Brothers and sisters! In today’s khutba, I want to remind myself and you about the effects of sins on our lives. Human beings as individuals, groups, societies, and nations commit sins. We are passing through a time in history when the concept of virtue and vice seems to have become very blurred. This era of postmodernism through which we are passing denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and claims that there is no absolute version of reality, no absolute truths. This philosophy weakens the strength of institutions and religions that deal with objective realities.
Muslims believe, and will continue to believe inshaAllah till the end of times in the ultimate principles laid out in the Qur’an—the last and final revelation of Allah (SWT) to mankind, that was explained and expounded through the sayings and actions of the last and final Messenger of Allah (SWT) to mankind—Muhammad (SAW).
What is sin? According to a hadith, “Sin is that which causes discomfort within your soul and which you dislike that people should come to know of it.” This is an indicator to know whether an act is a sinful act or not. Basically, sin consists in transgressing the bounds set by Allah.
No harm comes to man immediately for the moral choices he makes. He thinks, therefore, that he can get away with what he does because he does not believe, does not care, or is not conscious about being rewarded or punished for his deeds in the hereafter. The Qur’an warns:
كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لَيَطْغَى () أَنْ رَآَهُ اسْتَغْنَى
“No indeed, man exceeds all bounds; when he thinks he is self-sufficient” (al-‘Alaq, 96:6-7). But the fact of the matter is that man has to return to his Lord.
إِنَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ الرُّجْعَىٰ
“Truly, to your Lord is the return” (al-‘Alaq, 96:8).
Among the effects of sin is that it creates all kinds of evil in the land and sea. Allah says:
ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
“Evil has spread on land and sea as a result of man’s own doings, and He will make them taste the consequences of some of their own actions so that they may turn back.” (ar-Rum, 30:41).
Allah shows the evil consequences of some of the acts of people in this world before the punishment of the Hereafter so that they understand the reality, feel the error of their conjectures and turn to the righteous belief, which the Prophets of Allah have been presenting before man since the earliest times, and besides adopting which there is no other way of ordering human conduct on sound foundations.
Brothers and sisters! Allah commands people to do or not to do only that what will bring them benefit in this world and the next. Disobeying Allah’s commands leads to sins. The effects of sins show in the individuals and the society. Sins affect the heart and the body. Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (RA) said: “Good deeds brighten the face, enlighten the heart, expand provision, strengthen the body, and cause love in the hearts of the creation. Evil deeds darken the face, darken the heart, weaken the body, restrict provision, and cause hatred in the hearts of the creation.” When sins become widespread in a society, its affairs become difficult and the members of that society find all gates of good and well-being being closed in their faces.
My dear brothers and sisters! I advise myself and you to try our utmost to keep away from all sins; both major and minor, and to beware of it, for sin is bad news for the one who does it. I will mention some of the effects of sin, as described by Ibn al-Qayyim (Rahimahullah) in his work – Al-Jawaab Al-Kaafi:
- Being deprived of knowledge: Knowledge is light that Allah causes to reach the heart, and sin extinguishes that light. Imam Shafi’i said that he complained to his teacher about the weakness of his So his teacher ordered him to abandon disobedience, and informed him that knowledge was light, and that the light of Allah was not given to the disobedient.
- Being deprived of provision: In Musnad Ahmad, it is narrated that Thauban said: “The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: ‘A man is deprived of provision because of the sins that he commits.’”
- Sense of alienation that comes between a person and his Lord, and between him and other people. One of the righteous predecessors said: “Whenever I commit a sin, I see the impact of that in the behavior of my wife and my riding animal towards me.” This is because Allah protects the believers who obey Him from the evils of this world and the Hereafter.”
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُدَافِعُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
“Truly, Allah defends those who believe.” (Al-Hajj 22:38)
- Things become difficult for him, so that he does not turn his attention towards any matter but he finds the way blocked or he finds it difficult. By the same token, for the one who fears Allah, things are made easy for him.
وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِ يُسْرًا
“And whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for him.” (At-Talaq 65:4).
- The sinner will find darkness in his heart. Obedience is light and disobedience is darkness. The stronger the darkness grows, the greater becomes his confusion, until he falls into innovation, misguidance and other things that lead to doom, without even realizing.
- Deprivation of worship and obedience: If sin brought no punishment other than that it prevents a person from doing an act of worship, that would be bad enough, and because of the sin he is cut off from many acts of worship. Al-Hasan Al-Basri (Rahimahullah) said, “Disobedience is a cause of the servant being held in contempt by his Lord. They became contemptible in (His sight) so they disobeyed Him. If they were honorable (in His sight) He would have protected them.
وَمَن يُهِنِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِن مُّكْرِمٍ
“And whoever Allah disgraces, none can honor him.” (Al-Hajj, 22-18)
- Sin breeds sin until it dominates a person and he cannot escape from it.
- Sin weakens a person’s willpower. It gradually strengthens his will to commit sin and weakens his will to repent until there is no will in his heart to repent at all.
- He will become desensitized and will no longer find sin hateful, so it will become his habit, and he will not be bothered if people see him committing the sin or talk about him. This is the ultimate shamelessness in which he finds great pleasure, such that he feels proud of his sin and will speak of it to people who do not know that he has done it, saying, “O so and so, I did such and such.” The disappearance of modesty is the disappearance of all that is good. The Prophet (SAW) said: “Modesty is good; all of it.”
- When there are many sins they leave a mark on the heart of the person who commits them, so he becomes one of the negligent.
كَلَّا بَلْ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِم مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
“No. In fact what they have been doing has rusted their hearts” (al-Mutaffifin, 83:14).
The explanation of this rust as given by the Prophet (SAW) is as follows: When a servant commits a sin, it marks a black stain on his heart. If he offers repentance, the stain is washed off, but if he persists in wrongdoing, it spreads over the entire heart.
May Allah grant us the tawfiq to use His blessings—our eyes, ears, tongue, stomach, private parts, hands, feet, health, wealth, well-being, rational faculty, and above all our faith, for good purposes, by obeying Him, and not to use them for wrong purposes, by disobeying Him; ameen.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ المُسْلِمينَ وَالمُسْلِمَاتْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
Brothers and sisters! There is an ayah in Surat al-Anfal, which says:
وَاتَّقُوا فِتْنَةً لَا تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْكُمْ خَاصَّةً وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
“And guard against the mischief that will not only bring punishment to the wrong-doers among you. Know well that Allah is severe in punishment.” (al-Anfal, 8:25)
This refers to those widespread social evils whose harmful and destructive effects are not confined only to those addicted to them, but which affect even those who, although they might not be addicted to those sins, are a part of that society. For example, if filth is found at just a few places in a locality it will possibly affect only those who have not kept themselves or their houses clean. However, if it becomes widespread and no one is concerned with removing filth and maintaining sanitary conditions, then everything including water and soil will become contaminated. As a result, if epidemics break out, they will not only afflict those who were responsible for spreading filth and themselves lived in unsanitary conditions, but virtually all the residents of that locality.
What is true of unsanitary conditions in a physical sense, also holds true for filth and uncleanliness in a moral sense. If immoral practices remain confined to a few people here and there but the overall moral concern of the society prevents those practices from becoming widespread and public, their harmful effects remain limited. But when the collective conscience of the society is weakened to a point whereby immoral practices are not suppressed, when people indulge in evils without any sense of shame and even go around boasting their immoral deeds, when good people adopt a passive attitude and are content with being righteous merely in their own lives and are unconcerned with or silent about collective evils, then the entire society invites its doom. Such a society then becomes the victim of a punishment that does not distinguish between the grain and the husk. It would afflict even those individuals who neither themselves committed evils nor were instrumental in spreading them and who might in fact have been righteous in their personal conduct.
The Prophet (SAW) said: “Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand, and if he cannot, then with his tongue, and if he cannot, then with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith.” Therefore, rejecting evil with the heart is obligatory upon every single believer. This rejection inside the heart of the believer relieves him from the responsibility if he is incapable of removing the evil with his hand or tongue.
Dear Brothers and Sisters! Each one of us has committed some error or fallen into some sin in our lives. According to a hadith, “All sons of Adam are sinners and the best of sinners are those who repent.” Allah Almighty says in Surat Aal ‘Imran,
وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
“And who, when they have committed an indecency or have wronged their souls, remember Allah and pray that their sins be forgiven for who but Allah can forgive sins? And they do not knowingly persist in their misdeeds.” (Aal ‘Imran, 3:135)
Sincere Tawbah purifies our heart from the filth of sins. Repentance from all sins is obligatory on every adult Muslim. This is emphasized by Allah when He says:
وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
“And repent to Allah, all of you believers that you may succeed.”(An-Nur, 24:31)
May Allah (SWT) grant us the tawfiq to sincerely repent for our sins, and to mend our wrongful ways. May He make us among those with whom He is pleased, and who are pleased with Him; ameen.
