SIN (MA’SIYAH)
Q. What is Ma’siyah (sin)?
The word Ma’siyah literally means
transgression or disobedience. Anything that violates the commands of Al-lah is
transgression or sin.
It is bad to commit sin. Sin
attracts Al-lah’s wrath, displeasure and punishment. Unbelief and polytheism
are the bigger among all sins. Unbelievers and polytheists shall have Hell as
their permanent abode. Nobody will intercede on behalf of an unbeliever or
polytheists. Al-lah has said in the Holy Qur-an that He will never forgive a
polytheist.
UNBELIEF AND POLYTHEISM
(KUFR AND SHIRK)
Q. What do we mean by unbelief and
polytheism?
Unbelief means refusal to believe in
anyone of the things necessary to be believed. For instance, those who refuse
to believe in Al-lah or His Attributes or believes in more than one God (two or
three) or refuses to believe in angels or in anyone of Al-lah’s Books and
Prophets or Destiny or the Day of Judgment or anyone of Al-lah’s clear commands or disbelieves any
fact or tiding conveyed by the Prophet of Al-lah will be considered an
unbeliever.
Polytheism similarly, means to believe in
any other object or person besides Al-lah
to be His compeer in Being or Attributes
Q. What do we mean by considering any other
object or person as Al-lah’s compeer in being?
Making someone Al-lah’s partner in Being
means believing in duality or plurality of God. Christians are polytheists
because they believe in trinity, the Zoroastrians because they believe in
duality and the idolaters because they believe in the plurality of God.
Q. What do we mean by polytheism in regard
to Attributes?
It is polytheism to ascribe Al-lah’s
Attributes to some other being. No other creature whether it be an angel, a
prophet, a saint, a martyr, a spiritual head or an Imam can have Attributes
special to Al-lah.
Q. How many forms can polytheism take?
It could take many forms. We discuss
below a few of them.
·
Partnership
in powers exclusive to Al-lah: This is like believing that some prophet,
spiritual head or martyrs etc., have the power to send down rains, grant son or
daughter or other boons to anyone, provide livelihood, give life to or snatch
it from anyone or cause good or harm to anyone. This is one form of polytheism.
·
Partnership
in Knowledge: It consists in believing that someone besides Al-lah, a prophet
or spiritual head has knowledge of the Unseen, knows everything big or small or
is aware of what is happening to us or has knowledge of all things, far and
near.
·
Partnership
in the Attributes of hearing and seeing: It means believing someone besides Al-lah
(a prophet or spiritual leader) to have the power to hear all that we say from
far and near or see us all our actions from anywhere.
·
Partnership
in Sovereignty: It consists in considering someone besides Al-lah the master like unto Him and
obeys his dictates even as one would carry out the dictates of Al-lah. For
example, it is also a kind of polytheism to carry out the command of one’s
spiritual head to chant a certain formula before the ‘Asr prayer for such a
long time that it would delay or even cause to miss the prayer prescribed by Al-lah.
·
Partnership
in worship: It consists in considering someone besides Al-lah worthy of
worship. Acts like falling prostrate before some holy man or fasting in the
name of some prophet, saint or Imam asking boons from objects and persons other
than Al-lah or going round some grave or the residence of a holy man even as
one would go round the holy Ka’bah are all forms of polytheism in worship.
Q. Are there any other acts that smack of
polytheism?
Yes, there are great many other acts that
smack of polytheism. They all must be avoided. The following acts, for example,
fall under this category: consulting astrologers about the future, consulting a
palmist, asking someone to draw lots, avoiding a patient of small pox or some
other disease because of the supposed communicable nature of the disease,
making effigies of martyrs, raising banners to commemorate the death of martyrs
and saints, swearing by someone besides
Al-lah, drawing images or giving respect to them, invoking some saint or
holy man as if he would answer our prayers, keeping tufts of hair for invoking
the blessings of some saint or holy man, parading as beggars in the name of
martyrs on certain occasions, organizing assemblies and fairs on the graves and
so on.
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