Is There a Difference of Opinion on the Excuse of Ignorance in Major Shirk? | Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan

1,199 views·Aug 5, 2026

📌 In this clear and detailed fatwa, Shaykh Salih al Fawzan explains the issue of the excuse of ignorance, clarifying many of the misconceptions surrounding it. Shaykh Salih al Fawzan, Shaykh Ibn Baz, and Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen all affirmed the excuse of ignorance. However, the excuse of ignorance does not mean that a person who commits major shirk out of ignorance of Tawhid and the prohibition of shirk is considered a Muslim. This is a false understanding of the issue. 1️⃣ If a person commits shirk while living among Muslims, then he is a kafir. 2️⃣ If he commits shirk in remote lands where the message has not reached him, then he is a mushrik from Ahl al Fatrah - meaning outwardly a mushrik, while his inward affair is left to Allah. ⚠️ In both cases, he is NOT ruled to be a Muslim. The one who openly commits shirk akbar is judged by what is apparent from his statements and actions. He is a mushrik. As for inward excuses, they are not for us to determine. They are left: - to the courts before applying the hudood - or to Allah before final judgment ✅ We rule by what is outwardly apparent. ❌ Suspending the outward ruling based on assumed inward factors, or requiring verification of their absence, is an innovation of the Murjiah used to falsely affirm Islam for those who commit shirk and kufr. 📌 Source: 6925- هل يعذر بالجهل من مات على الشرك؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzTMzry3nBo ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ 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 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 kafir only after the clarification. 👉 (❗) Rather, he IS CALLED a kafir 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.” 📚 Source:Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Authentic and True — From the Scholars to You ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Islam #Quran #Sunnah #Aqeedah #Salafi #salafiyyah #Bidah #IslamicAdvice #IslamicReminders #SeekingKnowledge #Tawheed #Muslim #Fiqh #scholarsofsunnah #AhlusSunnah #IslamicClips #IslamicShorts #Creed #IslamicEducation #IslamicLecture #MuslimYouth #Knowledge #IslamicGuidance #Shariah #Reminder #ShirkAkbar #ExcuseOfI