Class 9

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.

In addition to what is narrated on the authority of early Muslims. 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”

1. Ascribing Associates To Allah, The Most High (Shirk)
2. Murder (Killing someone innocent)
3. Magic / Sorcery
4. Not Performing the Prayer
5. Not Paying Zakat
6. Breaking One’s Fast During Ramadan Without an Excuse
7. Not Performing the Hajj When Able to***
8. Showing Disrespect to One’s Parents
9. Severing the Ties of One’s Relatives
10. Adultery
11. Sodomy
12. Riba / Usury
13. Wrongly Consuming an Orphan’s Property
14. Lying About the Prophet – the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever relates something from me I have not said shall take a place for himself in Hell.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
15. Fleeing From the Battlefield
16. The Leader Who Misleads His Followers, the Tyrant and the Oppressor
17. Arrogance, Pride, Conceit, Vanity and Haughtiness
18. Bearing False Witness
19. Drinking Alcohol
20. Gambling 
21. Accusing a Woman of Adultery / Slandering a Chaste Woman
22. Misappropriating Spoils of War, Muslim Funds or Zakat
23. Theft
24. Highwaymen Who Menace the Road
25. The Engulfing Oath – Swearing falsely to gain possession.
26. Taking People’s Property Through Falsehood
27. Collecting Maks (Taxes)***
28. The Consumption of Haram
29. Suicide
30. Telling Lies***
31. The Dishonest Judge
32. Bribery
33. Women Imitating Men and Vice Versa
34. The Pimp and the One Who Permits His Wife To Fornicate
35. Marrying Solely to Return to the Previous Husband
36. Not Freeing Oneself of All Traces of Urine
37. Showing off in Good Work
38. Learning Sacred Knowledge for the Sake of this World or Concealing It
39. Breach of Faith
40. Reminding Recipients of One’s Charity to Them
41. Disbelieving in Destiny
42. Listening to the People’s Private Conversations
43. The Talebearer Who Stirs Up Enmity Between People
44. Cursing Others
45. Breaking One’s Promise or Pledge
46. Believing Fortune-tellers and Astrologers
47. A Wife’s Rebellion Against Her Husband
48. Picture-making
49. Loudly Lamenting For the Dead or When Afflicted With an Adversity
50. Excess (Transgress) Against Others
51. Overburdening and Arrogance Against Others
52. Hurting One’s Neighbor
53. Hurting or Reviling Muslims
54. Harming the Servants of Allah
55. Dragging the Hem of One’s Garment Out of Conceit
56. Men Wearing Silk or Gold
57. Fleeing of the Slave
58. Slaughtering in Other Than Allah’s Name
59. Falsely Claiming Someone is One’s Father
60. Unrightfully Arguing, Picking Apart Another’s Words, and Quarreling
61. Withholding Excess Water From Others
62. Stinting When Weighing or Measuring Out Goods and Similar Merchandise
63. Feeling Secure From Allah’s Devising
64. Despairing of the Mercy of Allah and Losing of Hope
65. Forgoing the Congregational Prayer to Pray Alone Without A Legal Excuse – The Prophet ﷺ said, “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..”
66. Constantly Missing the Friday and Congregational Prayer Without A Valid Excuse
67. 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
68. Deception and Evil Schemes
69. Spying on the Muslims and Revealing Their Weaknesses
70. Disparaging the Companions of the Prophet

7. Not Performing the Hajj When Able to

Whoever is able to do Hajj and does not do the obligatory Hajj, delaying it for no reason, has committed a great evil and a major sin. What he has to do is to repent to Allaah from that and hasten to do Hajj, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) to the House (Ka‘bah) is a duty that mankind owes to Allaah, those who can afford the expenses (for one’s conveyance, provision and residence); and whoever disbelieves [i.e. denies Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah), then he is a disbeliever of Allaah], then Allaah stands not in need of any of the ‘Aalameen (mankind, jinn and all that exists)” [Aal ‘Imraan 3:97]

Ali (RA) narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: “He who possess enough food for the trip, a means of transportation to reach to Makkah, and yet does not perform Hajj, then he dies, he would then die as a Jew or a Christian. This is because Allah says,”Pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to Allah -those who can afford the journey.” [Sunan Tirmidhi & Bayhaqi]

27. Collecting Maks

Maks is a kind of tax and refers to money that was taken from vendors in the market-places during the Jaahiliyyah, or taken from merchants when they passed through. (See ‘Awn al-Ma’bood, hadeeth no. 2548). This tax is one of the major sins, because the Prophet ﷺ said, concerning the woman who had committed zina (adultery), then came to the Prophet ﷺ so that the hadd punishment might be carried out on her, “By the one in Whose hand is my soul, she has repented in such a way that if the one who wrongfully takes the maks from people had repented like this, he would have been forgiven.” (Narrated by Muslim, 3208). Al-Nawawi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in Sharh Saheeh Muslim (11/203): “This shows that the maks is one of the most evil of sins and actions that condemn a man to Hell.” 

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 ﷺ said, “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 ﷺ also 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 ﷺsaid, “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.