The term mustadh‘af is sometimes applied to the persons who...

The term mustadh‘af is sometimes applied to the persons who are socially under the dominance of the powerful tyrants, and are deprived of the truth [ haqq ] and their rights [ huquq ]. But the same term is also related to scholastic theology and it refers to a person who, due to weakness in understanding, is deprived of arriving at the correct and right path. Weakness of understanding may be caused by different factors.

For example, Islam is never introduced to him and nothing about it reached him; or, it is introduced to him but because of the weakness in understanding, he fails to grasp its proofs; or, he can grasp the proofs but he lives in a society where doubts about these proofs are brought forth which he himself could not answer nor could he consult somebody to clarify those doubts; and many…