Quran Garden

In the previous session, Imam Jafar Al-Sadeq gave us a comprehensive list of the 16 major sins in Islam, each supported by evidence from the Quran.  This list is critical for you, me, and every Muslim to study and understand because these sins may lead you straight to Hellfire, while avoiding them guarantees your success.  Today, we take a deep dive into the first three items on the list.  Let's begin.      

Session 585

Chapter 4

Verse 31

a continuation

If you avoid the major sins you have been forbidden, We shall absolve you of your minor misdeeds and let you in through the entrance of honor.  (Chapter 4: Verse 31)

When you look at the insights shared by our Imam Al-Sadeq, you'll notice they thoroughly cover many aspects of the audacity of human behaviour, from denying the Creator to mistreating parents and violating the honor of families.  Why do people defy God?  Some believe that God's teachings restrict their freedom, so they transgress against or even reject them outright.  The verses shared by Imam Al-Sadeq aim to curb this audacity and help protect you from your own tendencies.

The highest form of transgression is challenging God's oneness and associating partners with Him, as mentioned in the following Aya,

Luqman counselled his son, "My son, do not attribute any partners to God: attributing partners to Him is a terrible injustice." (31:13)

In general, injustice is giving something to someone not entitled to it.  Can you imagine the magnitude of injustice when you deify someone other than Allah?  Remember that when you associate partners with God, you are not committing injustice against the Almighty but against yourself.  Allah is above all that, as He states in the following Aya,

Your Lord, the Lord of Glory, is far above what they attribute to Him. (37:180)

God says in a sacred narration (Hadeeth Qudsi): "I am the most self-sufficient of partners, needing no partnership.  Whoever performs a deed associating another with Me, I will forsake him and his partnership."

By associating partners with Allah, you are only overburdening yourself.  How?  Listen to the beautiful example from the Quran,  

God puts forward this illustration: can a man who has for his masters several partners at odds with each other be considered equal to a man devoted wholly to one master?  All praise belongs to God, though most of them do not know. (39:29)

Imagine an employed person having to answer to ten bosses; one asks him to write a report while the other is demanding a meeting.  What would be the condition of this employee?  Surely exhausted, frustrated, and unfulfilled.  By accepting this position, the employee did not wrong the bosses but wronged himself.  Similarly, by attributing partners to Allah, you do not wrong God, but load yourself with an undue burden.  You will end up exhausted, frustrated, and unfulfilled.  God says:

It was not Us they wronged; they wronged themselves.  (from 2:57)

Belief in the One God simplifies everything, allowing you to answer to One power and follow one set of commands, ultimately bringing peace to your soul.  Allah emphasizes,

I am God; there is no god but Me.  So worship Me and establish the prayer for My remembrance.  (20:14)

To the believer, this statement is the essence of truth, while a disbeliever, unfortunately, chooses to deny it.  However, there is only one deity that claimed the universe and its creation: God Almighty.  Say, for example, that you are sitting with a group of friends in a room and you found a wallet on the floor.  You held it up and asked: "Does this wallet belong to any of you?" No one claimed the wallet.  A few minutes later, one of the people who left earlier came back and said, "I was here earlier and I think I left my wallet behind.  It is brown with tan stitching." Since everyone heard your message, and no one but this person claimed the wallet, then the wallet is his and his alone.   

We ask, if there are other Gods, did they know that Allah claimed everything for Himself?!  If they knew and remained silent, then there is either acceptance or weakness.  If they did not know, it shows incompetence.  All such traits are unfit for a God.  Hence, the issue surrounding creation is settled to Allah, and by extension, associating others with Him is also resolved.

Monotheism is meant to comfort the human soul by sparing it the confusion of seeking guidance from multiple deities.  When you recognize the oneness of Allah, you acknowledge the true source of benefit and harm, like a servant answering to a single boss who is fair, generous, and loving.  Compare that to a person employed by several quarrelling partners.  Thus, associating partners with God is the ultimate sin.  

The second item on our list is another grave transgression, which is despairing of God's mercy.  Life is full of challenges, and it is governed by the laws of cause and effect.  But what happens when you face a big crisis and you have done everything possible?  In other words, you exhausted all the means at your disposal, knocked every door, and yet still find yourself facing a crisis without a solution.  A person without faith in an all-powerful God will surely despair, and may look to suicide, drugs, or alcohol for an exit.  

The believers are always hopeful because they know that their Lord's power is beyond human means.  Despairing of God's mercy is like equating God's supreme power with the worldly limitations He created.  If you lose hope against life's troubles, you are, in essence, acknowledging that there is no difference between God's boundless ability and His created laws.  Allah can easily facilitate what seems impossible by worldly means.  The term "God's mercy" is translated from the Arabic " رَوْحِ اللَّهِ" and it shares its root with a gentle wind or breeze.   Imagine being in distress under a hot sun, seeking relief in the shade of an oasis, and then a breeze comes in to bring coolness, rain, and relief from all troubles.  Allah bestows such relief to those who do not lose hope in His mercy, fortifying them against life's unpredictable events.

The third major sin on our study list is "disobedience to parents."  This is perfectly aligned with denying God and despairing of His mercy.  Why?  Because, while Allah is the invisible Creator, your parents are the visible, tangible reason for your existence.  They brought you to life, showered you with infinite mercy, and provided for you.  Disobeying your parents will surely extend into disobedience toward God, the primary source of your existence.  

Honoring and caring for them is a fundamental acknowledgment of their favor when you were young.  This, in turn, inspires gratitude and recognition of the prior generations – your grandparents and great-grandparents- leading back to the first human, Adam, and ultimately acknowledging God's role as the Creator.  Thus, denying your parents their right is the first step in a chain that will lead to denying Allah.

We invite you to start every morning by being grateful to Allah, asking for His guidance, and reaching out to your parents with love.  Join us for the next session as we continue down the list of major sins.  If you value the Islamic knowledge you gain here, please take a moment to subscribe to our channel and share QuranGarden with your family and friends.