Back to search

What is the ruling on being ignorant of some issues of major Shirk or Kufr without committing them, and is that considered independent Kufr?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Whoever believes in Allah and His Messenger, adheres to Islam, and does not fall into disbelief (kufr) or polytheism (shirk) is a successful believer. Their ignorance of some acts of disbelief or of whether what they believe in is definitively proven does not harm them. For it is not a condition for the validity of faith to know disbelief in detail; rather, if one commits something of it out of ignorance, they are excused for their ignorance. This is indicated by what happened to some Companions due to their ignorance, such as the story of "Dhāt Anwāt," where they requested a tree to seek blessings from, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade them. And just as the prayer of one who performs its pillars and duties is valid, even if they are ignorant of the difference between a pillar and a duty or do not know what invalidates it, similarly, whoever adheres to faith and does not fall into anything that nullifies it, their faith is sound, and their inability to distinguish between a pillar and a duty, or between what is definitive and what is conjectural, does not harm them.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy