The report about Allaah forgiving the ignorant before the knowledgeable

27-9-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Aasalamu aleikom wa rahmatuAllahi wa barakatuh Jazak Allahu khairan for always answering my questions ans helping me Barak Allahu feek may Allah reward you abubdantly ameen!!!I have a question concerning something I feel it is from the matters of ghaib. The saying "seventy sins are forgiven for an ignorant, before one sin is forgiven for a scholar". Why is this so.is there any daleel for this? As I know Allah's forgiving is only up to him? Is ignorant the right translation? The quote is from Al fudayl ibn iyad Hilyatul Auliyaa by Abu Nu'Aym 8/110 Jazakum Allahu khairan !

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

Abu Nu‘aym presented this report in his Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’, tracing it to Al-Fudhayl ibn ‘Iyaadh. We did not find anyone who commented on whether it is an authentic or weak report. However, the reports cited in Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’ are likely to be weak, and Allaah knows best.

Such a matter belongs to the Unseen and it is not subject to personal opinion. If the report proved to be authentic, then perhaps he (Al-Fudhayl) has read it in the writings of the preachers of the People of the Book. Al-Munaawi cited it in his Faydh Al-Qadeer and commented that it is about the knowledgeable person who fails to act upon the knowledge he possesses.

Another reported Hadeeth suggests the exact opposite; it reads: “Verily, Allaah, The Exalted, forgives forty sins of the knowledgeable person before He forgives one sin of the ignorant person . . .” As-Suyooti said in Al-La’aali’ Al-Masnoo‘ah that this report is fabricated; so did Al-Albaani in Dha‘eef al-Jaami‘. Even if it was assumed that the report is authentic, Al-Munaawi commented that it is about the knowledgeable person who used to act upon his knowledge and the obscene ignorant person or the one whose ignorance is not excusable.

Allaah Knows best.