“If kufr Can Be Excused Due to Ignorance, Then the Same Must Apply to shirk”
Another pseudo-argument is based on the fact that ignorance can indeed be a valid excuse in certain cases, for example if a person rejects a Qur'anic verse simply because he had no knowledge of it.
This false reasoning has already been sufficiently addressed in a previous chapter. It is only being reiterated here because this claim is sometimes raised in an attempt to justify the idea of a “polytheistic Muslim.”
As previously explained in detail, in this case of rejecting a Qur'anic verse, actual kufr does not even occur. If a person has no knowledge of a specific Qur'anic verse, then it cannot be said that he has rejected it. In reality, such a person denied that revealed text only because he lacked reliable knowledge as to whether it was actually a revealed text.
From this, the contradiction in the question becomes clear: “If a person can be excused in kufr, why can he not also be excused in shirk?”
If a person expresses or internally believes something that actually makes him a non-Muslim, then there is no longer any impediment afterwards. Only through tawbah, which means abandoning the matter and repenting sincerely, can a person invalidate such a state.
As previously demonstrated, kufr does not occur in the first place if a person, for example, denies a revealed text out of complete ignorance, utters a statement of disbelief while asleep, or does something similar.
Such cases cannot be used as an argument to claim that a polytheist could become a monotheist simply due to ignorance. As explained multiple times in this book, a person's mere ignorance of monotheism makes it impossible for Islam to be established in him. For this reason, a polytheist cannot be considered a monotheist simply because of his ignorance.