because of an excusable exercise of independent judgment or reliance on another’s judgment, or because of a lack of ability, as I have explained elsewhere. I have also explained this under the principle of “declaring someone an unbeliever or a sinful transgressor,” which rests on the principle governing threats of punishment.

The texts containing “threats of punishment” in the Book and Sunnah, and the statements of the leading scholars declaring people unbelievers or sinful transgressors and the like, do not entail that their consequences apply to a particular individual unless the conditions are fulfilled and the impediments are absent. There is no distinction in this respect between fundamentals and subsidiary matters.

This concerns punishment in the Hereafter. One who deserves the threatened chastisement, curse, and wrath of Allah in the Hereafter will either remain in the Fire eternally or not. The corresponding designations of disbelief and sinful transgression fall under this “rule,” whether they arise from an innovation in belief or worship, or from sinful conduct in worldly life—that is, sinful transgression through deeds.

The same also applies to rulings in this world. Fighting unbelievers must be preceded by calling them to Islam, since punishment applies only to those whom the message has reached. Likewise, punishment of sinful transgressors is not warranted until the proof has been established against them.