words and deeds, and they are absolved of blame wherever the Lawgiver has excused them. Exactly the same is said of a scholar who errs in exercising independent judgment. Indeed, such a scholar belongs to this category, since he is absolved of blame because he was unable to attain the requisite knowledge. If, however, their loss of reason or capacity results from a prohibited cause, they deserve blame and punishment for the obligations they neglect and the prohibited acts they commit.

An example of the “first” case is someone who listens to the Quran in the prescribed manner, whereupon a spiritual emotion that he cherishes, or fear or hope, surges within him. Unable to bear it, he dies, falls unconscious, cries out loudly, or becomes violently agitated. If this results in his missing an obligatory prayer or committing an aggression against someone, he is excused for that. In this state, he is like those distraught people described as the wise among the insane, who have lost their reason despite being righteous and possessing spiritual insight. This may be due to the intensity of the inward experience that comes upon them, their hearts’ inability to bear it, an imbalance in their bodily temperaments and the potency of a bodily humour, or an affliction caused by the jinn.

Their condition is as described in the report that has reached us from Imam Abū Muhammad al-Maqdisī. When asked about them, he said:

[These are people whom Allah endowed with reason and spiritual states. He then took away their reason while leaving their spiritual states intact, and relieved them of the obligations He had imposed because of what He had taken away.] (*)

Thus, this category and the preceding one were found among the Successors and those who