Does commiting Shirk out of ignorance take one out of Islaam?


Question:

The greatest shirk can take you out of the fold of Islaam but what if due to ignorance this is all that you know to be Islaam?

Answer:

He said concerning the person who commits shirk al akbar based upon ignorance or because of it the person falls into this we have to look at what it is that he committed. We have to look at the crime he committed.

He said if we find this shirk al akbar that he fell into and that he committed are from the things that are clear and apparent to all the people of al Islaam then he will have no excuse, his ignorance will not be an excuse for him. If he did something all the people of al Islaam know to be shirk, for example, for a person to make prostration to an idol so he would not have an excuse of ignorance.
But if the person does something, that the majority of the people do not know about this thing, the majority of the people are not experts in understanding this affair this situation is different, he may be excused because of his ignorance.

He said all we have to do is look at the issue of the sahabas what happened when some of them made halaal the drinking of wine. When these sahabas made halaal the drinking of kamar they did so based upon some of the ayat of the Qur’an that they understood. So the other sahaba what they did was that they did not say that they were kuffar but instead they sent to them the proofs to show them that kamar was haram. When these proofs arrived to them, they accepted them and they came back to the truth and they left of that which they were doing. The shaikh said had they continued to be obstinate and the proof had come to them and they would have rejected the proofs, then they would have become kuffar because they would have been disbelieving in Allah (subhaanahu wa ta`aalaa) and his Messenger (sallAllaahu alaihi wasalam).

So the issue of being excused or having an excuse because of ignorance it becomes different depending upon the time, the place, the person and the condition.

Shaykh `Abdus Salaam al-Burjis
Audio Tape: Aqeedah Comes First by Shaikh Abdus Salam Burjis (rahimahullaah) Article reference: AQD01004