Stance of Ibn Uthaimīn – rahimahullāh – regarding the muslim who commits shirk in ignorance

[Every person who commits shirk, while he is from those who can be excused due to his ignorance then he is not ruled according to his shirk until the hujjah is established]

Question:

Does the one who falls into As-Shirk Al-Akbar, like the one who beseeches other than Allāh in the state of distress, or the one who makes a vow for other than Allāh, Is it said that: He is a kāfir ? Or is it said that: It is a must that the hujjah is established upon him?

Answer:

Every person who commits shirk, while he is from those who can be excused due to his ignorance then he is not ruled according to his shirk until the hujjah is established upon him similar to the one who falls into a sin lesser than shirk while he can be from those who are ignorant of it. So, if a person who fornicated while he is new to Islām and does not know that adultery is forbidden then we do not establish upon him the punishment because he is ignorant.

Likewise the one who beseeches other than Allāh or, invokes other than Allāh in ignorance and we know that he can be from those who can be excused due to his ignorance then he is not ruled according to his disbelief because the clear verses are many that point to that one is not ruled with disbelief except after having knowledge.

Allāh says :

وَمَا كَانَ رَبُّكَ مُهْلِكَ الْقُرَى حَتَّى يَبْعَثَ فِي أُمِّهَا رَسُولاً يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِنَا وَمَا كُنَّا مُهْلِكِي الْقُرَى إِلَّا وَأَهْلُهَا ظَالِمُونَ} [القصص:٥٩]

“And never will your Lord destroy the towns until He sends to their mother town a Messenger reciting to them Our Verses. And never would We destroy the towns unless the people thereof are wrong-doers.”

( Al-Qasas: 59)

And there is no wrongdoing except that which is through stubbornness and opposition (i.e : committed knowingly).

And He – the Most High – says,

رُسُلاً مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ

“(We sent) Messengers as bringers of good tidings and warners so that mankind will have no argument against Allāh after the messengers.”

(An-Nisā: 165)

Hence, He clarified that there is no hujjah against Allāh for the mankind if the messengers are sent and have informed them that this is forbidden and this is shirk.

And The Most High said,

رُسُلاً مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ

“And We never punish until We have sent a messenger.”

(Al-Isrā:15)

And The Most High said,

وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيراً

“And whoever opposes the messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hellfire – what an evil destination. “

(An-Nisā: 115)

And Allāh – The Most Blessed and The Most High – said,

وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِلَّ قَوْماً بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَاهُمْ حَتَّى يُبَيِّنَ لَهُمْ مَا يَتَّقُونَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

“And Allāh will never lead a people astray after He has guided them until He makes clear to them as to what they should avoid. Allāh is the All-Knower of everything.”

(At-Tauba: 115)

And other verses in this meaning which are plenty. A person doesn’t know regarding what Allāh has forbidden except via the Messenger.

Hence, if a person is a muslim, he prays, fasts, pays the obligatory charity, performs Hajj, and beseeches other than Allāh while not knowing that it is forbidden, then he is a muslim upon the condition that he is from those who can be excused due to his ignorance like if he is new to Islām, or he lives in a country where this matter has become widespread and has become with them like the permissible matters and they do not have scholars who clarify this to them. As for as if he is in a country where Tawhīd is established (prevalent) then he may be lying in his claim of ignorance.”

(Liqā-ul-bābil maftūḥ Vol. 43 pg. 10)

End of the fatwā.

In a similar fatwā, he – rahimahullāh – explicitly states his opinion *regarding such a person is his ẓāhir (apparent condition) is that he is a muslim (and not kāfir as some have presumed)*. He says:

“If he is in the lands of Islām in which Tawhīd is prevalent and there isn’t any signs of disbelief in it and he lives amongst them then he is not excused regarding it. Since, there is no means leading to Shirk. But, in the case of the muslim lands which has symbols of shirk like most Islamic lands in our time, whereby they have graves which are worshipped besides Allāh and are beseeched, then he may be excused due to ignorance. Since, he may be a common man who doesn’t know anything regarding it. He lives in this village in which people present offerings to so and so sayyid and so and so walī and beseech him in distress. He was with them and no one informed him regarding it.

Such a person is excused due to ignorance and he is ruled according to the ẓāhir-ul-ḥāl (apparent condition). Moreover, if there was something regarding him hidden from us then his affairs are with Allāh on the Day of Resurrection. As for as in this world, we rule him according the apparent condition and that is Islām. Since, if he believed this to be shirk he would not have performed it and because his religion is Islām and he bears witness to the testification of Lā ilāha illAllāh and Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh, he prays, he offers the obligatory charity, performs the Hajj of the House and fasts but he was from a people who have been brought up and have grown old upon this and they don’t know that this is shirk. This person is excused without a doubt.

(Then he mentions the same evidences)

(Liqā-ul-bābil maftūḥ Vol. 51 pg. 11)

[Usage of the term “Mushrik” as an attribute without intending a ruling upon the person]

The Shaykh – rahimahullāh – mentions as an important note in his explaination of Kitāb-ut-Tawḥīd :

“Invoking the dead is shirk, but it is not possible for us to say regarding a particular person: ‘This is a Mushrik’ until we know if the hujjah is established upon him. Or we say: ‘This is a mushrik according to his apparent condition’. “

(Al-Qawl-ul-Mufīd Vol. 1 pg. 52)

Answered by: Shaykh Muḥammad bin Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn

Source: Liqā-ul-bābil maftūḥ Vol. 43 pg. 10

Translated by: Abū Muḥammad Neẓām Al-Hindi (May Allāh forgive him and his parents)