n37 39 The Major Sins Series - Introduction- Abu Usama Dhahabi 117

The Major Sins Series - Introduction

Speaker: Abu Usama Dhahabi

Date: 1/17

Introduction to the Book

As we mentioned last week, ikhwatifillah, we're going to begin, insha'Allah, to deal with the book by Imam Al-Dhahabi: Kitab Al-Kabair, may Allah have mercy upon him. Instead of reading the introduction - and every book in Al-Islam has an introduction - this was the way that the ulama of Al-Islam used to write their books, and this is the way that they continue to write their books, where they will have a muqaddamah (introduction).

And the introduction is important, whether it's in Arabic or in English, because the introduction is going to let you know what is the minhaj (methodology) of that person who wrote the book. The introduction is going to shed light on the contents of the book. And based upon the introduction, you can criticize the author.

And Imam Al-Bukhari, may Allah have mercy upon him, he put upon himself a condition that he would only put in his book the hadith that are authentic. Once a person knows that - that that was his goal and his objective - if he were to find a hadith in Sahih Al-Bukhari that's not authentic, now he can criticize Imam Al-Bukhari.

The weak hadith that are in Sahih Al-Bukhari, for an example, they're there for a reason, so it may not be necessarily just and fair to criticize him until you know what is and what was the minhaj of that author. So every book in Al-Islam has an introduction to it to shed light on the issue that's going to be dealt with.

Instead of reading the introduction of Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, in this book where he gave each and every one of us nasiha (advice) - he's given us advice, the ummah of Al-Islam advice - and he gathered for us a book that details the issues of the kabair (major sins). So instead of dealing with reading it word for word, we have made the summary (talkhis) of what he did.

Four Primary Issues in the Introduction

He talked about four primary issues in the introduction.

First Issue: The Division of Sins Into Major and Minor

The first issue that he spoke about was he wanted to prove this concept of dividing the sins (dhunub) and the disobedience (ma'asi) into kabair (major sins) and sagha'ir (minor sins) is from Al-Islam. He wanted to prove that.

There are certain people from the people of desires (ahl al-ahwa) who follow their desires who said: "There are no kabair and there are no sagha'ir. All of the sins are kabair."

People who had good intention from the people of tasawwuf - they had good intention. They said: "If you disobey Allah, then that's a kabira."

And Imam Al-Dhahabi brought that this distinction - it is from Al-Islam. To say that this sin is a kabira and to say that this is a saghira - he wanted to prove that in the introduction.

Evidence From the Quran

So he brought some of the ayat of the Quran and the ahadith to prove that, like the statement of Allah in the Quran:

"If you people stay away from the major sins that you have been prohibited from, Allah will give you the expiation (kaffarah). He will make the takfir. He will expiate your other sins, the smallest sins that you do. Allah will wipe them away and He will cause you to enter into an honorable entering."

So Allah in this ayah, He called the sins "kabair" - if you stay away from the kabair.

In another ayah, as Imam Al-Dhahabi brought, he said that Allah said:

"Those people who avoid and they stay away from the major sins (kabair al-ithm) and from the indecencies (fawahish), except they fall into the smallest sins, they fall into the lamam - those things that the people can't help. They're the less significant sins and disobedience. For those people, Allah - your Lord - He is forgiving."

Evidence From the Sunnah

And we have too many ahadith of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, that also established this point, where he told us:

(Sahih Muslim)

"The five daily prayers, from one Jumu'ah prayer to the next Jumu'ah prayer, and one Ramadan to the next Ramadan is an expiation, if you stay away from the major sins."

So if you fall into the small sins - like looking at a woman inadvertently, you didn't mean to do it, you looked and it was there, but you made istighfar - Allah will forgive you by making the prayers. He'll forgive you by making Hajj. He'll forgive you because you fast.

So the point of all of this is: in the introduction of Imam Al-Dhahabi, the first point he dealt with is this concept - there are kabair and there are sagha'ir. And it's not acceptable for the Muslims to come and to say: "Every sin is a kabira" - after Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, they both have established that there are kabair and there are sagha'ir.

Second Issue: How Many Major Sins Are There?

The second issue that Imam Al-Dhahabi dealt with in the introduction is: how many kabair are there? And the scholars of Al-Islam have differences (ikhtilaf) concerning this issue, and he brought some of the statements.

Opinion: Seven Major Sins

Some of the scholars said that there were only seven major sins. And they took the authentic hadith of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, that's in Bukhari and Muslim, in which Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"Stay away from and avoid the seven sins that will destroy you."

You're going to fall into sins no doubt about it (wa la budda). Stay away from those seven sins that if you're falling into them, they will destroy you.

He said, peace and blessings be upon him:

1. (الشَّرْكُ بِاللَّهِ - Making shirk (with Allah)

2. (وَالْقَتْلُ - Killing someone

3. (وَالسِّحْرُ - And performing magic - a common practice in our community. Putting magic upon people and getting the magic off of you by using magic. The mother has a problem with the daughter-in-law, so she puts magic on the daughter-in-law.

Stay away from the seven major sins:

4. (وَأَكْلُ الرِّبَا - And devouring riba, taking riba

5. (وَأَكْلُ مَالِ الْيَتِيمِ - And devouring the money of the orphan. You've been left and entrusted to take care of the affairs of the orphan - don't devour his money.

6. (وَالتَّوَلِّي يَوْمَ الزَّحْفِ - And running away on the day of jihad from the battlefield

Not to mention denying jihad altogether. Because we have a group of people who go overboard and everything with them is jihad, jihad, jihad. You have the other extreme of the Muslims who come and say: "No, the only

jihad is jihad an-nafs (struggling against the self)." No, there's jihad where we kill the kuffar. But it has fiqh into it and it has religion to it and it has knowledge to it. So the sixth thing is not running away from the battlefield.

7. (رَمْيُّ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ الْغَافِلَاتِ - And the final thing, seventh one is: that you would accuse a virtuous Muslim believing woman of making zina when she is innocent.

Stay away from those seven major sins.

So because Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, said that they were seven, some of the scholars took that position.

Opinion: More Than Seven

Ya ikhwan, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, he said no. He felt that the correct position is that they were more than that.

And he used the authentic statement and understanding of Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, who said:

هِيَ أَقْرَبُ إِلَى السَّبْعِينَ مِمَّا هِيَ إِلَى السَّبْعِ

"The major sins are closer to 70 than they are to seven. They're closer to 70 (seven-zero) than they are to seven."

Important Points About This Statement

Concerning Abdullah ibn Abbas' statement, there are two points very quickly we have to mention:

First Point: There are ahadith in which Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, has mentioned other sins and disobedience (dhunub and ma'asi), and he described them as being from the kabair that are not in the seven ones that were mentioned in the hadith of Abu Hurairah.

He asked his companions:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"Should I not tell you people what the greatest kabira is, the most severe sin?"

They said: "What is it?" He said:

• (الْإِشْرَاكُ بِاللَّهِ - "That you make shirk with Allah"

• (وَعُقُوقُ الْوَالِدَيْنِ - "And that you are disobedient to your parents"

So this wasn't mentioned in the hadith of Abu Hurairah. And he was reclining, and then he sat up and he became straight and he said:

أَلَا وَقَوْلُ الزُّورِ

"And beware of false testimony (qawl az-zur)."

And he kept saying it over and over. And the third thing is that you will give false testimony. You didn't see what happened, you don't know what happened, and so when you come you start to say this happened and you didn't even know. That's false testimony.

So in this hadith, two other sins were mentioned that were not in the first hadith of Abu Hurairah. So it goes to show us: more than seven.

Abdullah ibn Abbas said it's closer to 70.

Second Point: As it relates to the number that Abdullah ibn Abbas says - 70 - he doesn't mean 70 here, and Allah knows best.

Whenever you find in the Arabs in their language, in the Quran, in the authentic Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him - if the number 70 is used, usually it is a figurative number to denote "a lot." It doesn't mean 70 specifically. That was the way that the Arabs used to speak, and they would say 70 in order to give an indication that it's a large number.

He used to say to his companions, peace and blessings be upon him:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari)

"I make istighfar and I make tawbah to Allah in one day more than 70 times."

More than 70 times - it doesn't mean that when you read that hadith you should make istighfar until you get to 70 and 71. You should go beyond that. Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, was using that as a figure of speech.

As Allah said to him in the Quran:

"Ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness. If you ask Allah to forgive them, those hypocrites (munafiqun), or you don't ask them to forgive them - even if you ask them 70 times, Allah is not going to forgive them."

So the statement of Abdullah ibn Abbas is going to show that the kabair are many (kathirah) - they're many.

Third Issue: How Do We Know a Sin is Major or Minor?

The third point - extremely important point - dealing with the major sins is: he talked about how do we know

that a sin is a major sin? And how do we know that a sin is a minor sin? He spoke about that issue and he mentioned there are two things that will let you know that the sin is a major sin.

In this deen of Al-Islam, if you want to know whether or not the sin is a major sin or a minor sin, then there are three things that you need to know. Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi mentioned two in the introduction.

First: If There is a Threat (Wa'id)

Number one: if the sin has a threat (wa'id) connected to it in the dunya or the akhirah.

If the sin that is being done has been described in the Quran or the Sunnah as being something that Allah will punish the person for it - Allah will curse the person for it, Allah will put him in the hellfire, Allah won't look at him, Allah won't purify them, they're from the brothers of the shayateen, they're similar to the kuffar, they will be far from the rahmah of Allah, they won't go into Jannah - that is a kabira from the kabair if it has a wa'id.

Second: If There is a Prescribed Punishment (Hadd)

The second thing that Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought was: if there is a hadd (prescribed punishment) in the dunya for that sin.

If you get your hand chopped off for stealing, stealing is a major sin. If you get flogged for drinking khamr, khamr is a major sin. If you get locked up for being a deviant - as the ulama of Islam used to have deviants locked up in the prison - it's a major sin.

So if it has a hadd, it's a major sin.

Third: If Allah or His Messenger Explicitly States It

Finally, the third thing - Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi didn't bring this, but it's understood by default - and that is: if there is a text (nass), Allah or His Messenger said: "This is a major sin."

"Shall I not tell you what the major sins are?" "Yes, Rasulullah, what are they?" He said: "Shirk."

So you know it's a major sin.

That's the third point that Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi mentioned.

Fourth Issue: Major Sins Have Different Levels

Fourth and final point that he mentioned in the introduction before we go into the first kabira is that he wanted to explain how the kabair - even though they are kabair, they're major sins - the kabair, they have levels and degrees, and they're not all on the same level.

And shirk is a kabira from the kabair, but making shirk with Allah is not the same as killing someone. Making shirk is greater.

Killing someone is a kabira from the kabair, but it is not the same as giving false testimony (qawl az-zur) or bearing false witness.

So he wanted to explain that the kabair are different levels, and those are the four points that he dealt with in the introduction.

Summary of the Introduction

And to sum up the introduction, I would like to say: when we make the distinction between the kabair and the sagha'ir in Al-Islam, that doesn't mean that a person looks at the small sins of the sagha'ir as being small.

Because if the small sins continue to gather up on a person, they will - and they could - burn him.

If the small sins that he does them, they can turn into the kabair. Many times they are the prelude to the kabair.

End of Introduction