Major Sins – Part 4

handily below the mean Allahumma salli ala Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, our dear brothers and sisters, all praises, certainly due to Allah. We ask a lot to send his peace and blessings upon his final messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to guide us and protect us from the evil of our selves, and from the evil consequence of our evil actions. Certainly, whoever Allah guides, no one can misguide. And whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray, no one can guide. And I testify that alone is worthy of worship, and that Mohammed sobre la la he was Salam is his servant, and His Messenger. My brothers and sisters, I want to pick up from

where I left off last time, and we were talking about Muslims, we were talking about the idea or the concept, that within every sin is the potential for some benefits. within every good deed, there is the potential for some harm. But the sherea the wisdom of Allah's guidance, is that his wisdom and his guidance is always directing us towards the maximum benefit and the minimum harm. And that is something based upon Allah has perfect comprehension of the human needs. Allah can see what we cannot see. Allah understands what we cannot understand. Allah knows what we cannot know. And that is why we must always put a lot of guidance above our intellect. It's not that we subject what Allah

subhanaw taala has taught us in His wisdom, and see, dismiss agree with my intellect or not, no, because the true intellect will always understand that Allah's wisdom is perfect, and ours is limited. That By the way, does not mean that we don't try to comprehend and to understand the wisdom behind Allah's guidance, and behind Allah subhanaw taala prohibiting us from certain things. In fact, that is something very essential and very important. And as we've mentioned already, some of those things, Allah has told us the reason why and he mentioned in the Quran, or the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he detailed for us why this particular thing is prohibited. And they

may, by the way, be other reasons as well. And sometimes Allah did not tell us, and he left it for us to explore. So this here, for example, is the role of the intellect and we should not feel shy in employing our intellect in trying very hard to understand why our last monitor has prohibited certain things. And inshallah, that's what we will be trying to do. We haven't started even the topic yet of what are the major sins because we're exploring the whole concept of sin itself. And one of the things that we want to start doing in today's episode is having a brief look at the concept of sin in other religions. So having had quite a good study and a good look at the concept

of sin. In Islam, we now want to look at the concept of sin also in other religions, but before we do that, in short, a lot there are a few important points that I want to mention. And it is in a sense going over some of the things that we have already been talking about. Now, we have mentioned we mentioned it again, that's a loss of Hanover to Iowa has not prohibited something for us just to make our life difficult. And, you know, I will probably keep saying this again and again. And I know I have to keep saying it brothers and sisters. Why? Because you know what, that's exactly what shaytan wants us to think shaitaan wants us to think that Allah is, you know, spoiling our fun. Or

Allah doesn't want you to do this and do that because he doesn't want you to have fun. And you find that the army of shaytaan propagating the same

idea. Are you religious people, all you people, you know, you just have no fun in your life. Of course, that's just totally ridiculous. But that's the idea that somehow obeying God keeping away from sin means having no fun in your life, and that these things are just spoiling all your fun, and all these boring things that you do. And this is the idea This, of course, this is exactly what how shaytaan would like us to think. But that is not the case at all. That is not the case at all. The reality is that when Allah said, don't do this, it's because it's going to damage you. And even if there's some good in it, that good is not enough to outweigh the harmful effects. And so, there are

two aspects that I want to explore. And two dimensions that I want to explore, in respect to since. And this is a little bit to do with the issue of intention. And I'm sure as all of us know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said, in the Malou, beneath it, every single action is judged by its intention. So this issue, or this topic of intention, is very important. And it's also of course, important in respect to sin. Because in Islam, something can only really be a sin, when it is done intentionally. You can't sin by mistake. Because if you are truly ignorant of something, in reality, that ignorance is an excuse. And I want to say, and it's important to understand, unless

you are ignorant, on purpose, to be purposefully ignorant, is not an excuse. Some people shaytaan has really fooled them. And they say, No, I will not seek knowledge, I will not learn, I'm not going to watch piece TV and find out things and then when I find out things, Allah will ask me about it. This is just shaytaan fooling you, okay? tricking you. Because that itself is so serious that even some scholars said, thinking like that is an act of disbelief, according to some scholars, to purposefully remain ignorant is actually covered. It's actually this believing in Allah subhanaw taala. And anyway, it's not an excuse, Allah will not accept it from you, that you stayed ignorant

on purpose. But no, if you are ignorant of something, and although you have sought knowledge, and you're trying your best to follow others guidance, but you don't happen to know that something is a sin, then you are not going to be accountable for that. Why? It's very simple, because in a sense, sin by definition, is a purposeful and an intended act of disobedience to Allah Subhana Allah, so you can't sin by mistake, you sin, because you know, this is something Allah subhanaw taala has prohibited. And then you go ahead and you do it. This is part of the mercy of Allah Subhana Allah, that he is not going to take us to account on the Day of Judgment, and he is not going to punish us

on the Day of Judgment, for something that we didn't know. And also for something we did out of forgetfulness, there are things that you know, you forget, maybe you forget to pray, maybe you forget too fast, maybe there are things that you genuinely forget that this is something you should not do. And if it is done out of genuine forgetfulness, then Allah subhanaw taala is not going to account you for that. And this is part of the great mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And also, there may be things that you do when you are sleeping, or when you are unconscious, or you are in a state of madness, for example. So when you don't have control of your cognitive facilities, when

you're not in control, and your mind is really not operating on the normal rational level, then you know, the pain is lifted, you're not accounted. And so this proves that pot of sin must be intention, you must know that this is forbidden. And then you must do this act of disobedience to Allah subhanaw taala in the knowledge and the understanding that this is something that Allah Subhana Allah has forbidden. So this is very, very important. If you do something Haram, something that Allah has prohibited for you, and you don't know that it is forbidden. That doesn't mean that you will escape necessarily the harmful consequences of that. And that, by the way, goes back to the

issue that I was making. Allah has told us not to do things because those things are bad for us. So for example, you may not know

That let's just say if it was possible, but for the sake of argument, imagine a Muslim didn't know that alcohol was Haram. Or maybe they didn't know that. Some other intoxicant was how long? Does that mean, if they drank that alcohol, or they took that intoxicant. Maybe they smoked some marijuana or they took some heroin. And for whatever reason, they didn't think that thing was Haram. Does that mean they won't get drunk? Does that mean they won't get intoxicated? Does that mean that they won't suffer from the harmful effects? Of course, it doesn't mean that. No, of course not. And this is the point is that the sin has two levels. One level is where you are committing an actual

act of disobedience to Allah. And that is a sin in itself, that is going to harm your relationship between you and Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, because it's a purposeful act of disobedience. But that doesn't mean you won't suffer from the evil consequences of doing a bad thing, even in ignorance. If you do something bad, you're going to suffer the worldly consequences of that bad thing, especially for example, if we look at Hinduism, and Buddhism, and to a lesser extent, but also in a similar way, Confucianism, if we look at those religions, they actually have a very different are not very different, but they do have a different concept of sin than the one that we

have been talking about, because in Hinduism and Buddhism, and in a different sense, also Confucianism, which is the ancient and main philosophical tradition of the Chinese people, in fact, many people in Southeast Asia are very influenced by Confucianism.

The concept of sin is not disobeying the law of God, it is not disobeying Allah subhanaw taala. No sin in certainly in Hinduism, for example, is something against dharma. Dharma is it's a difficult concept or even a word to get hold of, but it is, in a sense, a natural way of living it is, it is something that is the natural order of things, it's presumed that there is a natural order, and natural way that things are. And when you transgress that natural order, when you transgress that, the way that things are, then this, in a sense, is sin. And also, the concept of sin is linked with the concept of karma. Karma means it's the idea that what you do has consequences. Everything that

you do has consequences. And actually, whatever word you call it, this is definitely a universal truth. Everything you say everything you do has the consequences. In English, we have a saying that, that says what goes around comes around, what goes around comes around or another saying is what you give out, you get back. So this is a type of universal truth, that everyone at some time or another in their life, is going to either suffer the evil consequences of their evil actions, or benefit from the good consequences of their good actions. And if you've been listening, almost every time when I start my lectures, I say, I take refuge with ALLAH, from the evil of myself, or we take

refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves, and from the evil consequence of our evil actions. That is because evil deeds have evil consequences. So that is the concept you find in Hinduism. And Buddhism, really, a person is only sinful in the sense that when they have broken the law, and the law has caught up with them, and the law has punished them, then this is in a sense, sin. So it's almost This is why this whole idea of losing face losing faces is important, because in that way, your inadequacies and your deficiencies and your lack of virtue and your lack of propriety is exposed in front of people. And that is in a sense, the sin almost it's the sin is getting caught.

Now, Confucianism very much encourages the development of noble characteristics and virtue. So that is also something very, very important. And in all these religions without doubt, there is a very strong concept of evil so similarly

The concept of evil is definitely there. But that is really very much tied to what we were talking about is that evil deeds have evil consequences, which you can experience. Now, from the Islamic perspective, the weakness of that the deficiency of that is that it relies totally on human experience, and the human intellect, and the human experience, either individually or collectively, and from the position of the Muslim and from the Judaic position in the Christian position as well, we would argue, that is a limitation, because human beings, by necessity, are unable to comprehend the vastness and the complexity of our affairs. And we believe that actually, we are in desperate

need of the knowledge and the guidance of our Creator. And indeed, God, our Creator of law has rights on us. Everybody has rights. So, without doubt, universally, in every religion and every philosophy, if there is a concept of sin, no one would dispute the concept that oppressing another human being or depriving someone of their rights is a wrongdoing. It's a transgression, it's an evil, everyone has to be given their rights. So giving people their rights is something that is a universal truth. And the golden rule, you will find it in every religion, every philosophy, you find it in Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and of course, you find it in Judaism and Christianity, and

you find it of course, in Islam, the golden rule, and you'll find it in secular philosophies. The golden rule is, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you treat other people the way you would like to be treated. This is the golden rule, almost you will find almost without, you find this universally, everywhere. So other people should be treated the way that you would like to be treated. This is the minimum base level of morality that human beings should be expected to implement in their lives. So when you oppress people, when you deprive people of their rights, we, again universally acknowledged that to be wrong. But how about our Creator? How about God? How about

the one who created us? Doesn't God have rights? Doesn't the one who gave us life doesn't the one who fed us and clothed us, doesn't the one who forgives us our sins, doesn't the one who guides us with His perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom, doesn't God also have rights. So if we are not giving God what is due to him, then that is surely a great evil. Just as if you don't give your parents due respect, universally, it's considered to be a great evil, just as you don't give your teacher due respect universally, it would be considered to be a great evil. So surely, we must give the creator his jewel song, and that we must give the rights to Allah. And this introduces us to the first of

the greatest of the major since the greatest of the greatest sins. And this is a very, very subtle introduction to the topic of shirk the topic of making partners with God, of making something equal with God, of claiming that some creative thing has some of the power or some of the knowledge or some of the wisdom or has the ability to forgive sins, or to control aspects of the universe, or to give to some creative thing, an act of worship, and subservience or glorification or praise, that actually only the creator alone is deserving of. This is considered to be in the religion of Islam, the greatest sin of all, there is nothing that is worse than that. There is nothing that is worse

than ship. And that is going to be the topic of our first

major sin. The most major of all the major sins is of course, making partners with Allah, making shift with Allah subhanho wa Taala. But before we get there, we've touched upon it, we started to look into it. We've discussed some aspects of it, but before

We get there, we do want to discuss some other aspects as well about sin. Now, one of the beautiful things about our religion is that there is a principal or there is a rule in the religion of Islam. And that rule is the scholars have derived this rule from the text of the Quran and I will read the proof of that and show you where you can find it in sha Allah. And it's in Surah Anam, which is the sixth surah in the 100 and 45th. So that's 145 ayah 145. Allah Subhana Allah says, The meaning of witches in English say, I find not in that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be carrion, or blood poured out, or the flesh of swine,

for surely that is impurity, or meat which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for other than Allah. But whosoever is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing jus limits, for him, certainly your Lord is all forgiving, Most Merciful. So there are so many benefits we can get from this one, I have the Quran, but what we want to look at here is a basic principle that scholars understand. And that is, I find not and that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, actually, the scholars took this and understood this in a general sense. The general sense is that everything is allowed in worldly things, whether it is food,

whether it is drink, whether it is enjoyment, whether whatever you can think of in worldly things, I don't mean religious things, but in worldly things, the basic rule is everything is allowed, except that which has been specifically and expressly mentioned as being forbidden. So if anyone wants to say, this is forbidden, this is forbidden, they have to prove from the Quran, or from the saying of the Prophet, or they have to have derived from it, that that thing is forbidden. So they need what we call a proof and an evidence to establish it. This is a beautiful thing. In reality, in general, handle, everything is halal. Everything is good, everything is lawful. We don't find anything

forbidden, except those things which have been expressly mentioned by Allah subhanaw taala, or by the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or it has been understood to be forbidden, through pass or through an illogical deduction. So that is something very, very important. And it's very interesting, by the way that the next ayah goes on to mention. And unto those who are Jews, we forbade them fat of the ox and the sheep, except that which adheres to their backs, and to the end trails, or is mixed up with bone, and we recompense them for their rebellion. And verily We are the truthful. So actually, this is important in Judaism, there are things that have been forbidden, even

though the benefit is more than the harm in that thing. And as we know, this thing is not forbidden for us in Islam, but it was forbidden for the Jews, because why? Because of their rebellion, and their transgression. So for them, there are some things that are forbidden. And that is a test. And they don't take into account whether there's a benefit or a harm note. If it is forbidden, it is forbidden. It's a test from God. And that's it, not like in our condition in Islam, as we have been discussing. But that's all there is time for today. So until our next session, Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh