbelief) if he is ignorant or interpreting the matter.