n37 36 The Major Sins Series - Killing

The Major Sins Series - Killing

Speaker: Abu Usamah At-Thahabi

Date: 3/17

Opening

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

"All praise is due to Allah."

Introduction to the Second Major Sin

"And when the female infant buried alive is asked, for what sin was she killed?"

Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, in his book Kitab Al-Kabair mentions the second kabira.

And the scholars of Islam, they say that this second kabira is in fact the second biggest sin and crime that any son or daughter of Bani Adam can fall into. And that is qatl an-nafs - for someone to kill someone else.

After shirk billahi ta'ala, the second biggest kabira is for someone to murder someone else. To take a life, whether that life is a Muslim life or a non-Muslim life.

Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, made it haram for us to hunt for an animal and to kill the animal just for the sake of killing it. A bird will be brought forth on Yawm Al-Qiyamah, and it will be holding on to a person. The bird will say:

"Oh my Lord, ask him why did he kill me."

He was just doing target practice with a BB gun. He just went hunting, shot up the animals and left them like that.

The Life is an Amanah (Trust)

It is not permissible to take the life except that Allah has given someone the authority to do so. So the second kabira is al-qatl - killing someone without haq.

As it relates to the life, Ikhwatifillah, the life is an amanah that Allah has given to people. It doesn't belong to us, it is a trust. And this is established from the Quran and the authentic Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Allah said in the Quran:

"Say: Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds."

"And this is what I have been ordered."

So a person's life and his death is for Allah. The ayah said in the Quran:

"Who, when disaster strikes them, say: 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.'"

So the life is an amanah, it's a trust that Allah has given each and every one of us. So you have to give this body back to Allah the way He gave it to you. You cannot put on it tattoos, you cannot destroy it or deface it, you cannot take it away without the haq of Al-Islam, without Allah allowing you.

When It Is Permissible to Take Life

Now, there is a time when it's permissible to take the life. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"I have been ordered to fight the people until they say 'La ilaha illallah.' If they say it, they protect their blood and their wealth from me except by its right, and their reckoning is with Allah."

Fight the people until they say "La ilaha illallah." The mushrikun, not Ahl Al-Kitab - they pay the jizyah. The Majus, they pay the jizyah. And if they don't pay the jizyah, then there's fighting. But the mushrikun, Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, has been ordered to call them to Islam.

If they don't accept, then he fights them. They say "La ilaha illallah," establish the salah, give the zakah. If they do that, then their blood and their money is safe from me except by the haq of Al-Islam.

So you can only spill a person's blood with the haq of Al-Islam. For an example, those of you who have sons: your son is born, you have to take your son to get a circumcision. You're going to spill blood, and you're also going to harm him. You're going to make harm, but this is a time when it's permissible to harm him and also to spill his blood, because Allah allowed you.

He allowed you to cut the hand off of the one who steals. He allowed you also to take the life of a person who unjustly took someone else's life. So you can only shed blood by the haq of Al-Islam.

The Five Things Islam Protects

I believe we mentioned in this masjid before, ikhwan, that Al-Islam came to protect five things: Ad-Daruriyat Al-Khamsah. Islam came to protect five things. Every halal of Al-Islam and every haram in Al-Islam - it is halal and it is haram for the protection of these five things.

The first thing is: Islam came to protect your deen.

Islam came also to protect your blood. So it made haram drinking khamr, so you don't get drunk and then you go and kill someone.

And Islam came and made haram - and it came to protect the 'ird or the honor of the people.

Islam came and it came to protect the nasab or the lineage of the people. Don't marry your mother, don't marry your sister, don't make zina. Don't have homosexuality. Al-Islam came to protect the nasab.

And the fifth thing Al-Islam came to protect is your money.

Those are Ad-Daruriyat Al-Khamsah. So Al-Islam has not allowed for anyone to shed the blood of another person other than if Allah allowed it. What Allah allows, that's the deen.

Understanding Halal and Haram

And something that could be haram can be made halal by Allah, even if it's from evil. For an example, Allah ordered the angels to make sajdah to Adam. Sajdah is shirk and kufr, and from the biggest manifestations of kufr and shirk. But when Allah told the angels to make sajdah to Adam, now it's worship.

Killing someone unjustly is impermissible. But when Ibrahim took his son, Ismail, and he was going to slaughter his son, now it's worship for him to slaughter his son.

So killing and shedding blood only becomes halal when Allah allows it.

Evidence From the Quran

Concerning the chapter of the second kabira, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought a number of ayat of the Quran to support that murder is a kabira from the kabair.

First Ayah

Allah said:

"And it is not acceptable, it is not befitting for someone to kill a believer intentionally. And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his reward will be Jahannam, wherein he will abide eternally. And Allah will be angry with him, and He has cursed him, and He has prepared for him a great punishment."

So his reward is: he will be in the Jahannam, and he will be there forever. And Allah is angry with him. And Allah has cursed him. And Allah has prepared for him a grievous penalty.

You're not going to find in the book of Allah another sin with five of those descriptions. We said one of the ways you know that a sin is a kabira from the kabair is the description that has been given. Here we have the description that Allah said - five things.

So no one should be in doubt. And this is a serious issue as it relates to those of us who have quick tempers, and we are in the street and we misunderstand other people, and it leads to fisticuffs.

Fighting the Muslim is a kabira from the kabair, as he says, peace and blessings be upon him:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"Fighting a Muslim is kufr, disbelief."

And one of the reasons that we use as a deterrent is: killing a Muslim is a serious crime.

Second Ayah

The second ayah that Imam Al-Dhahabi brought was the statement of Allah, and He's praising the righteous believers, the sincere ones, the mu'minun:

Those people who do not call on other gods along with Allah, and they do not kill the soul that Allah has made sacred except by right, nor do they commit zina. And whoever does this will meet a penalty - their punishment will be doubled in the hereafter.

But those who make tawbah and those who believe, Allah will forgive them, even if they did those things.

Third Ayah

The third ayah is the statement of Allah:

"Whoever kills a soul - unless for a soul or for corruption in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely."

And that ayah is in Surah Al-Ma'idah, and it comes on the heels of the ayah talking about Adam's son who killed the other brother.

And we don't call them Cain and Abel, nor do we call them Habil and Qabil, because we don't have any authentic hadith to tell us that that's their name. We don't know if Firaun - if the queen of Sheba is - we don't know if the wife of the Aziz, if her name is Zulaikha, we don't know. All of those names come from the Israiliyat, so we don't establish them.

We establish and we believe what comes in the Kitab and the Sunnah. Abel and Cain, Habil and Qabil - there's no proof for us to say that that's their names.

Anyway, this ayah, after one brother killed the other brother, Allah said:

"Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely."

So that's a kabira from the kabair.

Fourth Ayah

Finally, he brought the ayah:

"And when the female infant buried alive is asked, for what sin was she killed?"

On Yawm Al-Qiyamah, that infant child will be asked: for what crime were you killed? So murdering the baby by getting an abortion without having a legitimate reason in Al-Islam is a kabira from the kabair, and it's like killing all of the people.

Addressing Common Misconceptions

Some of us, we look at ourselves and we say: "Well, I've never killed anyone and I don't plan on killing anyone.

Question About Early Pregnancy

Someone may say: "But what about the hadith of the truthful and the truthful one (As-Sadiq Al-Masduq)? The hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud?"

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim - "One of you, his creation is brought together in his mother's stomach, 40 days as a sperm, and then 40 more days as an embryo, then 40 more days as a lump of flesh."

"What about those 120 days? After the 120 days, the angel is sent to blow into the child the spirit of life. So if I abort the child after 100 days, 50 days, 60 days, as long as it's before the 120, how can I be considered to be one who's killing a soul?"

No, this is not acceptable.

In Sahih Muslim, they came and they asked Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him: "Ya Rasulullah, we want to practice al-'azl, we want to practice coitus interruptus. We want to come out and practice coitus interruptus. Is it okay?"

Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, says:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Muslim

"That is the small version of burying your children alive."

That is the miniature version, because when the child came out and you buried him, that's the big version. This version of coming out, and then it goes on the rock or it goes on the ground or something like that, that's the miniature version of you killing your child.

Now what if, ikhwani, what if that sperm had the ability to connect to the egg, and now that egg started to develop a little bit? If this is the small version of it, then it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger as time goes on.

So abortion is qatl an-nafs - killing the soul without any haq.

Evidence From the Sunnah

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi after these ayat, ikhwan, he brought the ahadith. Nothing but ayat and ahadith to prove the point. That's the way of Ahl Al-Hadith. The way of Ahl Al-Kalam is: one ayat, if any, one hadith, if any, and then a lot of speech.

First Hadith

The hadith that he brings first is the hadith that we've been dealing with so far. The hadith of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim - "Stay away from the seven major sins."

And he mentioned first: ash-shirk. And then he mentioned secondly: killing a soul without justice.

Second Hadith

And then after that he brought the next hadith, and that is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked: "Which is the greatest sin?" He said: "Ash-shirk." They asked him: "And then after that?" He said: "That you should kill your child out of fear that the child will eat with you" - abortion.

Third Hadith

And then he brought the third hadith:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

"When two Muslims meet with their swords, then the killer and the one killed are both in the hellfire."

They say: "Ya Rasulullah, we understand why the murderer is in the hellfire, because he fell into a kabira from the kabair. He snuffed out a life without the right. Allah didn't give him the permission to take this life off of the face of the earth. But what about the one who was murdered?"

He says, peace and blessings be upon him:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

"The one who was murdered, he was trying to murder his brother. He was trying to murder his brother."

The Importance of Intention

Which goes to show that the niyyah (intention) of a person is more important than the actual deed itself. If you have the niyyah to do a deed and you don't do the deed, you still get rewarded. If you do a deed without the niyyah, you don't get a reward.

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim - "Actions are by intentions."

So the niyyah that's in your heart is more important than the action itself. He says, peace and blessings be upon him:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Muslim

"Allah does not look at your shapes, your forms, your colors, your money. But instead Allah looks at your heart. What is your niyyah? And He looks at your actions. Are those actions according to the deen?"

So for two Muslims to fight and to argue, to pull out their weapons against each other - that's a kabira from the kabair by itself. But if that leads to the death of one of them, both of them are in the hellfire.

Weak Hadith Warning

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, ikhwan, brought the next hadith:

"A person will not cease to have a chance in his religion as long as he does not spill blood that is haram."

We have to stop here and we have to say that this hadith that Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought is a weak hadith, may Allah have mercy upon him. It is a weak hadith, and we said one of the criticisms of the book is the hadith that's weak.

There is an authentic hadith that's been collected by Al-Imam Al-Bukhari that says the same thing. Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi knew that hadith because he brought it in this chapter. But this is the way of the people of hadith - that they will bring the weak hadith sometimes in order to just strengthen, to make what they call Al-Isti'nash with the issue, to give it some strength.

So this is a weak hadith that I don't believe Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi was making an i'timad or relying upon it to prove his point, because he brought the hadith of Al-Bukhari. But it is our job and it is the job of the muhaddith, it's your job when you talk about Allah's religion: if the hadith is not authentic, the people say "No, the scholars say you can use weak hadith, Al-Imam An-Nawawi, you can use weak hadith."

No, those scholars who say you can use weak hadith, they gave some strict conditions, and from those conditions is that you, when you use the hadith, you have to tell the people: this hadith is weak. You can't say "Rasulullah said this and he said that," or we'll become like the Jews and the Christians.

So it's not true that the scholars say we can use weak hadith just like that, open-ended. No, you can't rely on the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Fighting Among the Companions

In the next hadith, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says to his companions:

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

"Do not become kuffar after I leave you, after I die, do not become kuffar by striking each other's necks, by fighting each other."

So the people who hate the companions of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him - had it not been for that Quran, and had it not been for the minhaj sahih, we would have made takfir of all of them, including their women and including their children.

But we know that there are ignorant people from amongst them who don't know - like there are ignorant Qadianis, like there are ignorant Barelwis, like there are ignorant Deobandis, like there are ignorant people with

these jamaats who fall into kufr and shirk based upon ignorance. They don't know.

The man who's Qadiani, he says that that man is Rasul after Rasulullah because he doesn't know, he doesn't really understand what he's saying. So we don't say that the man is a non-Muslim, we say that that concept and that understanding is a non-Muslim, a non-Islamic understanding.

Those people who hate the companions of Rasulullah and they say that they all became kuffar after him, they use this authentic hadith. And this hadith is in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:

"Do not return after me as disbelievers striking the necks of one another."

So the companions of Rasulullah, they fought each other after the death of Rasulullah, and we do not make takfir of them. They were mujtahidun, they made ijtihad, and all of them will get a reward for whatever they did in those wars that transpired.

Those who were wrong, like the people who were against Ali ibn Abi Talib - and the haq was with him, may Allah be pleased with them - Aisha, Talha, Az-Zubayr, Mu'awiyah, may Allah be pleased with them all. All of them will get their reward, but those who were with Ali will get double reward, because the haq was with them and they were right.

So they were not kuffar, and they were not fighting for the dunya, they were fighting for Al-Islam.

The Gravity of Killing a Believer

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, brought the next hadith:

Hadith Reference: Authentic hadith

"The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Verily, killing a believer, killing the soul that says 'La ilaha illallah,' is greater to Allah than the whole dunya dissipating and disappearing."

For someone to kill a Muslim, that is greater to Allah than the whole world - which doesn't equal the wing of a mosquito - for the dunya to disappear is smaller to Allah and less significant than the blood that is shed.

Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was sitting at the Ka'bah, watching the people making tawaf around the Ka'bah, and he said to the Ka'bah:

"Verily, your sanctity is great, you are sacred. You are sacred."

ARABIC TEXT (CRITICAL - PRESERVE EXACTLY)

The Authentic Narration

Ya ikhwan, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, brought in the next hadith that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said - this one is the authentic narration:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari)

"A human being will not cease to have a chance in his deen as long as he does not spill the blood that is haram."

Abdullah ibn Abbas, the companion of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, he was of the opinion that if you kill someone, you can't make tawbah. And if you kill someone, the ayat of the Quran, the first ayat that Imam Al-Dhahabi mentioned:

Quran 4:93 - "Whoever kills a Muslim intentionally, his reward is he will be in the hellfire forever."

He used that ayah. He also used this hadith. As long as you don't kill someone, you have a chance.

The Prophet said, peace and blessings be upon him:

(Mentioned by scholars)

"Allah has refused to allow a person who killed the believer to have tawbah."

So Abdullah ibn Abbas used to give the fatwa: if you kill someone, there's no tawbah for you.

The Story From Al-Adab Al-Mufrad

The man came, as Imam Al-Bukhari collected this hadith in his book Al-Adab Al-Mufrad - the book of Al-Bukhari, not Sahih Bukhari, Al-Adab Al-Mufrad. A man came and said:

"Ya Abdullah ibn Abbas, there was a lady who I wanted to marry, and I was in love with her, I really wanted to marry her. But her family refused. And then another man came, and they accepted his invitation and they married him to her. So I found the lady one day, and I knocked her down, and I took an axe, and I killed her. Can I make tawbah?"

Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, asked that man: "Are your parents living?"

The man said: "No, only my mother is living."

He said: "Go to your mother and do good to her."

When he got up and he left, the people asked him: "Ya Abdullah ibn Abbas, when the man told you about the terrible crime that he committed, why did you ask him about his mother and his father?"

He said: "Because I don't know of anything that can repel and reduce the crime of murder, other than taking care of the mother and the father."

And that's why in another hadith, Rasulullah said that the biggest sin was ash-shirk, and then the next sin was killing someone, and then the third one was (عُقُوقُ الْوَالِدَيْنِ - disobedience to parents).

So Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, he was of the opinion that there was no tawbah for killing someone, and this is not the correct position.

Allah's Infinite Mercy

Allah told us in the Quran:

"Say: 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'"

Say unto them, ya Muhammad, say unto them: all of my servants, no matter what kind of sins that you've committed - doesn't make salah, didn't make salah, killed people, smoking crack - all my servants who've gone overboard, don't give up hope of the rahmah of Allah. Verily Allah will forgive all of the sins. He is Al-Ghafoor, He is Ar-Raheem.

In an authentic hadith that Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi doesn't bring, the Prophet said, peace and blessings be upon him:

(Authentic hadith)

"The major sins are: that you make shirk, and also that you give up hope from the mercy of Allah, and that you feel, number three, that there is no way out for you to be forgiven."

So for a person to give up hope from the rahmah of Allah is a kabira from the kabair.

Allah said about Himself:

Quran 7:156 - "My mercy encompasses all things."

He is Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem. Ar-Rahman because His rahmah hits everyone and everything in the dunya, including the kuffar. But He is Ar-Raheem, merciful only to the believers on Yawm Al-Qiyamah. The kuffar will have no rahmah in the hereafter. But here, Allah has rahmah upon everyone.

So from the kabair is to believe that you can't be forgiven.

Quran 4:48 - "Allah does not forgive that partners should be set up with Him, but He forgives anything else to whom He pleases."

The First Thing Judged on Yawm Al-Qiyamah

Ya ikhwani, may Allah have mercy upon him, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the next hadith to show that murder is from the major sins:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"Now this is an important point to understand. The Prophet said in this hadith, peace and blessings be upon him: The very first thing that's going to be looked into on Yawm Al-Qiyamah will be the blood that was spilled unjustly."

The very first thing that Allah will ask the creation about on Yawm Al-Qiyamah: He's going to deal with the people who were killed unjustly. They will be brought forth, and it will be looked into.

There's another authentic hadith that said:

(Authentic hadith)

"The first thing that the slave will be asked about on Yawm Al-Qiyamah will be his prayer (As-Salat)."

So here, one hadith says that the blood will be the first thing that's going to be looked into. The second hadith says that the salat will be the first thing that will be looked into on Yawm Al-Qiyamah.

Who from amongst you can harmonize these two hadith? Abdul Majeed? How could one hadith say the first thing Allah is going to ask about on Yawm Al-Qiyamah is the blood that was spilled, but another hadith said the first thing that Allah is going to ask about is the salat? The first is the first.

So are we going to be like the Jews and the Christians, who we can go to their book and say: "Right here it said Jesus is the only begotten son, but over here David is a begotten, and over here someone else is a begotten"? Is our religion like that?

If they came and they asked you that question: "Over here your religion said the salat is the first thing. Over here it said the blood is the first thing. So Muhammad has made a contradiction." What are we going to say?

Abdul Majeed? Brother? Good try brother, but that's not it. Put your hands up if you know the answer. Put your hands up.

Brother? Good try brother, good try. That's an intelligent try. You, you. That's Isra. Yes, Isra.

The Answer

One relates to the rights of Allah, and the other relates to the rights of the creation. Yes.

The answer to that, brother, is: the rights on Yawm Al-Qiyamah, the rights on Yawm Al-Qiyamah are of two types:

Two types. The first type of rights are the rights connected to Allah: that you make tawheed, that you make the salat, that you give zakat, that you fast in Ramadan, that you make Hajj. That's the haq of Allah.

"It's the right of Allah that you make Hajj to the house."

He says in a hadith Qudsi that Allah said:

(Mentioned in some narrations)

"I gave him good health and I gave him money. Five years pass, and he doesn't come and make Umrah, or he doesn't come and make Hajj. He is mahrum. He will be put out of my rahmah. He will be the one I'll leave his affairs to be in disarray."

So even if he may Hajj, one Hajj is wajib, but you should try to make Hajj at least every five years, because of this hadith. I give him good health, I gave him money, five years pass him by. He may Hajj, five years come by, and he doesn't come to me again. He is mahrum.

So the person takes his money, and he sees his neighbor across the street, and they added an extension to their kitchen. So he has to keep up with them. "I got to add an extension to my kitchen. They got a new car, I got to get a new car. Trade in the one that's a 2002, but he has a new one."

No, you have to use that money for your Hajj, for your Umrah. Going to Hajj and Umrah, it will make you a person who has money. Making Hajj and Umrah makes you a person who will get money.

The Two Types of Rights

So those are from the haq of Allah. And then the second type of haq on Yawm Al-Qiyamah are the huquq bayn al-khalq - the rights that the people have, that the creation have upon each other.

Your wife has the right that you feed her, that you clothe her, that you deal with her honorably. Your children have the right that you educate them, and you protect them, and you provide for them. Your mother and your father have the right that you take care of them.

The Muslim who died had the right that we make janazah over him, and we wash his body, and we pay his debt.

So all of those huquq, on Yawm Al-Qiyamah, will be looked into, and they will be in their order.

As it relates to the huquq of Allah: at-tawhid, and then as-salat. The first thing: if the salat was okay, then the rest of his affairs are going to be okay. And if his salat is lacking, the rest of his affairs are going to be lacking. If he's not praying correctly, there's going to be problems with other issues.

As it relates to the huquq of the people: the blood is the first thing that's going to be looked into.

"You did well, my brother."

More Evidence About the Severity of Murder

And Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the next narration, and we're almost finished here.

Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Al-Aas, may Allah be pleased with him - and Abdullah ibn Amr, he narrated even more hadith than Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him. Abu Hurairah said: "No companion had more hadith than me other than Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas, and that's because he used to write the hadith and I didn't write them."

Abdullah ibn Amr al-Aas, he said that the Prophet said:

أَكْبَرُ الْكَبَائِرِ: الْإِشْرَاكُ بِاللَّهِ، وَقَتْلُ النَّفْسِ، وَعُقُوقُ الْوَالِدَيْنِ

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari - "The biggest crime, the biggest sin, is to make shirk with Allah, and then to kill someone who doesn't deserve to be killed, and then to be disobedient to one's parents."

Another narration from Malik ibn Anas, about the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him:

أَبَى اللَّهُ لِمَنْ قَتَلَ مُؤْمِنًا

Hadith Reference: Mentioned by scholars - "Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Allah has prevented me from the one who has killed a believer. Allah has prevented me from the one who has killed a believer."

A scholar said the meaning of that is: Allah has prevented me from making dua for the one who has killed a believer. Allah has prevented me from making dua because he doesn't have a chance for killing the one who - the disappearance of the dunya is easier and lighter with Allah than for that person to lose his life.

Adam's Son and the First Murder

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, said, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said - Al-Imam Al-Bukhari and Muslim bring this hadith:

مَا مِنْ نَفْسٍ تُقْتَلُ ظُلْمًا إِلَّا كَانَ عَلَى ابْنِ آدَمَ الْأَوَّلِ كِفْلٌ مِنْ دَمِهَا، لِأَنَّهُ أَوَّلُ مَنْ سَنَّ الْقَتْلَ

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim - "There is no soul that is killed unjustly except that the first son of Adam will bear a portion of the responsibility of that murder, because he was the first one to start the sunnah of murdering."

So every human being who is killed in this dunya, every human being who was killed in this dunya - Adam's son who killed his brother, jealousy caused him to kill his brother. Adam's son who killed his brother will get a portion of every single person who was murdered.

That man who was murdered a few months ago here in this city, while he was working out, shot in public, in front of people, in a weight room - Adam's son will get a portion of that.

Warning Against Honor Killings and Murder

And anyone from amongst us, who happens to be a Muslim, if you know of someone who has been approached to take out a contract on any human being, any human being, you have to do something about that. You have to

advise that person that it's not permissible to shed the blood of anyone. And it's not permissible for us to take the law in our own hands.

This thing that is called the honor killings: the Muslim girl, she goes out and she commits a kabir from the kabair and she dishonors our family. She dishonors our family. And rightly so, she dishonored us. It is not for us to take the law into our own hands. Not in this country, not in the Islamic country.

The rulers in Al-Islam, they have been made responsible for the hudud. Not like in America someone does something to someone else, the imam in America, he takes the man and brings him downstairs in the cellar, in the basement, ties him up to the pillar, and he starts flogging him. That's not the religion of Al-Islam.

So killing the Muslim: with which haq can you kill him in this society? What Allah has allowed you to do is: if someone came in upon you, and you wanted to protect yourself, and as a result of protecting yourself, you killed that individual, this is acceptable in Al-Islam. And if he were to kill you, you are a shaheed.

مَنْ قُتِلَ دُونَ أَهْلِهِ فَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ، وَمَنْ قُتِلَ دُونَ مَالِهِ فَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ

Hadith Reference: Authentic hadith - "Whoever is killed protecting his family, he's a shaheed. And whoever is killed protecting his honor, his money, he's a shaheed."

But even with that, if you were to read Usul As-Sunnah of Imam Ahmed, when he deals with this section of repelling the criminal, the burglar, he says that you repel the burglar with enough force to get him out. Shouldn't try to kill an individual.

Warning to Our Community

So murdering people is a heinous crime that no one should allow himself to look at it as being small. Our community should cry and weep tears when we find public executions that our existence in this country has allowed other people to pay for Muslims or non-Muslims to kill someone else.

And we're not going to speculate, because speculating is haram. Why was he killed? Was it over this? Was it over that? Allah knows.

But for people to kill someone else because they disagree with his point of view, disagree with his community, disagree because he married the ex-wife or he wants... What is that? That's the level that the Muslim community has fallen to. Shedding blood is a serious issue.

Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy on him, showed in that last hadith how the person who's responsible for creating an innovation that the people are practicing - if he creates an innovation that the people are practicing and following, just like the son of Adam - he will get the reward and the recompense of all of those people who practice that innovation without their penalty being decreased one bit.

We have two more hadith, three more hadith, and that's it. And here is a hadith that is concerning the issue of the hour right now. And Imam Al-Dhahabi, he didn't leave this group out.

Killing the Mu'ahid (The One Under Protection)

He brought the hadith of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, and Ibn Amr, and the Nabi, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

مَنْ قَتَلَ مُعَاهِدًا لَمْ يَرِحْ رَائِحَةَ الْجَنَّةِ، وَإِنَّ رِيحَهَا لَيُوجَدُ مِنْ مَسِيرَةِ أَرْبَعِينَ عَامًا

Hadith Reference: Sahih Al-Bukhari - "Whoever kills a mu'ahid, he will not smell the fragrance of the Jannah, and the fragrance of the Jannah can be smelled from 40 years away."

The mu'ahid, ikhwan, is the one who has an 'ahd. He has a contract. He is the non-Muslim who's in the Muslim state. The one who the Muslims give him protection. The one who the Muslims say to him: "Come and irrigate our land, and we give you protection." The one who they pay the Muslims the jizyah. They don't believe in Allah in Islam, but they pay the jizyah.

So the Muslims say: "We're responsible for you, we will protect you, even from your enemy."

The mu'ahid is the one who, when you come from Pakistan, or you come from Afghanistan, or you come from Bangladesh, or you come from Egypt, or Algeria, or Libya, and you come to the land of these kuffar, after sitting in your country, or wherever you got the visa, and you agree to certain things on that paper of the visa, you now have gone into a contract to come here to be a law-abiding citizen.

And no one can sit there and think: "Abu Usama is talking about law-abiding, meaning you can't get another wife, or something that Islam says do this, and this religion's way says no." I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about flagrantly going against what their law is saying - like what is universally known and accepted: killing people, blowing them up, robbing their banks.

Whoever kills a person like this - to kill those people who are working in the Arabian Peninsula, in the Gulf of Yemen, to kill them after the Muslims have allowed them to come in - those people are mu'ahadoon. They have contracts with the Muslims.

And the Prophet said about that, peace and blessings be upon him:

الْمُسْلِمُونَ عَلَى شُرُوطِهِمْ

Hadith Reference: Authentic hadith - "The Muslims take care of the conditions that they made with other people."

They don't make treachery.

The Example of Abu Sufyan

Even Abu Sufyan, ikhwan - Abu Sufyan, when he was a non-Muslim, and he went to the court of Heraclius, and Heraclius wanted to know: "What is the dawah of this man, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him?"

Abu Sufyan hated Rasulullah with a passion, but his hatred for him did not allow him to say something that wasn't true. He said: "I was afraid if I lied on him, then the other people from Quraysh will go back and say that I'm a liar."

He had a level of deen, a level of deen, a character. So he's going to respect this arena that he's in. The man has rights, and the right that he has is that I tell you the truth about his reality.

So killing non-Muslims like this is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination.

Final Hadiths

So Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, he has not left out the Muslim, who you can't kill. He has not left out the child, the abortion. He has not left out the non-Muslim. All of that is from the kabair in Al-Islam.

Fabricated Hadith Warning

He said: Abu Hurairah narrated this hadith according to Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi:

"Whoever helps someone to kill another Muslim by one word, on Yawm Al-Qiyamah will be written between his eyes: 'Ayis min rahmatillah' - This person has given up hope. This person is hopeless. He will not get the rahmat of Allah."

This hadith is mawdu' (fabricated), and it wasn't acceptable for Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi to bring it here in this book. Al-Imam Abu Hatim Ar-Razi said the hadith was batil, mawdu'. And Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi brought it in his book Kitab Al-Mawdu'at. So it is not an authentic hadith.

Umar's Statement

Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said though, authentically: "If someone were to try to kill a Muslim and 70 people held him down while that one man killed him, Umar said: 'I will kill all 71 of them. If one man killed a Muslim and 70 people held him down, I would kill all 71 of them, because they all had something to do with the murder.'"

The Last Hadith

The last hadith is the statement of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him:

كُلُّ ذَنْبٍ عَسَى اللَّهُ أَنْ يَغْفِرَهُ إِلَّا الرَّجُلُ يَمُوتُ كَافِرًا ، أَوِ الرَّجُلُ يَقْتُلُ مُؤْمِنًا مُتَعَمِّدًا

Hadith Reference: Authentic hadith - "Every sin, Allah will forgive it except the man who dies as a kafir or the man who kills a believer intentionally."

Those two sins, Allah will not forgive. But again, we told you: if a person kills a person and he doesn't say that it's halal to kill him, he can make tawbah and Allah will forgive him.

And if he doesn't make tawbah and he dies saying "La ilaha illallah, Muhammad rasulullah," he's going to go to Jannah. He's under the mashi'ah of Allah.

The man killed 100 people from Bani Israel, and from them he killed some people who are worship, a lot of worship. And yet Allah forgave that individual.

Allah will forgive any and every sin, even if it's murder, no matter how much murder it was. In the hadith al-qudsi, Allah said:

يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ، لَوْ بَلَغَتْ ذُنُوبُكَ عَنَانَ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ اسْتَغْفَرْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ، لَوْ أَنَّكَ أَتَيْتَنِي بِقُرَابِ الْأَرْضِ خَطَايَا ثُمَّ لَقِيتَنِي لَا تُشْرِكْ بِي شَيْئًا لَأَتَيْتُكَ بِهَا مَغْفِرَةً

Hadith Reference: Hadith Qudsi - "O son of Adam, if your sins reached the clouds of the sky and then you sought forgiveness from Me, I would forgive you and I don't care about what you did. O son of Adam, if you were to have the sins that were so much that they reached all the way up into the skies, I will forgive you if you sought to be forgiven. O son of Adam, if you came to me with the whole earth - the amount of the earth in sin - you can fill up the earth with your sins. If you came to me and then you met me like that without making shirk with me, I will come to you with just as much forgiveness, and I don't mind, I don't care."

So that hadith shows that no one should close the door of the rahmat of Allah, and to close the door of the rahmat of Allah is a kabira from the kabair.

Conclusion and Advice to Speakers

So any khatib, any imam when he gives the khutbah, he should not say to the people: "All of you are going to the hellfire, none of you are no good, everyone is going to the hellfire." Because if you say that to a person, the person is going to say: "Then why should I make tawbah? Let me do more evil."

No, we have to let the people know that the doors of tawbah are open.

End of Lecture