The Excuse of Ignorance: The Difference Between the Outward and Inward Ruling | Salih Al al Shaykh

856 views·Jan 14, 2026

📌 In this clip, Shaykh Salih Al al Shaykh explains the issue of the excuse of ignorance according to Ahl al Sunnah, and clarifies the critical distinction between the outward ruling and the inward ruling. - He explains that rulings in this life are based on what is outwardly apparent from statements and actions, while matters tied to accountability, punishment, and penal rulings return to the Imam after the establishment of the proof. 📌 Official Source (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUbuIU2dsXA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murjiah confuse the outward ruling with the inward ruling. - The outward ruling is the worldly judgment based solely on a person’s outward statements and actions. It does not depend on what is in the heart. - The inward ruling concerns the hidden reality of the heart, which cannot be known. It is only considered in matters of punishment and the ruling of the Hereafter. Ignorance, coercion, mistake, and denial are considered here, not in the outward ruling. ❌ The fundamental error of the Murjiah: They make inward denial a condition for the outward ruling, claiming that kufr cannot be judged outwardly until denial is proved inwardly, this is what they mean by "knowledge" and "proof are established." This wrongly ties the outward ruling to unseen matters of the heart. ✅ The methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah: The outward ruling is based exclusively on statements and actions. Matters of the heart are only considered in punishment and the final judgment, in this world by the judge and in the Hereafter by Allah. ✍️ Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852H) in Fath al-Bari (12/272), transmitting consensus: وكلهم أجمعوا على أن أحكام الدنيا على الظاهر، والله يتولى السرائر “THEY ALL UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that worldly rulings are based upon what is outwardly apparent, while Allah alone takes charge of what lies within.” End Quote ✍️ Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H) said in As-Sarim al-Maslul (2/339): فمن قال أو فعل ما هو كفر, كفر بذلك، وإن لم يقصد أن يكون كافرًا، إذ لا بقصد الكفر أحدّ إلًّا ما شاء الله. “Whoever says or does that which is kufr, then he becomes a kafir by that itself, even if he did not intend to become a disbeliever, for no one intends kufr except whom Allah wills.” End Quote ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ The excuse of ignorance is a valid position that we affirm, but it has no connection to the outward ruling. The excuse of ignorance applies only to punishment and accountability. Punishments are not carried out upon one to whom the Quran and Islam has not been conveyed too. Ignorance, coercion, and mistake prevent the establishment of punishment, not the outward ruling. ❌ As for what the Murji’ah falsely and slanderously label as “the excuse of ignorance,” they wrongly apply it to the outward ruling. They claim that a person who professes Islam yet openly and publicly worships the sun or the moon, believes that his god is in a bathroom, or openly insults the religion remains, in reality, a Muslim until inward denial is proven according to them. This claim is disbelief, clear falsehood, and manifest misguidance. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Fatwah no. 4400: "So clarifying the matter and establishing the proof (Iqāmat al-hujjah) is for the purpose of removing any excuse before carrying out the PUNISHMENT upon him, NOT IN ORDER FOR HIM TO BE CALLED A DISBELIEVER ONLY AFTER THE CLARIFICATION. Rather, HE IS CALLED A DISBELIEVER BASED ON THE OUTWARD ACT HE COMMITTED, such as prostrating to other than Allah, vowing as an act of worship to other than Him, or slaughtering an animal, like a sheep, for other than Allah...” End Quote 📚 Source:Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Question Three from Fatwa No. 11043 Answer: This is because the r