What is the benefit of qualifying the evil in the verse: "Whoever does evil out of ignorance"?
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The questioner : If everyone who does evil is ignorant, then their action is done out of ignorance, so what is the benefit of the qualification in the saying of Allah the Exalted: [An-Nisa 4:17] What is the benefit of this qualification if everyone who does evil is...?
The Shaykh : No, no. The benefit is that those who do evil out of ignorance, meaning without knowledge, have no sin at all. This is the meaning of the poet's saying:
"Let no one be ignorant of us, *** For we will be more ignorant than the ignorant"
The intended meaning is committing what is evil with knowledge.
The repentance accepted by Allah is only for those who do wrong in ignorance
إِنَّمَا التَّوْبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍThe Shaykh : No, no. The benefit is that those who do evil out of ignorance, meaning without knowledge, have no sin at all. This is the meaning of the poet's saying:
"Let no one be ignorant of us, *** For we will be more ignorant than the ignorant"
The intended meaning is committing what is evil with knowledge.