Major sins (kaba'ir)

A major sin (kabira) is, in the jurists' terms, any act that the law threatens with heavy punishment or whose harm in the world is great ¹. Scholars give several tests for it. Al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam found no test that escapes objection and preferred one that signals the doer's disregard for his religion, which Ibn Hajar called a good test ⁸. Others name what is forbidden in itself, what carries a legal penalty, or what the text threatens with fire or describes the doer as a transgressor (fasiq) or cursed ⁸.

The jurists agree that major sins are forbidden ². Most scholars divide sins into minor and major, and al-Ghazali considered denying that division unbecoming to a jurist; some theologians, including al-Baqillani and al-Juwayni, held that every sin is major when measured against the majesty of the One disobeyed. Al-Qarafi measured greatness by the harm in the act itself ².

Most scholars do not treat the numbers given in reports as a closed list ³. Reported counts include three and four (attributed to Ibn Mas'ud), a list of four in a report of Abd Allah ibn Amr, a list of three in a report of Anas, seven in the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) on "the seven destroyers", eight, nine, ten, seventy (al-Dhahabi), 467 (Ibn Hajar al-Haytami) and seven hundred (attributed to Ibn Abbas, as hyperbole) ^{3 9}.

Scholars divide major sins into major and greatest, following the report of Abu Bakra on shirk, disobedience to parents and false speech and false testimony ¹⁰. Ibn Hajar gathered thirteen from the reports, among them killing a person, adultery with a neighbour's wife, the false oath, slandering a Muslim's honour, withholding surplus water or a stallion, bad opinion of God, making images of living beings, obstinate litigation and cursing one's parents ^{10 11}. Al-Qarafi ranks sins by harm, from the lowest that brings disapproval to the highest, which is disbelief ¹¹.

A believer does not leave faith by committing a major sin. If he dies without repenting, his fate is in God's will: He may forgive him or punish him for his sin, but he will not be eternal in the Fire, which is the view of the people of the Sunna ⁴.

Major sin removes trustworthiness (adala) and makes testimony unacceptable, a point Ibn Hazm reports as consensus ⁴. The Malikis say a just person is one who has not committed a major sin without repenting, and the reason is boldness in disobedience; a single lapse does not disqualify ^{4 5}. The doer of a major sin is a transgressor, but intending a sin without committing it does not make a person one ⁵.

A minor sin is not a bar to trustworthiness unless it is persisted in, and then it becomes major, since there is no minor sin with persistence and no major sin with seeking forgiveness, meaning repentance on its conditions ⁵. Al-Zarkashi counts habitual minor sins among the major ones, while Abu Talib al-Qada'i holds that persistence in a minor sin is a minor sin; most treat the change as a legal attribution rather than a real change in nature ⁶.

Shirk nullifies good deeds, and so does apostasy until death. Some reports say that slander destroys the deeds of a hundred years, and that usury nullifies struggle in the path of God; a report also says that a prayer is not accepted for forty nights after visiting a fortune-teller. The soundness of several of these reports is disputed ^{6 12}.

A major sin against God's right alone, such as drinking wine, is a matter of God's pardon in the next world if no repentance follows. Where the sin also violates a human right, the injured party or the heirs may demand retaliation or blood money or pardon; a thief may be pardoned by the victim before the case reaches the ruler; once a prescribed penalty (hadd) has reached the ruler it cannot be pardoned or interceded for ^{12 13}.

Most jurists hold that carrying out the prescribed penalty does not by itself expiate the sin; repentance is also required, while Mujahid and Zayd ibn Aslam hold that the penalty alone is expiation ¹³. Al-Manhaji lists the conditions of repentance: giving up the sin, regret, resolve never to return, and clearing any money claim by returning it or its equivalent; the Hanbalis add seeking the victim's pardon in property matters, while for slander they do not require informing the injured party ¹⁴. On the testimony of a slanderer who repents, the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis accept it, while the Hanafis and some early scholars refuse it when repentance comes after the penalty ^{14 7}.

Most jurists and exegetes hold that minor sins are expiated by avoiding major ones, on the basis of the Qur'an, Surat an-Nisa' verse 31, and the hadith on the five prayers and the Friday prayer. Others say this is a strong hope rather than certainty, since God's will remains; and some say it is conditional on avoiding major sins rather than an automatic effect ^{7 15}. Some Hanafis hold that the hajj expiates major sins, while Ibn Nujaym says it expiates only the sin of delaying duties; the matter is one of probability, not certainty ^{15 16}.

The Prophet has a special intercession for people who deserved the Fire by their deeds, so they will not enter it. The people of the Sunna cite the hadith "my intercession is for the people of major sins among my community", which al-Tirmidhi calls good and sound ¹⁷.

The Sheikh says that whatever harms a person's outcome in this world and the next is a sin, and that whoever exceeds God's limits has sinned, whether the sin is small or great ^{18 19}. He says that a major sin becomes graver through persistence, and that the gravity of a sin is judged by the greatness of the one disobeyed ²⁰.

He says that the scholars divide sins into minor and major ²¹, and that the gravity of a sin depends on whom it wrongs, an offence against God being weighty ²².