commit forbidden acts that contain no benefit whatsoever. What drives souls into such prohibitions is either ignorance or some perceived need. But if a person knows a thing is repugnant and expressly forbidden, how could he bring himself to do it? Those who fall into all these sins may well be unaware of the corruption they involve, or they may feel some need for them—such as the mere craving to indulge. The harm bound up in them can be far greater than the pleasure they yield, yet people do not realize this, either because they are ignorant or because their passions overpower them until they act. Desire, more often than not, leaves its owner as though he knew nothing of the truth, for “your love for a thing blinds and deafens.”

For that reason the truly learned person is the one who fears Allah.

Abu al-ʿĀliyah said: “I asked the Companions of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—about Allah’s words:
‘True repentance with Allah is only for those who commit evil out of ignorance and then repent soon thereafter’ ⦗Q 4:17⦘.
They replied, ‘Everyone who disobeys Allah is—’