for their deeds therein,” and so on. Allah Most High also said:

“Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face.”

There are many similar passages. These principles are well established in the Quran, the Sunnah, and the words of scholars and those with spiritual insight. The purpose here is not to establish them.

Rather, the purpose is to address another matter: if religious accountability is conditional upon the ability to acquire knowledge, which rests upon reason, and upon the ability to act, then we say:

Either of these capacities may be lost through prohibited causes or through causes that are not prohibited. If someone deprives himself of his reason by drinking wine, taking henbane, or the like, this does not absolve him of sin for the obligations he neglects and the prohibited acts he commits, if intoxication leads to that conduct. This differs from losing his reason through a cause that is not prohibited, such as fainting from illness or fear, or becoming intoxicated through drinking that is not prohibited—for example, being compelled to swallow wine. Such a person incurs no sin.

As for his being required to make up the prayers according to Ahmad, and according to those who say that he must make up the prayers of one day and night, this is analogous to the obligation to make up prayers for someone who sleeps through them or forgets them, neither of whom incurs any sin. As the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“There is no negligence in sleep; negligence is only while awake.”

He also said:

“Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it must pray it when he remembers it, for that is its appointed time. There is no expiation for it other than that.”