People have differed over the following question: after a person has exercised ijtihād and expended every possible effort, is it still possible that the truthfulness of the Messenger will not become clear to the inquiring investigator or not? And if it does not become clear to him, does he then merit punishment in the Hereafter or not?
Some scholars have also disagreed about the status of the muqallid (the one who merely follows another’s opinion without proof). The discussion here involves two separate levels:
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First level: Demonstrating the error and misguidance of whoever departs from the truth. This can be established through multiple kinds of evidence—both rational and scriptural—and the unsoundness of many statements, whether from those within the community that faces the qiblah who oppose the truth or from those outside it, can be recognized by various proofs.
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Second level: Deciding whether such people are actually unbelievers and therefore liable to the threatened punishment in the Hereafter.
Regarding this second matter there are three opinions among the followers of the famous Imams—Mālik