The Major Sins Series - Killing

The Major Sins Series - Killing

Sheikh Abu Usamah At-Thahabi

Opening

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ

Introduction to the Second Major Sin - Killing

Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, states in his book Kitab al-Kabair: The second major sin (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 the children of Adam can fall into. And that is killing a soul (qatl an-nafs), for someone to kill someone else.

After shirk with Allah, 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.

The Sanctity of Life

Rasulullah made it forbidden 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 the Day of Judgment, and it will be holding on to a person. The bird will say:

يَا رَبِّ سَلْ هَذَا لِمَ قَتَلَنِي

"O 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.

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

As it relates to the life, O brothers in faith, the life is a trust (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.

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.'"

وَبِذُلِكَ أُمِرْتُ

"And with that I have been commanded."

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 right of Islam, without Allah allowing you.

When Killing is Permissible

Now, there is a time when it's permissible to take the life. The Prophet says:

(Source Name)

"I have been ordered to fight the people until they say 'La ilaha illa Allah.' If they do that, then their blood and their wealth are safe from me except by its right, and their account is with Allah the Most High."

Fight the people until they say "La ilaha illa Allah" - the polytheists (mushrikoon), not the People of the Book (Ahl al-Kitab), they pay the jizyah. The Magians, they pay the jizyah. And if they don't pay the jizyah, then there's fighting. But the mushrikoon, Rasulullah has been ordered to call them to Islam. If they don't accept, then he fights them.

They say "La ilaha illa Allah," establish the prayer, give the zakah. If they do that, then their blood and their money is safe from me except by the right of Islam.

So you can only spill a person's blood with the right of Islam.

For 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 cause 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 right of Islam.

The Five Necessities Islam Protects

I believe we mentioned in this masjid before, O brothers, that Islam came to protect five things - the five necessities (ad-daruriyyat al-khamsah). Islam came to protect five things.

Every permissible thing (halal) in Islam and every forbidden thing (haram) in Islam - it is halal and it is haram for the protection of these five things:

1. The Religion (ad-deen) - Islam came to protect your religion
2. The Blood - Islam came also to protect your blood. So it made haram drinking alcohol so you don't get drunk and then you go and kill someone
3. The Honor (al-ird/al-'ana) - Islam came and made haram and it came to protect the honor of the people
4. The Lineage (an-nasab) - Islam came and it came to protect the lineage of the people. Don't marry your mother, don't marry your sister, don't make fornication, don't have homosexuality. Islam came to protect the lineage
5. The Wealth - And the fifth thing Islam came to protect is your money

Those are the five necessities. So 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 religion.

When Haram Becomes Halal by Allah's Command

And something that could be haram can be made halal by Allah, even if it's from evil. For example, Allah ordered the angels to make prostration (sajdah) to Adam. Sajdah is shirk and disbelief, and from the biggest manifestations of disbelief and evil.

But when Allah told the angels to make sajdah to Adam, now it's worship (ibadah).

Killing someone unjustly is impermissible. But when Ibrahim took his son Ismail and he was going to slaughter his son, now it's ibadah 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, Imam al-Dhahabi brought a number of ayat of the Quran to support that murder is a kabira from the major sins.

First Ayah

Allah said:

"And whoever kills a believer intentionally - his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment."

It is not acceptable, it is not befitting for someone to kill a believer intentionally. And whoever kills a believer intentionally, Allah will give him the reward of being in Hell forever. And Allah will be angry with him. And Allah's curse is upon him. And Allah has prepared for him a grievous penalty.

So his reward is: he will be in Hell, 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 - five things.

We said one of the ways you know that a sin is a kabira from the major sins 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 fighting.

Fighting the Muslim is a kabira from the major sins, as he says:

قِتَالُ الْمُسْلِمِ كُفْرٌ

(Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"Fighting a Muslim is disbelief."

Fighting a Muslim is 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 believers, the sincere ones, the righteous ones:

"And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity or kill the soul which Allah has forbidden [to be killed], except by right, and do not commit unlawful sexual intercourse. And whoever should do that will meet a penalty."

Those people who do not call on other gods along with Allah, and they do not kill the soul that doesn't deserve to be killed, nor do they make fornication - because the ones who do this, they will get a serious punishment, and their punishment will be doubled in the Hereafter.

Evidence from the Sunnah

Imam al-Dhahabi, after these ayat, O brothers, he brought the ahadith. Nothing but ayat and ahadith to prove the point. That's the way of the people of hadith (Ahl al-Hadith).

The way of the people of theology (Ahl al-Kalam) is: one ayah, if any, one hadith, if any, and then a lot of speech.

The Seven Destructive Sins

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:

"Stay away from the seven major sins."

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

The Greatest Sin

And then after that he brought the next hadith, and that is that the Prophet was asked: "Which is the greatest sin?"

He said: "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.

The Murderer and the Murdered

And then he brought the third hadith:

"When two Muslims meet with their swords, then the murderer and the murdered will be in the Hellfire."

They said: "Ya Rasulullah, we understand why the murderer is in the Hellfire, because he fell into a kabira from the major sins. 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: "The one who was murdered, he was trying to murder his brother. He was trying to murder his brother."* (Sahih al- Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

Which goes to show that the intention (niyyah) 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.

So the niyyah is more important than the action itself. He says:

The Weak Hadith on Bloodshed

Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, O brothers, 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 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 Imam al-Bukhari that says the same thing. 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 strengthening (isti'nath) with the issue, to give it some strength.

So this is a weak hadith that I don't believe Imam al-Dhahabi was making reliance 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 hadith scholar (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, 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.

Do Not Become Disbelievers After Me

In the next hadith:

The Prophet said to his companions: "Do not become disbelievers after I leave you, after I die, do not become disbelievers."

How, ya Rasulullah?

"By striking each other's necks, by fighting each other." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

So the people who hate the companions of Rasulullah had it not been for that Quran and had it not been for the correct methodology (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 groups who fall into disbelief and shirk based upon ignorance. They don't know.

The man who's Qadiani, he says that that man is a messenger 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.

The Civil Wars Among the Companions

So the companions of Rasulullah, they fought each other after the death of Rasulullah, and we do not make takfir of them. They were people making independent reasoning (mujtahidoon), 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 - who the truth (haq) was with him, may Allah be pleased with them - Aisha, Talha, Az-Zubair, Muawiyah, 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 disbelievers, and they were not fighting for the worldly life (dunya), they were fighting for Islam.

Killing a Believer Is Greater Than the Dunya Disappearing

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

The Prophet said: "Verily, killing a believer, killing the soul that says 'La ilaha illa Allah' is greater to Allah than the whole dunya disappearing."

For someone to kill a Muslim, that is greater to Allah than the whole world - which doesn't equal the wing of a gnat in value - 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."

"But the sanctity and the sacredness of the believer is even greater with Allah."

So in the Hajj, when the Prophet gathered all of the people, he told those people:

"Your blood, your honor and your money, all of them are sacred - like this day is sacred, like this month is sacred, like this city is sacred."

So you cannot shed the blood of the Muslim, and for his blood to shed in the world, we should know that it is an issue with Allah that is tremendous.

The Authentic Version

Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, brought in the next hadith that the Prophet said - this one is the authentic narration:

"A human being will not cease to have a chance in his religion as long as he does not spill the blood that is haram." (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Ibn Abbas's Position on Repentance for Murder

Abdullah ibn Abbas, the companion of Rasulullah, 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 ayah that Imam al-Dhahabi mentioned:

"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:

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

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

The Story in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad

The man came, as Imam al-Bukhari collected this hadith in his book Al-Adab al-Mufrad (the book of 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 shirk, and then the next sin was killing someone, and then the third one was disobedience to the parents (uquq al-walidayn).

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 Forgives All Sins

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.''" (Quran 39:53)

Say unto them, O Muhammad, say unto them: O all my servants who've gone overboard, all the 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 mercy of Allah. Verily Allah will forgive all of the sins. He is al-Ghafoor (the Most Forgiving). He is ar-Raheem (the Most Merciful).

In an authentic hadith that Imam al-Dhahabi doesn't bring, the Prophet said:

"From the major sins is 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 mercy of Allah is a kabira from the major sins.

Allah said about Himself:

"My mercy has spread over everything." (Quran 7:156)

He is ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem. Ar-Rahman, because His mercy hits everyone and everything in the dunya, including the disbelievers. But He is ar-Raheem, merciful only to the believers on the Day of Judgment. The disbelievers will have no mercy in the Hereafter. But here, Allah has mercy upon everyone.

So from the major sins is to believe that you can't be forgiven:

"Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills." (Quran 4:48)

Allah doesn't forgive that you make shirk with Him, but He forgives anything other than that.

Important Points

The First Thing to Be Judged on the Day of Judgment

Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, O brothers in faith, he brought the next hadith to show that murder is from the major sins:

The Prophet said in this hadith: "The very first thing that's going to be looked into on the Day of Judgment will be the blood that was spilled unjustly. The very first thing that Allah will ask the creation about on the Day of Judgment, 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:

"The first thing that the slave will be asked about on the Day of Judgment will be his prayer."

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 prayer will be the first thing that will be looked into on the Day of Judgment.

How to Harmonize These Two Hadiths

Who from amongst you can harmonize these two hadith?

How could one hadith say the first thing Allah is going to ask about on the Day of Judgment is the blood that was spilled, but another hadith said the first thing that Allah is going to ask about is the prayer? 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 prayer 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?

The Answer

The answer to that, brother, is: the rights on the Day of Judgment are of two types.

First Type: The Rights of Allah

The first type of rights are the rights connected to Allah: that you make tawheed, that you make the prayer, that you give zakah, that you fast in Ramadan, that you make Hajj. That's the right of Allah (haqq Allah).

"And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House."

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

He says in a hadith Qudsi that Allah said:

"A servant - 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 deprived (mahroom). He will be put out of My mercy. He will be the one I'll leave his affairs to be in disarray."

So even if he made Hajj, one Hajj is obligatory (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 made Hajj, five years come by and he doesn't come to me again - he is mahroom.

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.

So those are from the rights of Allah. And then the second type of right on the Day of Judgment are the rights between the creation (huqooq bayn al-khalq) - the rights that the people have, that the creation have upon each other.

Second Type: The Rights of the Creation

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 rights (huqooq) on the Day of Judgment will be looked into, and they will be in their order.

Summary

As it relates to the rights of Allah: tawheed, and then the prayer. The first thing, if the prayer was okay, then the rest of his affairs are going to be okay. And if his prayer 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 rights of the people, the blood is the first thing that's going to be looked into.

You have done well, O my brother.

More Evidence

The Greatest Sins

The Prophet ﷺ said:

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 there was no companion who narrated more hadith even more 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 ﷺ said that "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."

Allah Has Prevented Me

The Prophet ﷺ said, from the narration of Buraydah ibn al-Husayb:

Rasulullah 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.

The First to Establish the Sunnah of Killing

Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, said:

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

"There is no soul that is killed unjustly except that the first son of Adam will get a portion of the responsibility of that murder, because he was the first one to start the sunnah of murdering." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

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 About Contract Killings and Honor Killings

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 major sin from the major sins 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 Islam, they have been made responsible for the prescribed punishments (hudood). Not like in America - someone does something to someone else, the imam in America 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 Islam.

When Can You Kill in This Society?

So killing the Muslim - with which right 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 Islam. And if he were to kill you, you are a martyr (shaheed):

"Whoever is killed protecting his family, he's a shaheed. Whoever is killed protecting his honor, he's a shaheed. Whoever is killed protecting his money, he's a shaheed."

But even with that, if you were to read Usul as-Sunnah of Imam Ahmad, 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.

A Serious Crime

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 forbidden. 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.

Creating Bad Innovations

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 a Mu'ahid (Protected Person)

He brought the hadith of Rasulullah and Ibn Amr, and the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Whoever kills a mu'ahid, he will not smell the fragrance of Paradise, and the fragrance of Paradise can be smelled from 40 years away." (Sahih al-Bukhari)

The mu'ahid, O brothers, is the one who has a covenant (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 and 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 disbelievers, 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, they're way say 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, in 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 ﷺ said about that:

"The Muslims take care of the conditions that they made with other people."

They don't make treachery (ghadr).

The Example of Abu Sufyan

Even Abu Sufyan, O brothers - Abu Sufyan, when he was a non-Muslim and he went to the court of Heraclius, and Heraclius wanted to know "What is the call of this man, Muhammad?" 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 religion, a level of religion, an integrity (siyaq). 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.

Comprehensive Coverage

So 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 major sins in Islam.

A Fabricated Hadith

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

"Whoever helps someone to kill another Muslim by one word, on the Day of Judgment will be written between his eyes: 'This person has given up hope, this person is hopeless. He will not get the mercy of Allah.'"

This hadith is fabricated (mawdu'). And it wasn't acceptable for Imam al-Dhahabi to bring it here in this book. Imam Abu Hatim ar-Razi said the hadith was false, fabricated. And Imam Ibn al-Jawzi brought it in his book Kitab al-Mawdu'at (The Book of Fabricated Hadiths).

So it is not an authentic hadith.

Umar's Authentic 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 Final Hadith

The last hadith is the statement of Rasulullah:

"Every sin, Allah will forgive it, except the man who dies as a disbeliever 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 permissible (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 illa Allah, Muhammad Rasulullah," he's going to go to Paradise. He's under the will (mashee'ah) of Allah.

The man killed 100 people from the Children of Israel, and from them he killed some people who were worshippers, 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.

The Hadith Qudsi

In the hadith Qudsi, Allah said:

"O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and then you sought My forgiveness, I would forgive you and I don't mind."

"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 mercy of Allah. And to close the door of the mercy of Allah is a kabira from the major sins.

So any preacher (khatib), any imam, when he gives the sermon, he should not say to the people: "All of you are going to the Hellfire, none of you are any 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.

May Allah guide us to avoid all major sins and protect us from shedding blood unjustly. Ameen.