in general terms. If he then says something contrary to it on the basis of an interpretation, he is mistaken, but his error is forgiven provided he has been neither negligent nor transgressive. Thus, scholars are required to hold beliefs that ordinary people are not required to hold, and someone raised in a land of knowledge and faith is required to hold beliefs that someone raised in a land of ignorance is not. As for what is established by rational inference alone, independently of the prophetic message, a person is not punished for failing to believe it.

As for the claim made by a group of speculative theologians that the attributes established by reason are those that must be affirmed, and that failing to affirm them constitutes disbelief, unlike those established by revelation: sometimes they deny the latter, sometimes they reinterpret them or entrust their meaning to Allah, and sometimes they affirm them but make faith and disbelief depend on the attributes established by reason. This has no basis in the teachings of the early generations of the Muslim community or its leading scholars. Faith and disbelief are classifications established through the prophetic message, and it is through scriptural evidence—not rational evidence alone—that a believer is distinguished from an unbeliever.

As for his question, “What must he know?” this, too, varies. Every religiously accountable person must know what Allah has commanded: what He has commanded him to believe and what He has commanded him to know. Thus, if he possesses wealth on which zakat is due, he must learn the rulings of zakat; if he has the means to perform Hajj, he must learn the rulings of Hajj. The same applies to similar matters. The Muslim community as a whole must know everything the Messenger brought, so that none of the knowledge the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, conveyed to his community is lost. This is what is indicated by