"يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنُوا قُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَ أَهْليكُمْ ناراً وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَ الْحِجارَة"
O those who believe! Save yourselves and your families from the fire of hell, whose fuel is people and stones. (al-TaÎrÐm: verse 6)
He should enjoin them towards the practices that he enjoins upon himself, and prohibit them from those which he prohibits upon himself.
In the practice of enjoining good and forbidding evil, one should first try to compel another to perform good or abstain from evil by displaying his esoteric detest for it, even if it is by breaking social ties with the person who abstains from what is good or commits what is evil, and through his speech by advising and counseling him, and informing him of the rewards of performing what is good and the divine punishment for committing evil.
However, if these two methods bear no results, and stopping the person is contingent on striking the person, then it should be in a manner that does not entail a diyah (blood money) or qiÒÁs (retribution), such as a case where it causes an injury. In the event that the injury is caused intentionally, the injured person may seek retribution, and if it is caused unintentionally, the injured person may claim the diyah.
Every sin is a major violation, because the greatness, majesty and grandeur of the Lord is not limited by any boundaries, and therefore disobeying the Exalted Lord is a major violation, given that sinning against the Exalted Lord is a grave act. It has been narrated, “Do not consider the sin that you have committed, rather consider the one whom you have disobeyed.”
However, when sins are compared to each other, some of them are graver than others and their punishment is more severe. The punishment or the fire of hell has been explicitly or implicity promised for some of these sins. These sins have also been termed as the major sins (kabÐrah) within the corpus of traditions from the Ahl al-Bayt (Peace be upon him). In addition, based on the following verse, abstaining from such sins is a cause for the forgiveness of other sins:
" إِنْ تَجْتَنِبُوا كَبائِرَ ما تُنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ نُكَفِّرْ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئاتِكُم"
If you refrain from the major sins that you have been prohibited from, we shall absolve you of your (minor) sins. (al-NisÁ’: verse 31)
Some of the jurisprudents (may the Lord raise their station) have enumerated them to seventy, and some of them have added a few more to this list. Below we will mention those which are more common:
1. Disbelieving in the Lord and ascribing partners to Him, the gravity of which cannot be compared to any of the major sins.
2. Losing hope and despairing from mercy of Allah.
3. To feel secure from the plans of the Lord.
4. To falsely swear by the name of the Lord.
5. Rejecting Divine revelation.
6. Declaring war against the friends of Allah.
7. Declaring war against the Lord and His messenger by banditry or making mischief in the land.
8. Giving judgment based on sources which are not Divinely revealed.
9. Ascribing a lie to Allah, His messenger and the messenger’s successors.
10. Obstructing people from remembering Allah in the mosques and working to destroy the mosques.
11. Obstructing the payment of the obligatory ZakÁt.
12. Fleeing from an obligatory jihad.
13. Fleeing from a war fought by the Muslims against the kÁfirs.
14. Leading people astray from the path of Allah.
15. Persisting in committing minor sins.
16. Intentionally abstaining from prayers and other divinely legislated obligations.
17. Showing off.
18. Engaging in vain practices, such as playing the tar (guitar like instrument).
19. Befriending an oppressor.
20. Helping an oppressor
21. Breaking a pledge or an oath.
22. TabdhÐr: damaging a property or spending it for futile purposes.
23. Extravagance.
24. Consuming wine.
25. Practicing magic.
26. Oppressing.
27. Ghina (like Singing).
28. Upsetting one’s parents and treating them unkindly.
29. Breaking off familial relations.
30. Homosexuality.
31. Adultery.
32. Accusing a married woman of adultery.
33. Pandering, be it for heterosexual or homosexual relationships.
34. Stealing.
35. Usury.
36. Consuming illegal profits, such as the profits from the sale of wine, the payment of a prostitute, and the bribe acquired by a judge for a court judgment.
37. Giving short measure.
38. Defrauding Muslims.
39. Confiscating the property of an orphan unlawfully.
40. Giving false testimony.
41. Concealing testimony.
42. Spreading indecency and sin amongst the believers.
43. Sedition.
44. Taletelling that leads to disunity amongst the believers.
45. Verbally abusing a believer, insulting or humiliating him.
46. Slandering a believer.
47. Backbiting. This is defined as the act of relating a concealed and hidden defect of a believer in his absence, regardless of whether one conveys the defect through his speech or his actions. It will also make no difference if he did not have the intention of insulting or damaging his character. However, if a person reveals the defect of a believer with the intention of insulting him, he will have committed two sins.
One who backbites must seek repentance (from the Lord), and obligatory precaution dictates that he should also seek forgiveness from the one who was backbitten, unless doing so would cause harm.
1. One who commits sins openly and publicly, in which case it is permissible to backbite him with respect to that sin.
2. For an oppressed person to backbite an oppressor who has oppressed him, with respect to that act of oppression.
3. For the purpose of counselling, wherein the purpose of revealing the defect is to advise the one who is seeking counsel, and only to the extent that is required for him to be advised.
4. Backbiting one who innovates new practices within the religion, and one who causes people to go astray.
5. Backbiting for the purpose of revealing the corrupt of the witness, in the sense that if the person testifying is an immoral person, then to backbite him with the intent of revealing his immorality so that a person’s right is not violated owing to his testimony, is permissible.
6. Backbiting a person for the purpose of defending his life, honor or property.
7. Backbiting a sinner with the intention of restraining him from committing the sin, in the event that it is not possible to restrain him using any other means.
2079. It behooves every businessman to learn the precepts that pertain to buying and selling. In fact, in the cases where he has certainty or satisfaction—be it in a specific or general manner—owing to his ignorance of the precepts, he will be exposing himself to abandoning an obligation or committing a prohibited act; it is necessary for him, therefore, to learn the precepts that pertain to that case.
It has been narrated from Imam al-¥¡diq (as), “One who wishes to engage in business should be educated in his religion, so that he is aware of what is permissible for him and what is prohibited. One who engages in business while being uneducated in his religion, is afflicted with dubious transactions.”
Whilst buying or selling, certain acts are recommended, of which some are listed below:
1. One should not discriminate between the buyers with respect to the price of the goods, unless it is based on faith, poverty or similar criteria which warrant preferential treatment.
2. One should not be adamant about the price, except in a case where he may be cheated were he not to do so.
3. A person should give a little more of what he is selling, and take a little less of what he is buying.
4. If the other party involved in the transaction regrets making the transaction, and requests to cancel it, one should accept his request.
2082. Of the transactions which are makruh, the main ones are listed below:
1. Selling real estate, such as a land, house, garden or water, unless one buys another person’s estate with the funds acquired from the transaction.
2. Butchery
3. Selling of shrouds
4. Entering into a transaction with people of low character
5. Transacting and displaying the goods for that purpose, between the [adh¡n] call for prayers of [fajr] dawn and sunrise.
6. To undertake the profession of buying and selling wheat, barley or similar commodities.
7. To intervene in an ongoing transaction with the intent to buy the goods that another person wishes to buy.
2083. Some transactions are invalid but not forbidden, and some are forbidden but not invalid, and some are both: forbidden and invalid. Of these, the main ones are:
1. Some of the essentially najis items, such as intoxicating drinks and pigs, the selling and buying of which is both forbidden and invalid. The same goes for najis carcasses and non-hunting dogs, selling and buying of which is invalid, and based on obligatory precaution forbidden as well.
In other than the aforementioned cases, in the event that it has a permissible benefit, one accepted by intelligent persons, such as animal waste which is used as fertilizers, or blood which is injected into sick patients, buying and selling of it is permissible and valid. The recommended precaution however is that it should be avoided.
2. Buying and selling usurped property, which is invalid without the permission of the owner. However, the act itself is not forbidden; rather, any corporeal use of the usurped property is forbidden.
3. Buying or selling things which are of no actual value in the eyes of the people, and buying or selling it would be considered absurd by them, such as animals which are considered to have no (monetary) value. Such a transaction is invalid, but not forbidden.
4. Transacting a thing which is usually utilized in a forbidden manner, such as media for gambling, which is both invalid and forbidden.
5. A transaction which involves interest is both invalid and forbidden.
6. Selling goods that are adulterated with something else, given that the other good is unknown, and the seller does not inform the buyer either, such as selling ghee which has been mixed with suet, or setting a price on an adulterated item. Such a transaction is invalid, and in some cases—as will be elaborated later—forbidden.
The Holy Prophet (sawas) has made a statement to the following effect, “He is not of the Muslims, one who deceives the Muslims.”
It has also been reported from him, “Whoever deceives his Muslim brother, God withholds his blessings from the person’s sustenance, constrains his livelihood, and abandons him to himself.”
If the medicine is not meant to be consumable, buying or selling it is permissible. However, the seller must inform the buyer in the manner outlined in the previous article.
As for the oil that is derived from an animal after its death, even though one may entertain the possibility that it was slaughtered according to Islamic law, if it is acquired from the hands of a k¡fir—in the event that it is not determined that the k¡fir acquired it from a Muslim or a Muslim market—or imported it from non-Muslim countries, it is forbidden to consume it, and buying or selling it is invalid, and it will be considered najis.