When is a person excused due to ignorance?
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The questioner : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Your Eminence, we often hear that a person is excused due to ignorance, and that there is an excuse for ignorance. What is the limit of this ignorance in Islamic legal rulings?
The Shaykh : Ignitude, may Allah reward you, is the lack of knowledge. However, a person is sometimes excused for ignorance regarding what happened in the past, but not for what is present. An example of this is what is reported in the two Sahihs in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah: He taught him, but he did not order him to make up what had passed because he was ignorant; rather, he only ordered him to repeat the present prayer.
So if a person, for example, did not pray in the past based on the belief that prayer was not obligatory on him, and he was in a remote place where he had no one to ask from among the scholars, then we do not order him to make up what he missed, because he is excused. But if he was in a country where there are scholars, but he was negligent, then he is not excused for his ignorance. This happens often with women. She menstruates while she is young, so she thinks she has not reached puberty based on the idea that puberty does not occur until the completion of fifteen years. Then you find her leaving off fasting based on the belief that she has not reached puberty. Then she comes later to ask, saying that she has reached puberty, because she menstruated, for example, and remained for two or three years without fasting Ramadan. Does she have to make it up?
We look at whether she is in a country where there are scholars and she can ask the scholars. If so, she is negligent, and we oblige her to make it up. If she is in a place far from scholars, like the people of the desert, then we do not oblige her to make it up, because she is ignorant and excused; she has no one to ask, and Islamic knowledge is not circulated in the desert, so she is excused.
Everything, everything in which a person is excused is forgiven for him, because Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Isra 17:15] And He said: [Al-Qasas 28:59].
The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
May Allah forgive you. In the previous session, you mentioned a word about the creed regarding some foreign countries. Some of the attendees spoke and disapproved of your words. The truth is that I observed from them that if they read the Quran, may Allah forgive you, and recite the Quran well, they must hang it as an amulet in those writings. And on the holidays, the workers gather until they approach twenty, meaning they do not pray in congregation. If we reprimanded them for that and said that this reason was not mentioned, they said: We are not like you. We do not bear the sin of anyone. A person prays for himself, so he does not bear the sins of other people. And they criticize us, saying: You have no mercy. We said: Why?
They said: When a person dies among us, we gather around the oldest shaykh in the town. We gather around him and read the Quran, and we go to the house of the deceased, and they prepare food. And frankly, after I got close to them, if I saw a shaykh in the Kingdom who is good at reciting al-Hamd, and praise be to Allah, I would pray behind him, not behind them.
The Shaykh : And what is the question? Is this a question or a complaint?
The questioner : The question is about the creed, meaning is it correct or not? Because few of them are not affected by it!
The Shaykh : A circle?
The questioner : ... The second thing is that I do not know a person who reads the Quran and changes the whole Quran and does this work, and I pray behind someone from the Kingdom who is not good at anything except al-Hamd. Frankly, from the imam?
The Shaykh : If you were to tell me about a specific person outside this gathering, we would speak to him and advise him, perhaps Allah would guide him.
The questioner : But it is not one person.
The Shaykh : No, the imam, the imam who changed, the imam is not the problem.
The questioner : But what is your opinion, if he is a Quran reciter and I see some things on him?
The Shaykh : Perhaps they are ignorant, may Allah protect you. They have not reached a type of shirk (associating partners with Allah), and the young one took it from the old one, but they know.
Your Eminence, we often hear that a person is excused due to ignorance, and that there is an excuse for ignorance. What is the limit of this ignorance in Islamic legal rulings?
The Shaykh : Ignitude, may Allah reward you, is the lack of knowledge. However, a person is sometimes excused for ignorance regarding what happened in the past, but not for what is present. An example of this is what is reported in the two Sahihs in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah:
That a man came and prayed a prayer without tranquility in it, then he came and greeted the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so he said to him: Go back and pray, for you have not prayed. He repeated that three times, so he said to him: By Him who sent you with the truth, I do not know how to do anything other than this, so teach me.
أن رجلاً جاء فصلى صلاة لا اطمئنان فيها، ثم جاء فسلم على النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، فقال له: ارجع فصل فإنك لم تصل، كرر ذلك ثلاثاً، فقال له: والذي بعثك بالحق لا أحسن غير هذا فعلمنيSo if a person, for example, did not pray in the past based on the belief that prayer was not obligatory on him, and he was in a remote place where he had no one to ask from among the scholars, then we do not order him to make up what he missed, because he is excused. But if he was in a country where there are scholars, but he was negligent, then he is not excused for his ignorance. This happens often with women. She menstruates while she is young, so she thinks she has not reached puberty based on the idea that puberty does not occur until the completion of fifteen years. Then you find her leaving off fasting based on the belief that she has not reached puberty. Then she comes later to ask, saying that she has reached puberty, because she menstruated, for example, and remained for two or three years without fasting Ramadan. Does she have to make it up?
We look at whether she is in a country where there are scholars and she can ask the scholars. If so, she is negligent, and we oblige her to make it up. If she is in a place far from scholars, like the people of the desert, then we do not oblige her to make it up, because she is ignorant and excused; she has no one to ask, and Islamic knowledge is not circulated in the desert, so she is excused.
Everything, everything in which a person is excused is forgiven for him, because Allah the Exalted said:
And never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولاًAnd never would your Lord have destroyed the cities until He had sent to their mother a messenger reciting to them Our verses. And We would not destroy the cities except while their people were wrongdoers.
وَمَا كَانَ رَبُّكَ مُهْلِكَ الْقُرَى حَتَّى يَبْعَثَ فِي أُمِّهَا رَسُولاً يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِنَا وَمَا كُنَّا مُهْلِكِي الْقُرَى إِلَّا وَأَهْلُهَا ظَالِمُونَThe questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
May Allah forgive you. In the previous session, you mentioned a word about the creed regarding some foreign countries. Some of the attendees spoke and disapproved of your words. The truth is that I observed from them that if they read the Quran, may Allah forgive you, and recite the Quran well, they must hang it as an amulet in those writings. And on the holidays, the workers gather until they approach twenty, meaning they do not pray in congregation. If we reprimanded them for that and said that this reason was not mentioned, they said: We are not like you. We do not bear the sin of anyone. A person prays for himself, so he does not bear the sins of other people. And they criticize us, saying: You have no mercy. We said: Why?
They said: When a person dies among us, we gather around the oldest shaykh in the town. We gather around him and read the Quran, and we go to the house of the deceased, and they prepare food. And frankly, after I got close to them, if I saw a shaykh in the Kingdom who is good at reciting al-Hamd, and praise be to Allah, I would pray behind him, not behind them.
The Shaykh : And what is the question? Is this a question or a complaint?
The questioner : The question is about the creed, meaning is it correct or not? Because few of them are not affected by it!
The Shaykh : A circle?
The questioner : ... The second thing is that I do not know a person who reads the Quran and changes the whole Quran and does this work, and I pray behind someone from the Kingdom who is not good at anything except al-Hamd. Frankly, from the imam?
The Shaykh : If you were to tell me about a specific person outside this gathering, we would speak to him and advise him, perhaps Allah would guide him.
The questioner : But it is not one person.
The Shaykh : No, the imam, the imam who changed, the imam is not the problem.
The questioner : But what is your opinion, if he is a Quran reciter and I see some things on him?
The Shaykh : Perhaps they are ignorant, may Allah protect you. They have not reached a type of shirk (associating partners with Allah), and the young one took it from the old one, but they know.