rather, they sinned of their own free choice.

If it is said:

“These people say to the devils among mankind and the jinn, ‘We did not know that this would harm us. Rather, you made it appealing and attractive to us until we did it, while we were ignorant of the matter.’”

The reply is:

As we know, no weight is given to the consent or permission of someone who is unaware of the harm an act will cause him. Consent and permission are valid only when given by someone who understands what he is permitting and consenting to. A person consents to something whose harm to him outweighs its benefit only because of his ignorance; otherwise, the soul naturally recoils from such harm. Thus, someone who buys a defective item, an item whose condition has been misrepresented, or an item whose price is unknown, without knowing its true circumstances, has not genuinely consented to it; rather, he is entitled to rescind the transaction afterward. Likewise, no one consents to disbelief, insanity, or sexual immorality involving his family unless he is unaware of the harm these entail for him. If he permits them, his right is not thereby extinguished; rather, he remains a victim of wrongdoing. Even if he were to say, “I know what punishment these entail, and I consent to it,” that would be a lie. Indeed, he is among those most ignorant of what they are saying.

For this reason, if someone utters words whose meaning he does not understand and says, “I intended whatever legal effect they have before Allah,” this is not valid according to the stronger of the two views. An example is someone saying “bihashimi” without knowing what it means, or saying, “You are divorced if you enter the house,” and intending its legal effect