Class 14 – Tawheed – 70 Major Sins
Class 14
‘Tawheed – 70 Major Sins’
Prohibitions Set By Allah S.W.T.
Praise be to Allah; we praise Him and seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our own souls and from our evil deeds. Whomever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomever Allah leaves astray, no-one will guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah Alone, with no partners or associates, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.
Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, has laid down obligations which we are not permitted to ignore, and has set limits which we are not permitted to transgress, and has set out prohibitions which we are not allowed to violate.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whatever Allah has permitted in His Book is allowed, and whatever He has prohibited is forbidden; whatever He has remained silent about is a concession, so accept the concession of Allah, for Allah is never forgetful.” Then he recited the ayah: “. . . and your Lord is never forgetful” [Maryam 19:64]. (Reported by al-Hakim, 2/375; classified as hasan by al-Albaani in Ghaayat al-Maraam, p. 14)
Allah has issued a threat to the one who transgresses His set limits and violates His prohibitions, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): “And whosoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, and transgresses His limits, He will cast him into the Fire, to abide therein; and he shall have a disgraceful torment.” [al-Nisaa’ 4:14]
Avoiding that which has been forbidden is a duty, because the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whatever you have been prohibited to do, avoid it, and whatever you have been commanded to do, do as much of it as you can.” (Reported by Muslim, Kitaab al-fadaa’il, hadeeth no. 130, Abd al-Baaqi edition).
It is well-known that some of those who follow their desires, who are weak at heart and have little knowledge, become irritated when they hear lists of prohibitions. They grumble and mutter, “Everything is haram, you haven’t left us anything that is not forbidden! You make our lives boring and miserable. You don’t talk about anything but what is haram, but religion is supposed to easy, not strict, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”
In response to such remarks, we say:
Allah, May He be glorified, rules as He wills and there is none to put back His judgement. He is All-Wise and Aware, and He allows whatever He wills and forbids whatever He wills, may He be glorified. One of the basic principles of our being His slaves is that we should accept whatever He decrees and submit fully to it. His rulings stem from His knowledge, wisdom and justice, and are not the matter of frivolity or foolish whims, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And the Word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can change His words. And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” [al-An’aam 6:115]
Allah has explained to us the governing principle behind the allowing and prohibiting of various things (interpretation of the meaning):
“. . . He allows them as lawful al-tayyibaat [(i.e., all good and lawful) as regards things, deeds, beliefs, persons, foods, etc.], and prohibits them as unlawful al-khabaa’ith (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Shall I not tell you of the most serious of the major sins?’ three times. We said, ‘Of course, O Messenger of Allah!’ He said, ‘Associating anything in worship with Allah . . .’” (Agreed upon; see al-Bukhari, no. 2511, al-Bagha edition).
How do we know what are Major Sins
Any sin entailing either a threat of punishment in the Hereafter explicitly mentioned by the Qur’an or Hadith, a prescribed legal penalty (Hadd), or being accursed by Allah or His Messenger ﷺ is called a major sin. We have to bear in mind that some major sins are most heinous than another. Like Shirk is the worst of them all.
We are obliged to learn about what the major sins are, so that Muslims may avoid them.
Allah, the Most high, promises whoever avoids the major sins to expiate his minor sins. Allah, the Almighty says,“If ye (but) eschew the most heinous of the things which ye are forbidden to do, we shall remit your evil deeds, and admit you to a gate of great honour.” (An-Nisaa :31)
Also the Prophet ﷺ said, “The five prescribed Prayers, and from one Friday Prayer to another and from Ramadan to another entail forgiveness for what is between them as long as you do not commit the major sins.” Reported by Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Khuzaymah and Ahmed.
We enlist below the 70 Major Sins mentioned in the book “Al Kaba’ir (Major Sins)” by “Imam Shamsu ed-Deen Dhahabi”
70 Major Sins
- Ascribing Associates To Allah, The Most High (Shirk)*** (details below)
- Murder (Killing someone innocent)
- Magic / Sorcery
- Not Performing the Prayer
- Not Paying Zakat
- Breaking One’s Fast During Ramadan Without an Excuse
- Not Performing the Hajj When Able to
- Showing Disrespect to One’s Parents
- Severing the Ties of One’s Relatives
- Adultery
- Sodomy
- Riba / Usury
- Wrongly Consuming an Orphan’s Property
- Lying About the Prophet – the Prophet ﷺsaid, “Whoever relates something from me I have not said shall take a place for himself in Hell”. (Bukhari & Muslim)
- Fleeing From the Battlefield
- The Leader Who Misleads His Followers, the Tyrant and the Oppressor
- Arrogance, Pride, Conceit, Vanity and Haughtiness
- Bearing False Witness
- Drinking Alcohol
- Gambling
- Accusing a Woman of Adultery / Slandering a Chaste Woman***(details below)
- Misappropriating Spoils of War, Muslim Funds or Zakat
- Theft
- Highwaymen Who Menace the Road
- The Engulfing Oath – Swearing falsely to gain possession.
- Taking People’s Property Through Falsehood
- Collecting Maks (Taxes)
- The Consumption of Haram
- Suicide
- Telling Lies*** (details below)
- The Dishonest Judge
- Bribery
- Women Imitating Men and Vice Versa
- The Pimp and the One Who Permits His Wife To Fornicate
- Marrying Solely to Return to the Previous Husband
- Not Freeing Oneself of All Traces of Urine
- Showing off in Good Work
- Learning Sacred Knowledge for the Sake of this World or Concealing It
- Breach of Faith
- Reminding Recipients of One’s Charity to Them
- Disbelieving in Destiny
- Listening to the People’s Private Conversations
- The Talebearer Who Stirs Up Enmity Between People
- Cursing Others
- Breaking One’s Promise or Pledge
- Believing Fortune-tellers and Astrologers
- A Wife’s Rebellion Against Her Husband
- Picture-making
- Loudly Lamenting For the Dead or When Afflicted With an Adversity
- Excess (Transgress) Against Others
- Overburdening and Arrogance Against Others
- Hurting One’s Neighbour
- Hurting or Reviling Muslims
- Harming the Servants of Allah
- Dragging the Hem of One’s Garment Out of Conceit
- Men Wearing Silk or Gold
- Fleeing of the Slave
- Slaughtering in Other Than Allah’s Name
- Falsely Claiming Someone is One’s Father
- Unrightfully Arguing, Picking Apart Another’s Words, and Quarrelling
- Withholding Excess Water From Others
- Stinting When Weighing or Measuring Out Goods and Similar Merchandise
- Feeling Secure From Allah’s Devising
- Despairing of the Mercy of Allah and Losing of Hope
- Forgoing the Congregational Prayer to Pray Alone Without A Legal Excuse – The Prophet ﷺsaid, “I have considered having a man lead people at prayer and going myself to those who stay back from attending the congregational prayer to bum their houses down upon them..”
- Constantly Missing the Friday and Congregational Prayer Without A Valid Excuse
- Bringing Loss to the Bequest – Not distributing Wealth to heirs according to the Laws set by Allah.by preventing a heir to get their right
- Deception and Evil Schemes
- Spying on the Muslims and Revealing Their Weaknesses
- Disparaging the Companions of the Prophet
***1. Shirk
‘Shirk’ is the absolute single biggest sin in Islam, which Allah has Himself promised in the Quran never to forgive! This sin is so heinous and so monstrous, that Allah has promised to forgive any of the sins of man, except this one sin! Allah says in the Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 72:”Whoever commits ‘shirk’ (invoking anything with Allah), Allah shall forbid for him Paradise, and Hell shall be his abode. And for such wrong doers there will be no one to help”.All the Prophets of Allah who were ever sent warned the believers to beware of this heinous sin of ‘shirk’, which renders all the deeds of man worthless in the sight of Allah. Allah says “And indeed it has been revealed to you (O Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)), as it was to those (Allah’s Messengers) before you: “If you join others in worship with Allah, (then) surely (all) your deeds will be in vain, and you will certainly be among the losers” [az-Zumar 39:65].Thus it becomes our duty to recognize and be aware of ‘shirk’ and all the manifestations of this horrendous and grave sin. Allow me to just give you examples of what constitutes ‘shirk’:
- To worship anybody with Allah.
- To invoke (ask dua) anybody with Allah.
- Prostrating (Sajdah) down to anybody or anything other than Allah.
- Bowing down to the Syedna.
- Bowing down to the graves of his ancestors.
- Bowing down to the graves of even the Prophet (saws), Hadrat Ali (saws), Hadrat Fatema (saws), etc.
- Believing that the dead people in their graves can answer our duas.
- Believing that anybody other than Allah can do us any harm (without Allah’s will).
- Believing that anybody other than Allah can bring us some good (without Allah’s will) is shirk.
- Believing that anybody other than Allah knows everything.
- Believing that anybody other than Allah sees everything.
- Believing that anybody other than Allah listens to our prayers.
- Believing that anybody other than Allah can help us (without Allah’s will).
- Believing that anybody other than Allah can guide us (without Allah’s will).
- Believing that anybody can influence Allah to give us health.
- Believing that anybody can influence Allah to give us wealth.
- Believing that anybody can influence Allah to give us children.
- Believing that anybody can influence Allah to help us.
- Believing that anybody has any power with Allah.
- Believing that anybody has any power with Allah to take us out of the fire of Hell.
- Believing that anybody has any power with Allah on the Day of Judgement.
- Believing that anybody has any power to change the decision of Allah.
- To raise anybody to the rank of Allah (like Christians did to Isa A.S. and now a days some Muslims do with Prophet ﷺ).
- To give any of Allah’s attributes to anybody else.
- To believe that anybody has the power to bring about any miracles on his own.
- To believe someone knows the unseen.
May Allah keep us all safe from the great sin, guide us all to the straight path and by His Mercy make us all inhabitants of Jannah.
***21. Slandering
Slandering in general is a Major Sin. Many children fall into this trap of Shaitaan by slandering and making fun of other children who they think are weak. We will list below some ahadeeth pointing at the seriousness of Slandering.
Ahmad (19277) and Abu Dawood (4880) narrated that Abu Barzah al-Aslami said: “The Messenger of Allaah ﷺ said: ‘O you who have spoken the words of faith but faith has not truly entered your hearts! Do not backbite about the Muslims, and do not seek out their faults. For whoever seeks out their faults, Allaah will seek out his faults, and if Allaah seeks out a person’s faults He will expose him even in his own house.’” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood, 4083.
It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever has wronged his brother with regard to his honour or anything else, let him seek his forgiveness today, before there will be no dinar and no dirham, and if he has any good deeds to his credit they will be taken from him in a manner commensurate with the wrong he did, and if he has no good deeds, then some of his counterpart’s bad deeds will be taken and added to his burden.” [al-Bukhaari].
The Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not express malicious joy towards your brother’s misfortune, for Allaah may have mercy on him and you may be stricken by the thing you made fun of.” (al-Tirmidhi).
The Prophet ﷺ warned against mocking people and hurting their feelings, because that is the path that leads to hatred and grudges. He ﷺ said: “The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim, he does not wrong him, let him down or look down upon him. Taqwa (piety, awareness and fear of Allaah) is here” – and he pointed to his chest three times – “It is sufficient evil for a man to look down upon his Muslim brother. Every Muslim is sacred to another Muslim, his blood, his property and his honour.” (Narrated by Muslim)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When I was taken up into the heavens (the M’iraj), I passed by some people who had nails of copper with which they were scratching their faces and chests. I said, ‘Who are these people, O Jibreel?’ He said, ‘These are the ones who used to eat the flesh of the people and slander their honour.’” [ al-Bukhaari, Abu Dawood].
No believer would read these great ahaadeeth and then spy on his fellow-Muslims, or seek out their faults, or spread malicious gossip among them. Note that the scholars have listed spreading Malicious Gossip or Slandering a Muslim amongst Major Sins.
Everyone who does any kind of backbiting, slander or malicious gossip has to repent and pray for forgiveness, and that is between him and Allaah. If he knows that any of his words reached the person about whom he was speaking, then he should go to him and ask him to forgive him. But if he does not know, then he should not tell him; rather he should pray for forgiveness for him and make du’a(supplication) for him, and speak well of him in his absence just as he spoke against him. Similarly, if he knows that telling him will provoke more enmity, then it is sufficient to make du’a for him, speak well of him and pray for forgiveness for him.
***30. Telling Lies
Allah Most High states,· “Then let us earnestly pray and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie!” (Al-‘Imran: 61)· “Cursed be the conjecturers (the liars).” (Al-Dhariyat: 10)
On the authority of Ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him), “the Messenger of Allah ﷺsaid, “Adhere firmly to truthfulness for truthfulness surely leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise, and a man is recorded with Allah as a sincere one as long as he is truthful. However, lying leads to immorality and immorality leads to the Hell-Fire, and a man is recorded with Allah as a liar as long as he lies.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
He ﷺalso said, “Three are the signs of the hypocrite, even if he prays, fasts, and pretends to be a Muslim: When he talks, he lies; when he makes a promise he breaks it; and when he is given a trust, he betrays it” (Bukhari & Muslim)
AI-Bukhari reported in his Sahih the following hadith on the authority of Samarah Ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to ask, “Did anyone of you see a dream?” So those whom Allah wished to tell would narrate dreams to him. One morning the Prophet ﷺ said, “Last night two persons came to me in a dream and woke me up and said to me, ‘Proceed!’ I set out with them… And we came to a man laying flat on his back and another man standing over his head with an iron hook, and behold, he would put the hook in one side of man’s mouth and tear off that side of his face to the back of the neck and similarly tear his nose from front to back and his eyes from front to back. Then he turned to the other side of the man’s face and did just as he had done with the other side. He hardly completed this side when the other side returned to its normal state. Then he returned to repeat what he had done before. I said to my two companions, ‘Glory be to Allah! Who are these two persons?’… They said, ‘This man is the symbol of the person who goes out of his house in the morning and tells so many lies that it spreads all over the world.'”
Allah’s Messenger ﷺ also said, “The believer may be naturally disposed to any shortcoming except treachery and lying.” (Bukhari)
Those who wish to read all the references and details about all the listed sins can download the book 70 MAJOR SINS from https://islamhouse.com/en/books/386056/
SubhaanAllah, there are some listed here which are so common amongst us now and we don’t realise that they are considered as Major sins, we don’t even think twice about them. May Allah forgive us all and give us the Hidayah to set our affairs right.
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TIPS OF TEST: –
- We should know all the Major Sins to be safe from them in real life but memorize atleast half of them.
- Do not need to memorise all the Ayahs and Hadeeths, but understand what they are tying to say.