’’عَنْ عَبْداﷲِ ؓ قَالَ قُلْتُ یَا رَسُوْلَ اﷲِ أَیُّ الذَّنْبِ أَعْظَمُ ۔ قَاَلَ أَنْ تَجْعَلَ لِلّٰہِ نِدّا وَ ھُوَ خَلَقَک، ثُمَّ قَاَلَ أَیُّ۔ قَالَ أَنْ تَقْتُلَ وَلَدَکَ خَشْیَۃَ أَنْ یَأکُلَ مَعَکَ۔ قَالَ ثُمَّ أَیُّ قَالَ أَنْ تُزَانِیَ حَلِیْلَۃَ جَارِکَ‘‘(بخاری کتاب الادب، بحوالہ: جواہر الحدیث صفحہ:۱۳۴
Narrated ‘Abdullah: I said ‘O Allah’s Apostle ﷺ! Which sin is the greatest?” He said, “To set up a rival unto Allah, though He Alone created you.” I said, “What next?” He said, “To kill your son lest he should share your food with you.” I further asked, “What next?” He said, “To commit illegal sexual intercourse with the wife of your neighbor.”
Explanation:
According to another tradition, Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (R.T.A.) narrates that the Holy Prophet said, “Narrated Abu Bakra, the Prophet said, “The biggest of the great sins are: To join others in worship with Allah, to be undutiful to one’s parents, and to give a false witness.”
In the tradition appearing above, being undutiful to one’s parents and to give a false witness is also counted to be among the major sins.
- One kind of infidelity is that a man ascribes any partner to Allah, the Almighty. The second kind is to attribute any of the attributes particular for Allah to anyone else beside Him. The third kind is to give Allah’s rights to others i.e. worshipping anyone except Allah, the Almighty, declaring his glory, submitting oneself to him or obeying him.
As for the third kind of infidelity, it is a common observation. Says Allah, the Almighty in the Holy Qura’n:
“أفَرَأیْت مَنِ اتَّخذَ اِلٰھَہٗ ھَواَ ہُ”
“Tell me about the one who has taken his desire as his god.”
Meaning, whatever he does, he does for fulfilling his own whims and wishes. As it a appears in a tradition, “All the gods being worshipped on the face of this earth, the worst of them in the sight of Allah, the Almighty is the whims and wishes of one’s sould which are being followed. (Tabrani) In other words, taking one’s desire as his god means to follow or worship it. It is also a established fact that this is also the infidelity as regarded to be for worshipping idols or anyone among Allah’s creatures.
Anyone who prefers his desires to his intellect and uses his intellect to distinguish as what way is right and what is wrong, no matter if he is involved in any type of infidelity, he might be guided to a right path after a little effort to make him understand. One can even trust him to be steadfast on it once he gets on it. But, on the contrary, a man slave to his desire and self is like an unbridled camel which is supposed to go only to the direction where its desires direct it and thus it would be doomed to be misled on account of them.
- Killing one’s children in any case amounts to be a major sin. Killing one’s offspring fearing indigence is the greatest sin after infidelity. It does not mean that killing an ordinary man is a minor sin; rather, the reality is that killing any man illegally is unlawful and a heinous crime in Islam. As the Holy Qura’n declares killing one man equal to killing the whole mankind in the following words:
’’مَنْ قَتَل نَفْساً بِغَیْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِیْ الأَرضِ فَکَأَنَّماَ قَتَلَ النَّاس جَمِیْعاً وَ مَنْ أحْیَاھَا فَکَأَنَّمَا أَحیَا الناسَ جَمِیْعاً‘‘ (سورۃ المائدہ آیت:۳۲(
“whoever kills a person not (to retaliate) for a per-son killed nor (to punish) for spreading disorder in the earth, is as if he has killed the whole mankind, and whoever saves the life of a person is as if he has saved the life of the whole mankind.”
Anyone who kills his children fearing indigence, it is a heinous crime based on two reasons. One of them is that doing so indicates that perhaps its perpetrator does not believe in Allah, the Almighty to All-Sustaining.
Secondly, the act of killing one’s own children indicates how stone-hearted he is and hence it has been declared as a greatest sin after infidelity. During the days of ignorance, the people would kill their children with the fear of indigence and poverty. In reality, anyone who kills his children with own hands amounts to believing not in Allah, the Almighty is an All-Sustaining. Says Allah, the Almighty in the Holy Qura’n:
وَلَا تَقْتُلُوْٓا اَوْلَادَكُمْ مِّنْ اِمْلَاقٍ ۭنَحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَاِيَّاهُمْ ۚ (سورۃ الانعام: ۱۵۱، الاسراء :۳۱)
“And do not kill your children because of poverty – We will give provision to you, and to them as well.”
These days, the movement of birth-control is misleading the public under the beautiful title of family planning. Apparently, this attractive point of view seems to be harmless and beneficial, but, only if we have a look at its ill-effects we come to know a wide net of false propaganda to allow the voluptuousness and debauchery.
Regrettably, though this movement could not prove to be an effective source of banning birth-control, however, it resulted in allowing the immodesty and impudence being rampant. Though the fear of birth-control had been a hurdle in misguidance, but this movement of advanced ignorance has made the moral ills free of this fear through inventing different devices and medicines of birth-control.
- To commit illegal sexual intercourse with the wife of your neighbor is a greatest sin after infidelity. As a Muslim, one needs to safeguard the dignity and modesty of his neighbour. Anyone who has an illicit glance over his neigbour, he must disserve his eye. But, one the contrary, he himself becomes the rival of his prestige, as a result, not only he will be regarded as a sinner but also a greatest sinner on ground of the following reasons:
(1) He committed adultery (2) He hurt the reliance his neighbor put in him (3) Taking the disadvantage of frequent visit of his neighbour’s house, he has made a breach of trust through inducing his wife on committing this sin.
- Giving a false witness and telling a lie is a bad thing be it is done in a court before a ruler or somewhere else. Says Allah, the Almighty in the Holy Qura’n”
’’فاجْتَنِبُوا الرِّجْسَ مِنَ الْأَوْ ثَانِ وَاجْتَنِبُوا قَوْلَ الزُّوْرِ‘‘(سورۃ الحج آیت: ۳۰)
“So refrain from the filth of the idols and refrain from a word of falsehood.” (Surah Al-Hajj: 30)
In fact, giving a false witness is such a great sin that the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) has declared it to be a greatest sin after disbelief and infidelity. Narrated Khuraym Ibn Fatik: The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) offered the Morning Prayer. When he finished it, he stood up and said three times: False witness has been made equivalent to attributing a partner to Allah. He then recited: “So avoid the abomination of idols and avoid speaking falsehood as people pure of faith to Allah, not associating anything with Him. (Abu Dawood)
May Allah, the Almighty protect us against all minor and major sins and grant us ability to lead our lives in accordance with the injunctions of the Holy Qura’n and Sunnah. (Ameen!)