The topic under discussion in today’s khutba is very relevant to our lives, and that is ‘Why do we sin? But, before I share with you some of the reasons why we engage in sinful activities, and the divine guidance that can help us overcome the temptation to fall into sins, let us first understand—what is sin? According to a hadith,
الإِثْمُ مَا حَاكَ فِي صَدْرِكَ وَكَرِهْتَ أَنْ يَطَّلِعَ عَلَيْهِ النَّاسُ
We learn from the Prophet (SAW) that sin is that which causes discomfort (or pinches) within your soul and which you dislike that people should come to know of it. The human being is created with an internal mechanism to sense which acts are sinful, and the soul is uneasy when it performs sinful acts.
However, if man was free from the urge to commit sin then there would have been no difference between him and angels. The angels lack the urge to sin. They are not only innocent, but are also devoted exclusively to prostrate before Allah, to glorify Him, and to carry out His commandments. However, man enjoys excellence over them because even though he is given the choice and the capacity to do good or evil, yet he resists the temptation to do evil. However, he has to struggle throughout his life against temptations that lead to sin. In the beginning, the struggle is severe but after doing mujahidah; after striving hard, it becomes mild with passage of time.
Allah (SWT) has ordained the nature of man to be fallible; to be weak. We are constantly subject to the pulls and desires of this worldly life. While we have the ability to maneuver our “free will” in the right direction, we remain exposed to Satan’s attacks and whispers that can stray us from the straight path.
We can counter Satan’s plan of pulling us down with sins by increasing our faith, knowledge, and good deeds and that can then elevate us to a level which can merit our meeting with Allah with bright and shining faces. Alternately, we can ignore Allah’s commandments and burden ourselves with sins thus bringing in darkness and sadness on our faces. As Allah says in the Qur’an:
وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَاضِرَةٌ () إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ () وَوُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ بَاسِرَةٌ () تَظُنُّ أَنْ يُفْعَلَ بِهَا فَاقِرَةٌ
“Some faces will be fresh on that day; looking at their Lord, and some faces will be gloomy on that day; realizing that some great disaster is about to fall on them” (al-Qiyamah, 75:22-25).
For the believers, the very anticipation of meeting Allah (SWT) should invigorate them to straighten their acts and to stay clear from all types of sins. But again, the fallibility of our essential nature makes us forget or neglect our obligations and drives us to sin. To shield ourselves from misguidance, we should look at the root causes that can help us become aware of Satan’s tactics and accordingly prevent our nafs from being misguided.
Lack of knowledge about religious matters, and the gap that it creates in our understanding, is one of the reasons why many of us engage in sins. This also keeps us ignorant about the lawful and the unlawful—the halal and the haram. Unfortunately, many if not most Muslims make little effort to gain such knowledge. It is written in the Majmoo’ul-Fatawah of Ibn Taymiyyah (Rahimahullah) that this is what Umar Ibn al-Khattab (RA) had predicted when he said:
“Soon the bonds of Islam will be loosened bit by bit, because people will enter into Islam but will be unaware of Jahiliyyah i.e., the ignorant practices that Islam opposes,” meaning that they won’t hesitate to follow such practices.
Moreover, to excuse ourselves from the obligation to learn more about Islamic matters, some of us tend to satisfy ourselves that our daily ritual worships may be sufficient for us to live meaningfully. This is one of those traps that many scholars over the centuries have warned us about. This is because worshipping Allah without the basis of knowledge leaves our foundations of faith very vulnerable. An ongoing effort to strengthen our faith through knowledge is essential not just to protect us from minor sins but also to prevent us from the greatest sin of all, which is to disbelieve in Allah (SWT) or to associate partners with Him
Many of us sin not because of willful disobedience but because sometimes we get pulled into the act reluctantly. It is no secret that certain social and other pressures tend to push us into committing sins that we normally would not commit. When in such situations, we suppress the voice of our conscience and then go with the social flow. This is one of the reasons why the prophet (SAW) warned us about keeping company that can take us away from the straight path. He said: “A man will follow the way of his close friends, so let each one of you look at who he takes as a close friend.”
We should remind ourselves that time always passes by and such friends won’t last us for the full journey of our life and they won’t be with us on the day when we are held accountable for the sins that we committed due to their influence. Consider what Allah says in Surat al-Zukhraf about friends on the Day of Judgment:
الأَخِلاَّءُ يَوْمَئِذٍ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ إِلاَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ
“On that Day the closest friends will be enemies to one another, except for those who have taqwa” (al-Zukhraf, 43:67).
And also listen to what the Qur’an says about the person who, on the Day of Judgment, will express his sorrow and regret over taking some undesirable person as his friend.
يَا وَيْلَتَى لَيْتَنِي لَمْ أَتَّخِذْ فُلَانًا خَلِيلًا () لَقَدْ أَضَلَّنِي عَنِ الذِّكْرِ بَعْدَ إِذْ جَاءَنِي وَكَانَ الشَّيْطَانُ لِلْإِنْسَانِ خَذُولًا
“Woe to me! I wish I had not taken so and so as a friend! He led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me.´ Satan has always betrayed mankind” (al-Furqan. 25:28-29).
Let’s, therefore, ensure that if our social circles are directly or indirectly pushing us to commit sins or discouraging us from performing good deeds, then we should disengage from such groups and people immediately. By silencing our conscience in the face of social pressures, we also start to slowly regard many wrongs as rights and gradually lose our natural inborn evaluation or assessment of the right and wrong.
A false sense of pride and arrogance also leads us into committing sin. One sign of such an attitude involves engaging in frequent argumentation, disputes, and quarrels simply to push misguided viewpoints. Such an attitude in general stands counter to everything that the Qur’an and the Prophet (SAW) taught us. Let’s remember that the prophet (SAW) associated such an attitude with misguidance. He said, “A nation never went astray after being guided except by means of disputation.”
Therefore, we ought to look within ourselves and see whether the pride in our hearts or the arrogance of our attitudes in anyway influence us to refuse seeing or listening to the truth. For those of us who suffer from such diseases, what is needed instead is an attitude of humility or humbleness that can motivate us to stay calm and open to seeing our mistakes thereby providing an opportunity to fix them. Pride puts a veil on our eyes and hearts and can lead us to more sins.
May Allah (SWT) make us more humble and protect us from a false sense of pride and arrogance.
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
Many people take minor sins lightly taking it for granted that Allah will forgive them for such sins. As a result, they persist in such sins thereby getting insensitive to the need to address them. Consider the hadith of the Prophet (SAW) where according to one report he said, “Beware of minor sins, for they will pile up until they destroy a person”
Some scholars are of the view that when minor sins are accompanied by a lack of shame or remorse, and with no fear of Allah, and are taken lightly, then there is the risk that they will be counted as major sins. Hence it is said that no minor sin is minor if you persist, and no major sin is major if you repent sincerely and seek forgiveness from Allah (SWT).
One of the reasons why we see sin thrive and flourish is that many of us have forgotten the principles of inviting people to good and stopping them from doing bad. When people live in environments where advice for the good isn’t encouraged much, it takes away the opportunities for improvements and also lets people develop false perceptions about themselves.
Allah has created us weak and as a result staying away from sins requires periodic doses of knowledgeable advice and wisdom. Additionally, Islamic teachings also command us to advise each other on matters of right or wrong. When communities fail to promote these principles, sins spread more easily. Allah says in Surat Aal ‘Imran,
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
“You are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind. You enjoin the right, forbid the wrong and have iman in Allah” (Aal ‘Imran, 3:110).
However, matters of giving advice should be handled wisely. The believer conceals the sin of his brother and advises him, while the evildoer disgraces and condemns him. When we know of the wrong actions of believers, we shouldn’t make it a point to propagate their weaknesses to others. This is because the goal of the one who is advising is not to spread and publicize the faults of the person he is advising; rather his goal is only to put an end to the evil that he has fallen into.
Sin breeds sin until it dominates a person and he cannot escape from it. 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. Even if he seeks forgiveness and expresses repentance, it is merely words on the lips, like the repentance of the liars whose hearts remain determined to commit sin and persist in it. He becomes desensitized and no longer finds sins hateful; so it becomes his habit, and he is not bothered if people see him committing the sin or talk about him.
Sin stands in the way of obedience to Allah (SWT). Insistence and firmness on sins blackens and hardens the heart, which may at times even lead to kufr or disbelief. Tawbah or repentance is one of the acts of the heart. 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 (SWT) when He says,
وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
And repent to God, all of you believers that you may succeed. (An-Nur, 24:31)
Indeed, Allah is very happy when any of His slaves repents. If he repents, he will have a peaceful life in this world and a blissful life in the hereafter. If however, he does not repent, then he makes himself liable to be punished for his sins.
وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ
And Allah is never unjust to His servants (al-Imran 3:182).
Let us remember that for us to stay clear from sins, we need to constantly work to build a living conscience that can help us recognize sins when we see them and help us avoid indulging in them. Anyone who is concerned with his eternal welfare will immediately feel the burden of disobedience awaiting him once he allows himself to sin. Whenever he commits a sin by mistake, he should immediately repent and beg Allah for His mercy and forgiveness. The doors of Allah’s mercy and forgiveness are open no matter how large the sin is. The only time that the request for forgiveness is not granted is when the pangs of death are upon us, and we do not know when that will be.
May Allah (SWT) make us aware of all that is sinful, and may He make us capable of keeping away from them.
