The same applies to “a person’s capacity to act”: if, after Hajj becomes obligatory for him, he is negligent and squanders his wealth, Hajj remains an obligation upon him. Likewise, regarding permission to do what is prohibited, Allah Most High said:

“But whoever is compelled by necessity, neither desiring it nor exceeding the limits, incurs no sin.”

Necessity arising from a prohibited act does not make prohibited things permissible, unlike necessity arising from a cause that is not prohibited. Scholars have differed over whether someone whose journey is itself sinful may avail himself of the concessions granted to travellers. The position of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad is that he may not.

As for the states experienced by devoted worshippers, those with spiritual insight, ascetics, and others like them, these may deprive a person of his reason and awareness, leaving him like someone who is insane, distraught, intoxicated, or asleep. They may also deprive him of his capacity to act, leaving him helpless, or like someone compelled to act, whose words and deeds occur without his will or choice. Losing reason and capacity may render him unable to fulfil obligations and may cause him to commit prohibited acts.

Concerning such people, we say: if this loss results from a cause that is not prohibited, they incur no sin for the obligations they neglect or the prohibited acts they commit. Nor, however, is it permissible to follow them in any of their words or deeds that fall outside the Sharia. We do not blame them for that; rather, they may be praised for what accords with the Sharia in their