Error and forgetfulness

الخطأ والنسيان

Error and forgetfulness in Ibn Abbas's hadith — the thirty-ninth of the Forty — are among what God lifted from this community: 'God has pardoned for my sake on behalf of my community error, forgetfulness, and what they were coerced into' — error being the doing of the prohibited without intent, and forgetfulness the omitting of a command or doing of a prohibition through the heart's heedlessness, both lifting accountability on the commentators' prevailing reading since culpable intent is absent, while worldly consequences may still attach to error, such as the blood-money and expiation rulings for accidental killing (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 796–797).

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Prophetic Era
Region: Global / Diaspora
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Law and courts

Overview

Error and forgetting are among the matters for which God has pardoned this community, as in the hadith of Ibn Abbas, the thirty-ninth in Ibn Rajab's commentary. ¹

The hadith

Its text: "God has overlooked for me, for my community, error and forgetting, and what they were compelled to do." ¹

The meaning

Error is doing what is forbidden without intending it. Forgetting is leaving what is commanded or doing what is prohibited because the heart was distracted from it. According to the preferred view of the commentators on the hadith, both lift accountability, because the intention is absent. ¹

The worldly effect

Error may carry liability for property, as in the rulings on accidental killing. ¹

Connections

Explore the connections

Based on: Arba'un 39 — God pardoned my community error and forgetfulness

People and things also explored

Ikrah (duress or compulsion)· Abdullah ibn Abbas· Arba'un 39 — God pardoned my community error and forgetfulness· Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)· Democracy and the Sharia — compatibility and conflict· Fatwa on the satellite channels — its benefit and harm· Secularism and Islam — conflict or concord· Stoning (rajm) as a penalty for zina

Sources

Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali , p. 796-797

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Error and forgetfulness”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/khata-nisyan/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Wing

Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Ikrah (duress or compulsion)

Duress is an act done to another that removes his consent or spoils his choice. Coercion without right is a major sin, and the Hanafis alone divide it into compelling and non-compelling. For the Hanafis, duress removes consent and corrupts choice: a confession made under it is void, a sale made under it is defective, while marriages, divorces, vows and oaths made under it stand. The conditions are the coercer's power to carry out the threat, the victim's fear, and a threat of killing or of losing a limb. Duress removes the hadd penalty from the one compelled, because it is a doubt.