“I asked the Companions of Muhammad about this verse, and they told me: ‘Everyone who disobeys Allah is ignorant, and everyone who repents before death has repented soon afterwards.’”

Another example is the statement of Ibn Masʿūd: “To fear Allah is knowledge enough, and to be deluded about Allah is ignorance enough.” Al-Shaʿbī was once addressed as “O scholar!” He replied: “The scholar is one who fears Allah.” Allah Most High has said:

“Of all His servants, only those with knowledge fear Allah.”

Abū Hayyān al-Taymī said: “Scholars are of three kinds: one who knows Allah and His commands; one who knows Allah but does not know His commands; and one who knows His commands but does not know Allah. The one who knows Allah is he who fears Him, and the one who knows Allah’s commands is he who knows His limits and prescribed duties.”

Allah Most High has said:

“Of all His servants, only those with knowledge fear Allah.”

This indicates that everyone who fears Allah possesses knowledge, which is true. It does not indicate that everyone who possesses knowledge fears Him. However, since knowledge of Him necessarily produces fear when nothing counteracts it, the absence of that fear indicates weakness in the underlying knowledge: were that knowledge strong, it would overcome whatever counteracts it.

Likewise, the word “intellect” may refer to the innate faculty through which one acquires knowledge, to various kinds of knowledge, or to acting as that knowledge requires. Similarly, the word “ignorance” may express either the absence of knowledge or the failure to act as knowledge requires. Thus the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When one of you is fasting, let him neither speak obscenely nor behave foolishly. If someone insults him or fights him, let him say: ‘I am a man who is fasting.’”

Here, ignorance means wrongful speech, akin to compound ignorance. Another example is the poet’s saying:

Let no one act foolishly toward us—
Or we shall outdo the foolish in their folly.