for him or for others like him. As for someone who is mistaken—that is, mistaken concerning matters established by conclusive evidence—they hold that he incurs sin.

The second position on the underlying issue is that someone exercising independent judgment on the basis of evidence may be able to discover the truth or may be unable to do so. If he is unable, however, Allah Most High may punish him or may leave him unpunished, for He may punish whomever He wills and forgive whomever He wills without any cause whatsoever, solely by His will. This is the position of the Jahmiyyah, the Ashʿarīs, and many jurists and followers of the four imams and others.

They then say:

“It is known through revelation that every disbeliever will be in the Fire. We therefore know that Allah will punish every disbeliever, whether he exercised independent judgment but was unable to recognize the religion of Islam, or did not exercise independent judgment at all. As for Muslims who disagree, if their disagreement concerns subsidiary questions, most of them say that these entail no punishment. Some say this is because the Lawgiver has pardoned error in such matters, and that this is known through the consensus of the early generations that one who errs in them incurs sin. Others say it is because error in matters of probability is impossible, as previously mentioned concerning some of the Jahmiyyah and Ashʿarīs.

“As for matters established by conclusive evidence, most of them hold that whoever errs in them incurs sin, saying that revelation indicates this. Some, however, do not hold him to be sinful.”

This is the meaning of the position attributed to ʿUbayd Allah ibn al-Hasan al-ʿAnbarī: he did not deem sinful those who erred in exercising independent judgment from among