A-1.5: Those Unreached by Prophets Are Not Responsible

According to this school, a person is not morally obligated by Allah to do or refrain from anything unless the invitation of a prophet and what Allah has legislated have reached him (n:w-4 discusses Islam's relation to previous prophets' laws).

No one is rewarded for doing something or punished for refraining from or doing something until he knows by means of Allah's messengers, what he is obliged to do or obliged to refrain from.

So whoever lives in such complete isolation that the summons of a prophet and his Sacred Law do not reach him, is not morally responsible to Allah for anything and deserves neither reward nor punishment.

And those who lived in one of the intervals after the death of a prophet and before a new one had been sent were not responsible for anything and deserve neither reward nor punishment.

This view is confirmed by the word of Allah Most High:

"We do not punish until we send a messenger"

(Koran 17:15).

(.Ilm usul al-fiqh (y-71) 96-98)