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Fatwa CenterCommitting sins out of ignorance
Question
Do you get a sin if you didn't know that when you do a sexual intercourse with someone and your not married, but you find out its a sin, do you get a sin for that but you didn't know? My friend wanted to know.
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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Whoever commits a sin while not knowing that it is a sin, he will not be accountable for it, as there are many evidences which prove that a person who does a sin unknowingly is forgiven. For instance Allaah Says (which means): {And Allaah will never lead a people astray after He has guided them until He makes clear to them as to what they should avoid. …}[Quran 9: 115]. Moreover, the Prophet 
did not order the person who did not know how to pray to make up his prayer. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] However, one should know that the scholars
conditioned the fact of not being held accountable on the act not being commonly known or being a new Muslim or if one is brought up in an environment where there is no knowledge and so forth.
So, one should know that whoever lives among the Muslims in a country where knowledge is available and commits an act of disobedience which is well known to be forbidden, then his claim of being ignorant about the matter will not be accepted from him. Even if we presume that one did not know that a specific act is forbidden he is still sinful for being negligent in seeking knowledge.
Finally, it should be noted that what we mentioned about being ignorant about a certain act being forbidden and not being held accountable for it does not include the rights of others; for instance if someone spoils the wealth of other people, he is certainly responsible for the loss even if he is not sinful due to his ignorance.
Allaah Knows best.
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