Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 18 of Nawawi
Hadith number 18 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in faithful English translation.
Contents
Updated on 07 October 2026 at 4:51 AM
📖 70 min readThis hadith belongs to the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), the most studied hadith compilation in the world: foundations of faith, worship and character, all authentic narrations.
At-Tirmidhi extracted this hadith through Sufyan ath-Thawri's channel, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Maymun ibn Abi Shibib, from Abu Dharr. He also extracted it through this same chain, from Maymun, from Mu'adh, and reported from his shaykh Mahmud ibn Ghaylan that he said: Abu Dharr's version is the sounder. This hadith therefore saw divergence over its chain: it was related from Habib, from Maymun, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave this counsel in detached form, and ad-Daraqutni preferred this detached version. At-Tirmidhi graded this hadith good; what appears in some copies as a grading of sound is far-fetched; al-Hakim extracted it saying: sound according to the two shaykhs' condition, but it is an error on two counts. First: Maymun ibn Abi Shibib, also called ibn Shibib, had nothing extracted by al-Bukhari in his Sahih, nor by Muslim except in his book's introduction one hadith from al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba.
Second: Maymun ibn Abi Shibib's hearing from any companion is not established; al-Fallas said: in none of his narrations from the companions is there "I heard", and I knew of no one claiming he heard from the Prophet's companions (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Abu Hatim ar-Razi said: his narration from Abu Dharr and from 'A'isha is not connected. Abu Dawoud said: he did not meet 'A'isha and did not see 'Ali; a fortiori he did not meet Mu'adh. The view of al-Bukhari, of his shaykh 'Ali ibn al-Madini, of Abu Zar'a, of Abu Hatim and others is that the hadith connects only with the proof of their meeting. Imam Ahmad's words point to it, and ash-Shafi'i stated it expressly in the Risala, and this is a foundation upon which the principles of the science of hadith rest.
It is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he gave this counsel to Mu'adh and to Abu Dharr through other channels.
Al-Bazzar extracted it from Ibn Lahy'a's hadith, from Abu az-Zubayr, from Abu Tufayl, from Mu'adh: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent him to a people; he said: "O Messenger of Allah, counsel me. He said: Spread the salam, offer food, be modest before Allah as a man of standing of your family is before you, and if you do evil, do good, and let your character be the best you can."
At-Tabarani and al-Hakim extracted it from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As's hadith, that Mu'adh ibn Jabal, intending a journey, said: "O Messenger of Allah, counsel me. He said: Worship Allah, associating nothing with Him. He said: O Messenger of Allah, increase for me. He said: If you do evil, do good. He said: O Messenger of Allah, increase for me. He said: Be upright, and let your character be good."
Imam Ahmad extracted it from Dirar's hadith, from Abu al-Haytham, from Abu Dharr, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: "I counsel you to fear Allah in the secret of your affair and in the open; if you do evil, do good; ask nothing of anyone, even if your whip falls; take not a trust in your keeping; judge not between two." He also extracted it through another channel, from Abu Dharr: "I said: O Messenger of Allah, teach me a deed that brings me near to Paradise and distances me from the Fire. He said: If you do an evil deed, do a good one: it is worth ten of its like. I said: O Messenger of Allah, is 'there is no deity except Allah' among the good deeds? He said: It is the best of good deeds."
Ibn 'Abd al-Barr extracted it in at-Tamhid, through a debatable chain, from Anas: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent Mu'adh to Yemen and said: "O Mu'adh, fear Allah, behave well with people, and if you do an evil deed, follow it with a good one. I said: O Messenger of Allah, is 'there is no deity except Allah' among the good deeds? He said: It is among the greatest good deeds."
The Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counsel to Mu'adh was related from Ibn 'Umar's and others' hadith, in a long course, through channels carrying weakness. Into this meaning enters Abu Hurayra's hadith: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked: what most makes people enter Paradise? He said: "Fear of Allah and good character." Extracted by Imam Ahmad, Ibn Majah and at-Tirmidhi who graded it sound, and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih.
This counsel is an immense counsel embracing Allah's rights and His servants' rights; Allah's right upon His servants is that they fear Him as He deserves to be feared, and the fear of Allah is Allah's counsel to the first and the last; Allah, the Most High, said: "We counselled those given the Book before you, and yourselves: fear Allah."
The origin of taqwa is that the servant places between himself and what he fears and dreads a protection shielding him: the servant's fear of his Lord is placing between himself and what he dreads of his Lord, His anger, His displeasure and His punishment, a protection shielding him from it: doing His obedience and avoiding His disobedience.
Sometimes taqwa is joined to the name of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, as His word: "And fear Allah toward whom you shall be gathered", and His word: "O you who believe: fear Allah, and let every soul consider what it sent ahead for tomorrow; and fear Allah: Allah is well informed of what you do." When taqwa is joined to Him, the meaning is: fear His displeasure and His anger, the greatest thing to fear, from which His punishment of this world and the hereafter arises; Allah said: "Allah warns you of Himself", and: "He is worthy of fear and worthy of forgiveness." He, glorified, is worthy of being feared, dreaded, venerated and magnified in His servants' breasts, that they may worship and obey Him, for the glorification and honour, the attributes of majesty and greatness, the strength of His grasp and the vigour of His might He deserves. At-Tirmidhi relates from Anas, of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), concerning the verse "He is worthy of fear and worthy of forgiveness": the Prophet said: Allah, the Most High, said: "I am worthy of being feared: whoever fears Me, setting up no other deity beside Me, I am worthy of forgiving him."
Sometimes taqwa is joined to Allah's punishment, to its place like the Fire, or its time like the Day of Resurrection, as Allah said: "And fear the Fire prepared for the disbelievers", and: "O you who believe: shield yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones", and: "And fear a day you shall be returned to Allah", and: "And fear a day when no soul shall avail another at all."
Complete taqwa comprises fulfilling the obligations and leaving the forbidden and the doubtful. It may further comprise doing the recommended and leaving the disapproved: this is the highest degree of taqwa; Allah, the Most High, said: "Alif, Lam, Mim. This is the Book, no doubt in it, a guidance for the Allah-fearing, who believe in the unseen, establish prayer and spend of what We gave them, believe in what was sent down upon you and what was sent down before you, and have certainty of the hereafter." And He said: "But righteousness is believing in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the prophets; giving wealth, despite love of it, to kin, orphans, the needy, the traveller, beggars, and for freeing necks; establishing prayer and giving zakat; those who fulfil their covenant when they covenant, and the patient in adversity, hardship and time of combat: those are the truthful, and those are the Allah-fearing."
Mu'adh ibn Jabal said: "On the Day of Resurrection a call shall sound: where are the Allah-fearing? They shall rise in the shadow of the All-Merciful, with no veil nor screen. It is said to them: who are the Allah-fearing? He said: a people who feared association and the worship of idols, and devoted worship sincerely to Allah."
Ibn 'Abbas said: "The Allah-fearing: those who dread Allah's punishment upon leaving what they know of guidance, and hope for His mercy in believing what He brought."
Al-Hasan said: "The Allah-fearing: those who avoided what Allah forbade them and performed what Allah enjoined upon them."
'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said: "Fear of Allah is not fasting the day nor standing the night while mixing other things between the two; fear of Allah is leaving what Allah forbade and performing what Allah enjoined; whoever is then granted good, it is good toward good."
Talq ibn Habib said: "Taqwa is acting in Allah's obedience, upon a light from Allah, hoping for Allah's reward; and leaving Allah's disobedience, upon a light from Allah, fearing Allah's chastisement."
Abu ad-Darda said: "The perfection of taqwa is that the servant fear Allah until he fears Him for the weight of an atom, and leave part of what he deems lawful, fearing it be unlawful, this being a veil between him and the unlawful; Allah set forth for the servants what they shall come to: 'Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it.' Despise then no good you may do, and no evil you may guard against."
The word taqwa predominates in usage for the avoidance of the forbidden; thus Abu Hurayra, asked about taqwa, said: "Have you taken a thorny road? The man said: yes. What did you do? He said: I saw the thorns, I swerved, went past or halted. That, said he, is taqwa." Ibn al-Mu'tazz took up this sense in verse: "Leave sins, small and great: that is piety. Act like one walking on thorny ground, dreading what he sees. Despise nothing small: mountains are made of pebbles."
The foundation of taqwa is that the servant know what is to be feared, then fear it. 'Awn ibn 'Abdallah said: "The perfection of taqwa is to seek knowledge of what you knew not of it beyond what you knew." Maruf al-Karkhi related from Bakr ibn Khunays: "How should one be Allah-fearing who knows not what is to be feared?" Then Maruf said: "If you know not how to guard yourself, you will eat usury; if you know not how to guard yourself, you will meet a woman without lowering your gaze; if you know not how to guard yourself, you will lay your sword upon your shoulder", and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Muhammad ibn Maslama: "If you see my community diverge, take your sword and strike the mountain with it." Then Maruf said: "And this assembly of ours, perhaps we should fear it; and your walking with me from the mosque to here, we should have feared it: does it not come in the hadith that it is a trial for the followed and a humiliation for the follower, meaning people's walking behind a man?"
In sum, taqwa is Allah's counsel to all His creation, and the Messenger of Allah's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counsel to his community.
When he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent an emir at the head of an expedition, he counselled him, for his own person, to fear Allah, and good toward the Muslims with him. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) preached on the day of sacrifice at the farewell pilgrimage, he counselled the people to fear Allah and to hear and obey their leaders. As he exhorted the people, they said: "This is the exhortation of one taking leave: counsel us. He said: I counsel you to fear Allah, and to hear and obey." In the long hadith of Abu Dharr extracted by Ibn Hibban and others: "I said: O Messenger of Allah, counsel me. He said: I counsel you to fear Allah: it is the head of every matter." Imam Ahmad extracted from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri's hadith: "I said: O Messenger of Allah, counsel me.
He said: I counsel you to fear Allah: it is the whole of everything; and hold to jihad: it is the monasticism of Islam." Another extracted it with: "Hold to the fear of Allah: it gathers all good." At-Tirmidhi relates from Yazid ibn Salama that he asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "O Messenger of Allah, I have heard from you many hadiths, and I fear the last may make me forget the first: teach me a word that sums them. He said: Fear Allah in what you know."
The virtuous early generation never ceased counselling it to one another. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) would say in his sermon: "Now then: I counsel you to fear Allah, and to praise Him as He deserves, and to mix desire with dread, and to join insistence with asking; Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, praised Zakariyya and his family: 'They vied in good works and called upon Us with desire and dread, and were humble before Us.'" At death's approach, entrusting 'Umar, he called him and counselled him; the first thing he said to him: "Fear Allah, O 'Umar." 'Umar wrote to his son 'Abdallah: "Now then: I counsel you to fear Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: whoever fears Him, He shields him; whoever lends Him, He repays him; whoever thanks Him, He increases His favours for him. Make taqwa the aim of your regard and the clarity of your heart."
'Ali ibn Abi Talib placed a man at the head of an expedition and said to him: "I counsel you to fear Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, whom you cannot avoid meeting, toward whom there is no term, and who possesses this world and the hereafter." 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz wrote to a man: "I counsel you to fear Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, without which nothing is accepted, none is loved but its people, and nothing is rewarded but by it: its preachers are many and its doers few; may Allah make of you and of us the Allah-fearing." Taking office, he preached, praised Allah, extolled Him and said: "I counsel you to fear Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: the fear of Allah is a substitute for everything, and nothing substitutes for it."
It is established of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he would say in his supplication: "O Allah, I ask You for guidance, piety, chastity and richness of soul." Abu Dharr relates: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited this verse: "And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out", then said: "O Abu Dharr, were all men to act upon it, it would suffice them."
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Fear Allah wherever you are" aim at the secret and the open: where people see you and where they see you not. We have cited Abu Dharr's hadith where the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) says to him: "I counsel you to fear Allah in the secret of your affair and in the open." He would say in his supplication: "I ask You for Your fear in the private and the public." The fear of Allah in the private and the public is among the causes of salvation. We have seen in Abu Tufayl's hadith, from Mu'adh: "Be modest before Allah as a man of standing of your family is before you." This is the efficient cause of the fear of Allah in secret: whoever knows that Allah sees him wherever he is, that He is informed of his inward and outward, his secret and his open, and remembers this in his solitudes, must leave the disobediences in secret. The Quran alludes to it: "And fear Allah at whose name you question one another, and the kinship ties: Allah is watchful over you."
One of the early generation would say to his companions: "May Allah make you and us leave the forbidden as leaves it whoever, having access to it in solitude, knows Allah sees him and leaves it out of fear of Him." Ash-Shafi'i said: "The rarest of things are three: generosity in straitened means, scrupulousness in solitude, and the word of truth before one from whom hope is held and fear is felt." Ibn as-Sammak the preacher wrote to a brother: "Now then: I counsel you to fear Allah, who is your confidant in your innermost and your watcher in your outward; let Allah be your concern in every state, your night and your day; fear Allah according to His nearness to you and His power over you; know that you are under His eye, that you go not out of His authority into another's, nor out of His kingdom into another's; let your vigilance toward Him be great and your dread immense."
Abu al-Djald related: Allah, the Most High, revealed to one of His prophets: "Say to my people: what ails you that you hide your sins from My creation and display them to Me? If you think I see you not, you associate with Me; and if you know I see you, why do you make Me the most despised of those who watch you?"
Wuhayb ibn al-Ward would say: "Fear Allah according to His power over you, and be modest before Him according to His nearness to you." A man said to him: exhort me. He said to him: "Fear that Allah be the most despised of those who watch you." One of the early generation said: "Do You think He would have mercy on him whose eye found rest in disobeying You only upon knowing no eye but Yours watched him?" Another said: son of Adam, if at the moment of committing the disobedience you were not beyond the reach of a watching eye, then, alone with Allah, it appeared pure to you and you had not toward Him the modesty you have toward some of His creation, you are one of two: if you thought He saw you not, you have disbelieved; and if you knew He saw you and that did not restrain you where the weakest of His creation would have, you have defied Him."
One of them entered a thicket of trees and said: "Were I alone here with a disobedience, who would see me?" A voice filled the thicket: "Does He not know whom He created, He the Subtle, the Informed?" Another made advances to a bedouin woman saying: "None sees us but the stars." She said: "And where is He who made them?" Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir saw a man standing with a woman speaking to her and said: "Allah sees you both; may Allah cover us, you and us." Al-Harith al-Muhasibi said: "Watchfulness is the heart's knowledge of the Lord's nearness." Junayd was asked: what helps lower the gaze? He said: "Your knowing that Allah's gaze upon you precedes your gaze upon what you look at." Imam Ahmad would recite: "If one day you are alone, say not: I am alone; say: an observer is upon me. Deem not that Allah forgets for an instant, nor that what is hidden from Him vanishes." And Ibn as-Sammak would recite: "O you who persist in sin, have you no shame, while Allah is your second in solitude? What deceived you is His patience toward you and His veiling of your defects."
Mu'adh applied what the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had counselled him. 'Umar had placed him over a post; he returned carrying nothing; his wife blamed him; he said: "I had with me a watcher", meaning one who narrowed me and kept me from taking anything. He meant his Lord, the Mighty and Majestic; his wife thought 'Umar had sent an inspector with him and rose to complain of him to the people. Whoever makes this state his constant or prevailing condition is among the well-doers who worship Allah as if they saw Him, and among those who avoid the great sins and abominations, save the minor lapses.
In sum, the fear of Allah in secret is the sign of faith's perfection, and it has an immense effect: Allah casts for its author good repute into the believers' hearts. In the hadith: "No servant keeps a secret intention but Allah clothes him with its mantle in the open: if good, good; if evil, evil." This hadith is related raised to the Prophet, and also as Ibn Mas'ud's own word.
Abu ad-Darda would say: "Let one of you fear being cursed by the believers' hearts while unaware: he isolates himself in Allah's disobediences, and Allah casts hatred of him into the believers' hearts." Sulayman at-Taymi said: "A man commits a sin in secret and rises in the morning with its humiliation upon him." Another said: "The servant commits a sin between him and Allah, then comes to his brothers: they see its trace upon him." And this is one of the greatest proofs of the existence of the true Allah who requites the atoms of deeds in this world before the hereafter: no worker's deed is lost with Him, and neither veil nor concealment protects from His power.
The fortunate one is he who mends what is between him and Allah: whoever mends what is between him and Allah, Allah mends what is between him and the creatures; and whoever seeks people's praise through Allah's displeasure, his praiser among the people will return his detractor. Abu Sulayman said: "The loser is he who shows people his deed's outward and defies by the foul the One nearer to him than the jugular vein."
Among the most astonishing is what is related from Abu Ja'far as-Sa'ih: Habib, Muhammad's father, was a merchant lending money at interest. Passing one day by children playing, one said to the other: "Here comes the eater of usury." He lowered his head and said: "O Lord, You have delivered my secret even to the children." He went back, gathered all his wealth and said: "O Lord, I am Your captive, and I have bought myself from You with this wealth: free me." In the morning he gave all the wealth in charity and devoted himself to worship. Passing later by those same children, when they saw him, one said to the other: "Be silent, here comes Habib the worshipper." He wept and said: "O Lord, at times You blame, at times You praise, and all of it is from You."
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Follow an evil deed with a good one, it will erase it": the servant being commanded to fear Allah in secret and open, while he must sometimes fall short of that fear, by leaving some obligations or committing some forbidden things, he is commanded to do what erases this fault: follow it with a good deed; Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and in the early watches of the night: good deeds drive away evil ones; that is a reminder for those who remember." In the two Sahihs, from Ibn Mas'ud: a man kissed a woman then came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and mentioned it to him; the Prophet kept silence until this verse came down; he called him and recited it to him; a man said: is this for him alone? He said: "No, for all people."
Allah described the Allah-fearing in His Book by the same content as the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counsel in this hadith: "And hasten toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Paradise wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the Allah-fearing, who spend in ease and hardship, restrain anger and pardon people; Allah loves the well-doers; and who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins, and who forgives sins but Allah?, and do not persist in what they did while knowing: those, their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein; and excellent is the wage of the workers." He describes the Allah-fearing by good treatment of the creatures: spending, restraint of anger and pardon, uniting liberality of giving with bearing of harm. This is the summit of good character the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counselled to Mu'adh. Then He describes them: when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, they remember Allah, seek forgiveness for their sins, and do not persist.
In the two Sahihs, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "A servant committed a sin and said: O Lord, I committed a sin, forgive me. Allah said: My servant knows he has a Lord who forgives the sin and seizes for the sin: I have forgiven My servant. Then he committed another sin... until He said the fourth time: let him do as he wills", meaning: as long as he is in this state, each time he sins he seeks forgiveness.
At-Tirmidhi relates, from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "None persists in sin who seeks forgiveness, even if he returns to it seventy times a day."
Al-Hakim extracted from 'Uqba ibn 'Amir's hadith: a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah, does one of us sin? He said: It is written against him. He said: Then he seeks forgiveness? He said: It is forgiven him and repentance accepted. He said: Then he returns and sins? He said: It is written against him. He said: Then he seeks forgiveness and repents? He said: It is forgiven him and repentance accepted, and Allah wearies not until you weary."
At-Tabarani extracted, through a weak chain, from 'A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her): Habib ibn al-Harith came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am a man prone to sins. He said: Repent to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. He said: I repent then return. He said: Each time you sin, repent. He said: O Messenger of Allah, then my sins will multiply. He said: Allah's pardon is greater than your sins, O Habib ibn al-Harith." It was extracted in this sense from Anas, raised, through a weak chain. And through his chain, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr: whoever remembers a sin he committed, his heart quakes at it and seeks Allah's forgiveness, it is counted for nothing until it be erased. Ibn Abi ad-Dunya related, through his chain, from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The best of you is every tempted one who repents.
It was said: if he returns? He said: He seeks Allah's forgiveness and repents. It was said: if he returns? He said: He seeks Allah's forgiveness and repents. It was said: until when? He said: Until Satan be the one driven to extremity." Ibn Majah extracted from Ibn Mas'ud's hadith, raised: "The penitent of sin is as one without sin." Al-Hasan was told: should not one of us be ashamed before his Lord: he seeks forgiveness of his sins then returns, then seeks forgiveness...
'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said in his sermon: "Whoever among you does good, let him praise Allah; and whoever does evil, let him seek Allah's forgiveness and repent: it is inevitable that some people perform deeds Allah has laid upon their necks and written against them." In another version from him: "O people: whoever is touched by a sin, let him seek Allah's forgiveness and repent; if he returns, let him seek Allah's forgiveness and repent; if he returns, let him seek Allah's forgiveness and repent: they are but faults chained to men's necks, and perdition, all perdition, is in knowing persistence in them."
The meaning is that the servant shall inevitably perform what was decreed for him of sins, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The son of Adam's share of fornication is written: he shall attain it without fail."
But Allah made for the servant a way out of what he fell into of sins, through repentance and the seeking of forgiveness: if he does it, he escapes the sin's evil; and if he persists in the sin, he perishes.
In the Musnad, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Have mercy, you shall be shown mercy; forgive, you shall be forgiven; woe to the funnels of speech; woe to those who persist in what they did, while knowing." The funnels of speech were explained as he whose ears are like a funnel for what he hears of wisdom and good counsel: what enters one ear goes out the other, and he benefits nothing from what he heard.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Follow an evil deed with a good one": the good deed may designate the repentance from that fault; this comes explicitly in a detached hadith Ibn Abi ad-Dunya extracted from Muhammad ibn Jubayr's mursal: when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent Mu'adh to Yemen he said: "O Mu'adh, fear Allah as much as you can, work for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, according to your strength, remember Allah at every tree and stone, and if you commit a sin, produce a repentance before Him: secret for secret, public for public." Abu Nu'aym extracted it in this sense through another weak channel from Mu'adh. Qatada said: Salmane said: if you commit an evil in secret, do a good deed in secret; and if you commit an evil in the open, do a good deed in the open, so that the one answer the other. This may mean by good deed the repentance, or something more general.
Allah announced in His Book, in many places, that whoever repents of his sin, it is forgiven him, or rewarded: such as His word: "Repentance with Allah is only for those who do evil in ignorance, then repent soon after: those, Allah turns toward them", and His word: "Then your Lord, toward those who did evil in ignorance then repented after and reformed: your Lord is, after that, forgiving, merciful", and His word: "Save whoever repents, believes and works righteousness: those are they whose evil deeds Allah changes into good ones", and His word: "And I am ever forgiving to whoever repents, believes, works righteously, then is guided", and His word: "Save whoever repents, believes and works righteousness: those enter Paradise and are not wronged", and His word: "And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins, and who forgives sins but Allah?" to the two verses' end.
Ibn Sirin said: "Allah gave us this verse in place of what He imposed upon the Children of Israel as expiations for their sins." Abu Ja'far ar-Razi relates from ar-Rabi' ibn Anas, from Abu al-'Aliya: a man said: "O Messenger of Allah, were our expiations only as the Children of Israel's? The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah preserve us from that, three times. What Allah gave you is better than what He gave the Children of Israel: when one of them committed a fault, he found it written upon his door with its expiation; if he expiated it, it was a shame for him in this world; if he expiated it not, it was a shame for him in this world and the hereafter. What Allah gave you is better: Allah said: 'And whoever does evil or wrongs himself, then seeks Allah's forgiveness, shall find Allah forgiving, merciful.' Ibn 'Abbas said of His word: "And He has placed no hardship upon you in religion": it is the breadth of Islam and what Allah granted Muhammad's community (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of repentance and expiation.
The apparent sense of these texts indicates that whoever repents to Allah with sincere repentance, gathering repentance's conditions, one affirms Allah accepts his repentance, as one affirms the acceptance of the disbeliever's islam when he converts with a valid conversion. This is the majority's view, and Ibn 'Abd al-Barr's words indicate it is a consensus. Others said: the acceptance of repentance is not affirmed but hoped for, its author remaining under Allah's will though repentant; they rely upon His word: "Allah forgives not that anything be associated with Him, and forgives what is beyond that to whom He wills", placing all sins under His will.
They also rely upon verses like: "O you who believe, repent to Allah with sincere repentance: it may be your Lord will blot out your evil deeds"; "As for whoever repents, believes and works righteousness, it may be that he is among the prosperous"; "And repent to Allah all together, O believers, that you may prosper"; "And others have acknowledged their sins, having mixed a righteous deed with another evil: it may be Allah will turn toward them in repentance." The apparent sense is that this concerns the penitent, for acknowledgment implies regret.
The correct view is the majority's. These verses do not indicate absence of affirmation: the Generous One, when He makes hope, does not disappoint the hope He Himself gave; hence Ibn 'Abbas said: Allah's "it may be" is an obligation, related from him by 'Ali ibn Abi Talha. The wage of faith and righteous work also came with "it may be" without indicating doubt, as His word: "None inhabits Allah's mosques save he who believes in Allah and the Last Day, establishes prayer, gives zakat and fears none but Allah: it may be those are among the guided." As for His word "and forgives what is beyond that to whom He wills": the penitent is among those He wills to forgive, as He announced in many places of His Book.
In the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words "follow an evil deed with a good one", the good deed may designate what is more general than repentance, as in His word: "And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and in the early watches of the night: good deeds drive away evil ones." It is related in Mu'adh's hadith that the man for whom this verse came down, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered him to perform ablutions and pray.
Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawoud, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah extracted, from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "There is no man who commits a sin, then rises, purifies himself, prays and seeks Allah's forgiveness, but Allah forgives him", then he recited this verse: "And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins." In the two Sahihs, from 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him): he performed ablutions then said: I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) perform ablutions like this one of mine, then say: "Whoever performs ablutions like this one, then prays two rak'as letting not his soul wander in them, is forgiven what preceded of his sins."
In Imam Ahmad's Musnad, from Abu ad-Darda: "I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: whoever performs ablutions and performs them well, then rises and prays two rak'as, or four, perfecting therein the bowing and the humility, then seeks Allah's forgiveness, the Mighty and Majestic, is forgiven." In the two Sahihs, from Anas: "I was with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when a man came and said: O Messenger of Allah, I have committed a sanctioned offence, apply it to me. He questioned him not about it. The prayer hour came and he prayed with the Prophet..." and the hadith continues: the Prophet said to him: "Did you not pray with us?", and announced forgiveness to him.
In the two Sahihs, from Abu Hurayra, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever fasts Ramadan in faith and seeking reward, is forgiven what preceded of his sins; and whoever stands Ramadan in faith and seeking reward, is forgiven what preceded of his sins; and whoever stands the Night of Decree in faith and seeking reward, is forgiven what preceded of his sins."
In the two of them, from Abu Hurayra, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever makes pilgrimage to this House, committing no obscenity nor wickedness, returns from his sins as on the day his mother bore him."
In Muslim's Sahih, from 'Amr ibn al-'As, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Islam demolishes what was before it, the hijra demolishes what was before it, and pilgrimage demolishes what was before it."
In the same Sahih, from Abu Qatada's hadith: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said of 'Ashura's fast: "I hope from Allah that it expiates the year before it", and of 'Arafa's fast: "I hope from Allah that it expiates the year before it and the year after."
Imam Ahmad extracted from 'Uqba ibn 'Amir's hadith, the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "The likeness of the one who commits evil deeds then does good deeds is a man wearing a tight coat of mail that strangles him; then he does a good deed: a ring comes loose; then another good deed: another ring, until he walks upon the earth free."
Among what erases faults: the remembrance of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. We have cited that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), asked whether the words "there is no deity except Allah" were among good deeds, said: "It is the best of good deeds." In the two Sahihs, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever says in a day a hundred times 'glory be to Allah and praise Him', his faults are remitted, were they like the sea's foam." And in the two: "Whoever says in a day a hundred times 'there is no deity except Allah, alone without partner, His is the kingdom and His is the praise, He gives life and death, and He is powerful over everything': it equals freeing ten slaves, a hundred good deeds are written for him, a hundred evils blotted out, and it is a protection from Satan for his day until evening; and none brings better than it save one who does more." In the Musnad and Ibn Majah's book, from Umm Hani': "There is no deity except Allah leaves no sin standing and no deed precedes it."
Al-Hasan was asked of a man who guards not against any disobedience save that his tongue ceases not from Allah's remembrance: he said: "That is a fine help." Imam Ahmad was asked of a man who earned wealth from a doubtful source: do his prayers and glorifications detract somewhat of it? He said: if he prays and glorifies intending that, I hope; Allah, the Most High, said: "They mixed a righteous deed and another evil: it may be Allah will turn toward them." Malik ibn Dinar said: "Weeping over the sin casts down sins as the wind casts down dry leaves." 'Ata said: whoever sits in a gathering of remembrance, atonement is made for ten gatherings of vanity.
Shawwas al-'Adawi, among the early successors, said: the angel of the right is chief, or trustee, over the angel of the left; when the son of Adam commits an evil and the angel of the left wishes to write it, the angel of the right says: halt, perhaps he will do a good deed; if he does a good deed, he casts one against one, and nine good deeds are written for him; Satan then says: woe to me, who can catch up with the son of Adam's multiplication? At-Tabarani extracted, through a debatable chain, from Abu Malik al-Ash'ari, the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "When the son of Adam sleeps, the angel says to Satan: give me your sheet; he gives it; whatever good deed he finds in his sheet, he blots ten evils from Satan's sheet and writes them as good deeds; so let whoever of you who wishes to sleep say thirty-three takbirs, thirty-four praises and thirty-three glorifications: that makes a hundred."
This hadith is singular and rejected. Waki' related, from al-A'mash, from Abu Ishaq, from Abu al-Ahwas: 'Abdallah, meaning Ibn Mas'ud, said: "I would that it be granted me to commit each day nine faults and one good deed." An allusion from him that by the good deed the nine faults are erased, and the double of the good deed's reward remains, which suffices him; and Allah knows best.
People diverged on two questions. The first: do righteous deeds expiate great and small sins, or only the small? Some said: only the small. This is related from 'Ata and others among the early generation, concerning ablutions, that they expiate small sins. Salmane al-Farisi said of ablutions: they atone for the lesser wounds, and walking to the mosque atones for more than that, and prayer atones for more than that; extracted by Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi.
As for the great sins, they require repentance, for Allah commanded the servants to repent and declared unjust whoever repents not. The community is unanimous that repentance is an obligation, and obligations are performed only with intention and purpose. Were the great sins to fall expiated by ablutions, prayer and performing the rest of Islam's pillars, repentance would not be needed: this is void by consensus. Moreover, were the obligations to expiate the great sins, none would have a sin for which to enter the Fire should he perform the obligations: this resembles the Murji'a's saying, and is void. This Ibn 'Abd al-Barr mentioned in his book at-Tamhid, relating the Muslims' consensus, supporting it with hadiths, among them the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "The five prayers, Friday to Friday, Ramadan to Ramadan, are atonements for what lies between them, so long as the great sins are avoided", extracted in the two Sahihs from Abu Hurayra's (may Allah be pleased with him) hadith.
This indicates the obligations do not expiate the great sins. Ibn 'Atiyya related in his tafsir, on this hadith's meaning, two views. The first, related from the majority of the people of the Sunnah: avoiding the great sins is a condition for these obligations' expiation of the small; without that avoidance, these obligations expiate nothing at all. The second: they expiate the small unconditionally and expiate not the great, on condition of repentance from the small and non-persistence therein; he preferred this view and related it from the experts. His words "on condition of repentance from the small" mean: if he persists therein, it becomes great and the deeds expiate it not. The first view he related is strange, though he related it from Abu Bakr 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ja'far, of our companions. In Muslim's Sahih, from 'Uthman, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "No Muslim man whom a prescribed prayer reaches, perfecting its ablution, its humility and its bowing, but it is an atonement for what preceded it of sins, so long as he commits no great sin, and that the whole time."
A group of hadith folk and others held these deeds expiate the great sins; among them Ibn Hazm adh-Dhahiri, whom Ibn 'Abd al-Barr intended in at-Tamhid by refuting him, saying: "I would have spared myself speech in this chapter but for that man's saying, and I feared an ignoramus be deceived by it and plunge into mortal sins, relying upon the prayers' expiating them, without regret, seeking of forgiveness or repentance. We ask Allah preservation and success."
I say: the like of this occurred in the words of a group of hadith folk, on ablutions and the like, and in Ibn al-Mundhir's words on standing the Night of Decree: he hoped for him who stands it the forgiveness of all his sins, great and small. If they mean that whoever performs Islam's obligations while persisting in the great sins, the great sins are forgiven him with certainty, this is void with certainty, whose voidness is known necessarily of the religion. We have cited the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "Whoever does evil in islam, he is seized for the first and the last", meaning for his deed in the age of ignorance and of islam, and this is clearer than to need exposition.
If this author means that whoever leaves persistence in the great sins and keeps the obligations without repentance or regret for what passed, all his sins are expiated, relying upon the apparent sense of His word: "If you avoid the great sins of what is forbidden you, We will blot out from you your evil deeds and admit you a generous admittance", saying the evil deeds include the great and the small, as the small are expiated by avoiding the great...
The correct view is the majority's: the great sins are not expiated without repentance, for repentance is an obligation upon the servants, and Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "Whoever repents not, those are the wrongdoers." The companions, as 'Umar, 'Ali and Ibn Mas'ud, explained repentance by regret; some explained it by the resolve not to return. This is related raised through a weak channel, but no companion dissenting is known, nor among the successors and those after them, as 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz and al-Hasan.
As for the many texts containing the forgiveness of sins and the expiation of evil deeds for the Allah-fearing, as His word: "If you fear Allah, He will make for you a distinction, blot out from you your evil deeds and forgive you", and His word: "Whoever believes in Allah and works righteousness, He blots out from him his evil deeds and admits him into gardens beneath which rivers flow", and His word: "Whoever fears Allah, He blots out from him his evil deeds and magnifies for him the reward": these verses detailed not taqwa's characteristics nor the righteous deed, of which sincere repentance is part; whoever repents not is a wrongdoer, not Allah-fearing.
In the Sura of Al 'Imran Allah detailed taqwa's characteristics whose people obtain forgiveness and entry into Paradise: He mentions therein the seeking of forgiveness and non-persistence; He guaranteed the expiation of evil deeds and forgiveness of sins only to whoever has these characteristics, and Allah knows best.
Among the proofs that the great sins are not expiated without repentance nor punishment: 'Ubada ibn as-Samit's hadith: "We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); he said: Swear allegiance to me that you associate nothing with Allah, steal not, fornicate not..., and he recited the verse to them. Whoever of you fulfils his pledge, his reward is upon Allah; whoever is touched by anything of that and punished for it, it is his atonement; and whoever is touched by anything of that and Allah covers it for him, it is to Allah: if He wills He chastises him, and if He wills He forgives him", extracted in the two Sahihs.
In a version of Muslim: "Whoever of you commits a sanctioned offence and its penalty is executed upon him, it is his atonement." This indicates the legal punishments are atonements. Ash-Shafi'i (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I have not heard in this chapter anything finer than that the penalty be an atonement for its committer, than 'Ubada ibn as-Samit's hadith.
His words "and punished for it" cover the legal punishments, fixed or otherwise, like the disciplines, and include the decreed punishments like trials, sicknesses and pains; it is authenticated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said: "No fatigue, illness, worry, sadness, not even a thorn that pricks the Muslim, but Allah expiates by it of his faults." And it is related from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that the penalty is an atonement for him upon whom it is executed.
Ibn Jarir at-Tabari related the people's divergence on this question and preferred: the execution of the penalty by itself is an atonement, and greatly weakened the contrary view. I say: it is related from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab and Safwan ibn Sulaym that the execution of the penalty is no atonement, repentance being indispensable with it; a group of later scholars preferred it, among them al-Baghawi and Abu 'Abdallah ibn Taymiyya in their two tafsirs, and it is Ibn Hazm adh-Dhahiri's view. The first is Mujahid, Zayd ibn Aslam, ath-Thawri and Ahmad's.
As for Abu Hurayra's raised hadith: "I know not whether the punishments are a purification for their people or not", al-Hakim and others extracted it; al-Bukhari impugned it, saying: it is not established, being of az-Zuhri's mursal, which are weak, and 'Abd ar-Razzaq erred in connecting it. He said: what is authenticated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is that the punishments are atonements.
Among the proofs of those saying the penalty is no atonement, His word concerning those who wage war: "That is theirs as disgrace in this world, and in the hereafter theirs is a great chastisement, save those who repented before you gained power over them": its apparent sense is that the two punishments, this world's and the hereafter's, combine upon them.
It is answered: He mentioned their punishment in this world and their punishment in the hereafter, without their combination being necessary. As for the exception of those who repented, it concerns only the punishment of this world: the hereafter's punishment falls by repentance before capture, and after it as well. His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "And whoever is touched by anything of that and Allah covers it for him: it is to Allah, if He wills He chastises him, if He wills He forgives him" are explicit: these great sins, whoever meets Allah with them remains under His will. This indicates performing the obligations expiates them not nor blots them: the generality of Muslims keep the obligations, especially those to whom the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) administered the oath. Excluded is he who meets Allah having repented of them, per the texts of Book and Sunnah: whoever repents to Allah, Allah turns toward him and forgives him; what remains unrepented falls under the divine will.
It is also a proof that the deeds expiate not the great sins: Allah set no obligatory expiation in this world for the great, but set expiation for the small, as the expiation of intercourse during the fast, or of intercourse with the menstruating woman, per Ibn 'Abbas's hadith followed by Imam Ahmad and others; and the expiation of whoever neglects a duty of pilgrimage or commits one of its prohibitions, which is of four kinds: offering, emancipation, charity and fasting. Hence expiation is not due for deliberate killing according to the majority of scholars, nor for the false oath according to most of them; the killer is only commanded to emancipate a slave as recommended, as in Wathila ibn al-Asqa's hadith: they came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) concerning a companion of theirs who "had made obligatory"; he said: "Emancipate a slave for him: Allah will emancipate him from the Fire thereby." "Made obligatory" means: performed a deed making the Fire obligatory for him; it is said he had killed someone. In Muslim's Sahih, Ibn 'Umar, having struck a slave, emancipated him and said: I have no reward like this, and he took a stick from the ground: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: whoever strikes his slave or curses him, his atonement is emancipating him.
If it be said: expiation is commanded for him who had intercourse in Ramadan, and breaking Ramadan's fast is a great sin? It is answered: the expiation is not for the breaking of the fast; hence most scholars impose it not upon whoever breaks Ramadan's fast deliberately; it is for violating the day of Ramadan's sanctity through intercourse; hence, if he broke the fast by a forbidden break then had intercourse, the expiation is due from him according to Imam Ahmad, for the reason we stated.
Among what indicates that expiation through the obligations is specific to the small: what al-Bukhari extracted from Hudhayfa: "We were sitting with 'Umar; he said: which of you retains the Messenger of Allah's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words on the trial? I said: the trial of a man in his family, wealth, children and neighbour: prayer, charity, enjoining good and forbidding evil expiate it. He said: not of this do I ask you...", and Muslim extracted it in the same sense. This version's apparent course requires its being raised. In a version of al-Bukhari, Hudhayfa said: I heard him say: the trial of a man..., and he mentioned it: this is almost explicit for the raising. In a version of Muslim this is 'Umar's own word.
As for the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words to him who said: I have committed a sanctioned offence, apply it to me, and he left him until he prayed then said: "Allah has forgiven you your offence", they are not explicit that the thing meant was a great sin, for Allah's limits are His prohibitions, as Allah said: "Those are Allah's limits; whoever oversteps Allah's limits, those are the wrongdoers."
It is related what is relied upon to say the great sins are expiated by certain righteous deeds. Imam Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi extracted from Ibn 'Umar's (may Allah be pleased with them) hadith: a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I have committed a tremendous sin: is there repentance for me? He said: Have you a mother? He said: no. He said: Have you a maternal aunt? He said: yes. He said: Then be dutiful to her." Ibn Hibban extracted it in his Sahih and al-Hakim, saying: according to the two shaykhs' condition; but at-Tirmidhi extracted it through another channel, detached, saying the detached is sounder than the connected; 'Ali ibn al-Madini and ad-Daraqutni said likewise. It is related from 'Umar that a man told him: I have killed a person. He said: Is your mother alive? No. Your father? Yes. He said: Be dutiful to him and do him good, then he said: were his mother alive and he dutiful and kind to her, I would hope the Fire would never taste him. Ibn 'Abbas said the like. Likewise the woman who practised sorcery in Dawmat al-Jandal and came to Medina to ask about her repentance: she found the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) deceased...
All these carry no proof of expiating the great sins by the deed alone: everyone mentioned in them was regretful and penitent of his sin; his question concerned a righteous deed to draw near to Allah by after repentance, that he might blot out the sins' trace entirely, for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, conditioned in the acceptance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins thereby the righteous deed, as His word: "Save whoever repents, believes and works righteousness", and: "And I am ever forgiving to whoever repents, believes, works righteously, then is guided", and: "As for whoever repents, believes and works righteousness, it may be that he is among the prosperous."
In this is support for him who says the penitent remains, after repentance, under the will; such was the state of many of the fearing among the early generation. One of them said to a man: have you committed a sin? Yes. Do you know Allah wrote it upon you? Yes. "Then work until you know Allah has blotted it." Of it is Ibn Mas'ud's word: "The believer sees his sins as though he were at the base of a mountain fearing it fall upon him, and the profligate sees his sins like a fly that lit upon his nose and he waved it away", extracted by al-Bukhari. They suspected their deeds and their repentances and feared they be not accepted, which produced in them intense fear and abundant striving in righteous deeds.
Al-Hasan said: "I knew people of whom one, were he to spend the earth's fill, would not feel secure, for the greatness of sin in his soul." Ibn 'Awn said: "Trust not the abundance of work, for you know not if it be accepted of you; and be not secure from your sins, for you know not if they be atoned from you: your work is hidden from you entirely." The most apparent, and Allah knows best, in this question, of the expiation of great sins by deeds: if it be meant that the great sins are blotted by merely coming to the obligations, the great sins falling expiated like the small are expiated by avoiding the great, this is void. If it be meant that on the Day of Resurrection a settlement may be made between the great sins and certain deeds, the great sin blotted by its counterpart of deed and the deed falling with no reward remaining, this may occur.
We have seen Ibn 'Umar, emancipating the slave he had struck, said: I have no reward in it, it being an atonement for his sin; and his sin was not of the great: what then of deeds expiating the great? We also cited the saying of some of the early generation: the evil deed is blotted, and its like of good deeds of the deed's reward falls; if this is so for the small, what of the great? Certain great sins may void deeds contrary to them, as reminder and harm void charity, and the usury contract voids jihad, as 'A'isha said. Hudhayfa said: slandering the chaste woman demolishes a year's work; this is related raised, extracted by al-Bazzar. Just as leaving the afternoon prayer voids work, it is not strange that it void the reward of a deed expiating the great sins.
Al-Bazzar in his Musnad and al-Hakim extracted from Ibn 'Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The servant's good deeds and evil deeds are brought on the Day of Resurrection and settled, part against part; if a good deed remains, Paradise is widened for him thereby." Ibn Abi Hatim extracted from Ibn Lahy'a's hadith: 'Ata ibn Dinar told me from Sa'id ibn Jubayr on Allah's word, the Mighty and Majestic: "Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it": the Muslims thought they would not be rewarded for the slight thing given; the poor man came and they disdained to give him a date, a crumb, a nut and the like, turning him away saying: this is nothing; we are rewarded only for what we give loving it. Others thought they would not be blamed for the slight sin, like a lie, a glance, backbiting and the like, saying: Allah promised the Fire only for the great.
Allah made the little of good beloved to them that they do it, for it is near to multiplying, and warned them of the little of evil, for it is near to multiplying, and it came down: "Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it", of the weight of the smallest ant, in his book, and it gladdens him. It is written for every pious and every profligate: an evil for an evil, and ten goods for a good; on the Day of Resurrection Allah multiplies the believer's goods further, ten for one, and blots by each good ten evils; whose good deeds outweigh his evil ones by an atom's weight enters Paradise.
The apparent sense is that settlement occurs between good and evil deeds, then the good deeds answering to the evil fall, and one looks at what remains after settlement. This agrees with the saying of those who say: whose good deeds outweigh his evil by one good deed is rewarded for that good alone, the rest of his good deeds falling against his evil ones, contrary to those who say he is rewarded for all and his evil deeds fall as though they never were; this concerns the great sins. As for the small, they are expiated by righteous deeds while their reward remains, as his words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Shall I not tell you what blots sins and raises degrees: perfecting ablution despite hardship, walking much to mosques, awaiting prayer after prayer", establishing for these deeds both the blotting of faults and the raising of degrees. Likewise his words: "Whoever says 'there is no deity except Allah, alone without partner...'" to the end: good deeds are written for him and evils blotted.
Likewise the evil deeds of him who repents with sincere repentance are blotted and his good deeds remain, as Allah said: "Until, when he reaches his strength and forty years, he says: O my Lord, dispose me to be thankful for Your favour... I repent to You, and I am of those submitting: those are they of whom We accept the best of what they did and pass over their evil deeds, among the companions of Paradise, the promise of truth they were promised", and: "And he who brings the truth and confirms it: those are the Allah-fearing; theirs is whatever they wish with their Lord; that is the reward of the well-doers, that Allah may blot out from them the worst of what they did and recompense them their wage for the best of what they did." Describing them by taqwa and well-doing, He indicates they persist not in sins but repent of them. His words "that Allah may blot out from them the worst of what they did" include the great sins, for they are the worst of deeds.
Allah said: "Whoever fears Allah, He blots out from him his evil deeds and magnifies for him the reward", attaching to taqwa, comprising the fulfilling of obligations and leaving the forbidden, the blotting of evil deeds and the magnifying of reward. Allah reported of the believers pondering the creation of the heavens and the earth their words: "Our Lord, we heard a caller calling to faith: believe in your Lord, and we believed; our Lord, forgive us our sins, blot out from us our evil deeds and take us with the virtuous", and He announced He answered them: He blotted out from them their evil deeds and entered them into gardens. His words "forgive us our sins and blot out from us our evil deeds" distinguish sins for forgiveness and evil deeds for expiation: it may be said the evil deeds are the small and the sins the great; the small are expiated, for Allah set for them in this world expiations, legal and decreed, while the sins require a forgiveness shielding their author from their evil.
Forgiveness and expiation are near: forgiveness was said to mean veiling the sin, or shielding its evil together with the veil; hence what veils the head and shields it in war is called maghfar, though not every head-veil is a maghfar. Allah reported of the angels that they supplicate for the repentant believers forgiveness, protection from evil deeds and expiation of this kind, for the root of the root is also veiling and covering.
Some later scholars distinguished: expiation is the erasure of the sin's trace as though it never was, while forgiveness comprises, beyond that, Allah's favour and honour toward the servant; this is debatable. It was also explained: forgiveness of sins through righteous deeds turns them into good deeds, their expiation through expiations merely blots them; this too is debatable, for it is authenticated that sins punished by entry into the Fire are changed into good deeds: the sin expiated by a righteous deed deserves the change even more.
Two other senses are possible. The first: forgiveness occurs only with absence of punishment and reckoning, for it is the total shielding from the sin's evil, while expiation may occur after punishment: all this world's trials expiate faults while being punishments; likewise pardon occurs with and without punishment, like mercy. The second: the expiations, among the deeds, are what Allah set to blot the sins expiated by them, and that is their reward, with none other; they consist mostly in contravening the soul's desire and bearing hardship therein, like avoiding the great sins, which Allah made the expiation of the small. As for the deeds by which sins are forgiven, they are all besides, wherein forgiveness and reward combine, like the remembrance by which good deeds are written and evils blotted. Upon this basis one distinguishes between the expiation-deeds and the others; as for the expiation of sins and their forgiveness...
The meaning is that the outweighing by an atom's weight of good deeds comes of Allah's favour, the Mighty and Majestic, multiplying the believer's goods and placing His blessing in them; such is the state of him who has good and evil deeds and whom Allah wills to mercy: He causes to prevail of his good what enters him into Paradise, and all this is of Allah's favour and mercy. Abu Nu'aym extracted, through a weak chain, from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), raised: "Allah revealed to a prophet of the Children of Israel: say to the people of my obedience in your community: let them not count upon their deeds, for I reckon with no servant on the Day of Resurrection but, were I to will his chastisement, I would chastise him; and say to the people of my disobedience: let them not despair, for I forgive the immense sin without regard." Its attestation is the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words in the authentic hadith: "Whoever is questioned closely at the reckoning is punished", and in a version: "is destroyed."
I say: it may be said the expiation is not affirmed, for the hadiths of expiation through deeds unqualified came conditioned by the deed's perfection, as transmitted of ablutions and prayer; in that case the presence of the perfected deed entailings expiation is not realised. Upon this divergence reported from Ibn 'Atiyya is built the divergence on the obligation of repenting from the small sins.
Ibn Jarir extracted from al-Hasan's narration: a people came to 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: we see things of Allah's Book not acted upon. He said to one of them: have you recited the whole Quran? Yes. He said: have you retained it within yourself? No, by Allah. He said: retained it in your sight? in your speech? in your practice? He went through them to the last, then said: the mother of 'Umar be bereft of him: do you impose upon him to establish over the people Allah's Book? Our Lord knew we would have evil deeds. And he recited: "If you avoid the great sins of what is forbidden you, We will blot out from you your evil deeds and admit you a generous admittance." Through his chain, from Anas ibn Malik: I saw nothing like what has reached us from our Lord: we went not forth from every family and wealth He possessed... then he was silent a while and said: by Allah, our Lord charged us with lighter than that, "If you avoid the great sins..." to the verse's end.
On the explanation of the lamm the early generation have two views. The first: they are the preliminaries of indecencies, like touching and kissing; Ibn 'Abbas said: it is what is below the two limits, the hereafter's punishment by the Fire and this world's penalty. The second: it is the falling into something of indecencies and great sins once, then repenting of it; related from Ibn 'Abbas and Abu Hurayra. It is related from him, raised with doubt as to the raising: "The lamm is of fornication then repenting and returning not, the lamm is of wine then repenting and returning not, the lamm is of theft then repenting and returning not." Whoever explains the verse by this said: repentance thereof is indispensable, unlike him who explains it by the preliminaries, who conditions not repentance.
The apparent sense is that both views are sound and both intended by the verse. In that case the well-doer is he who commits no great sin save rarely, then repents of it, and whose minor sin, if he commits one, is drowned in his expiating good deeds, on condition he persist not therein, as Allah said: "And do not persist in what they did, while knowing." It is related from Ibn 'Abbas: "No minor sin with persistence, and no great sin with the seeking of forgiveness"; this is related raised through weak channels. When the small become great through persistence, the well-doers must avoid persisting in the small, to be among those avoiding the great sins and indecencies; Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "What is with Allah is better and more abiding for those who believe and rely upon their Lord, who avoid the great sins and indecencies..." to the verse's end.
As for His word: "And who, when injustice befalls them, vindicate themselves", it does not oppose pardon: vindication is manifesting the capacity to avenge, then pardon follows, and it is then more complete and perfect. An-Nakha'i said of this verse: they disliked being humbled; when they had power, they pardoned. Mujahid said: they disliked the believer abasing himself, which would embolden the profligate against him. The believer, when wronged, manifests his capacity to avenge, then pardons; many such cases occurred among the early generation, from Qatada and others: the wronged one has three choices: requital like for like, then fear of Allah calls him to pardon, and whoever pardons and reconciles, his reward is with Allah.
All these carry no proof of expiating the great sins by the deed alone: each person mentioned therein was regretful and penitent of his sin, and his question was of a righteous deed to draw near to Allah after repentance, that he might erase the sins' trace entirely, for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, conditioned the acceptance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins therein upon the righteous deed, as His word: "Save whoever repents, believes and works righteousness", and: "And I am ever forgiving to whoever repents, believes, works righteously, then is guided", and: "As for whoever repents, believes and works righteousness, it may be that he is among the prosperous."
As for the verses in the Sura of Al 'Imran, Allah described therein the Allah-fearing by beneficence toward the creatures, by the seeking of forgiveness from indecencies and self-wrong, and by non-persistence therein. This is the most complete: producing repentance and the seeking of forgiveness after every sin, small or great, as it is related the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counselled Mu'adh, which we have cited above.
If we lengthened speech herein, it is that the creatures' need of it is pressing: everyone must know this, then act by it; and Allah grants success and aid.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Follow an evil deed with a good one, it will erase it": the apparent sense is that evil deeds are blotted by good ones. We have cited above the transmissions showing the evil deed is blotted from the angels' sheets by the good deed done after it.
'Atiyya al-'Awfi said: it reached me that whoever weeps over his sin, it is blotted from him and a good deed written for him. 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr said: "Whoever remembers a sin he committed, whose heart quakes at it and seeks Allah's forgiveness, the All-Merciful blots it not but erases it from him." Bishr ibn al-Harith said: it reached me from al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyadh: the day's weeping blots the sins of the open, and the night's weeping blots the sins of the secret. We have cited the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "Shall I not tell you what blots faults and raises degrees?" the hadith.
A group said: the sins are not blotted from the registers of deeds, by repentance or otherwise; rather its author must be stopped upon them and read them on the Day of Resurrection. They rely upon His word: "And the Book is laid down, and you see the criminals fearful of what is in it, and they say: woe to us, what ails this Book, it omits no small or great thing but counted it?"
This reliance upon this verse is debatable: it describes therein only the state of the criminals, people of crimes and immense sins, wherein the believers repentant of their sins enter not, nor those whose sins are drowned in their good deeds. More manifest is the reliance upon His word: "Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it." One of the exegetes mentioned this view is the correct one among the verifiers. It is related from al-Hasan al-Basri and Bilal ibn Sa'd ad-Dimashqi. Al-Hasan said, of the servant who sins then repents and seeks forgiveness: he is forgiven, but it is not blotted from his book but that he be stopped upon it, then questioned of it. Then al-Hasan wept abundantly and said: did we weep only out of shyness before that station, we ought to weep. Bilal ibn Sa'd said: "Allah forgives the sins..." and his words continue: the believer is presented on the Day of Resurrection, held over his sins, then commanded to enter Paradise by whichever gate he wills.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "And behave well with people": this belongs to taqwa's characteristics, and taqwa is not realised without it; he singled it out by mention for the need of explaining it: many people think taqwa is fulfilling Allah's right without His servants' rights; he therefore prescribed expressly good treatment of people, for he was sending him to Yemen as teacher, jurist and judge; such a one needs to treat people with good character more than him whom the people need not and who keeps not their company. It often happens to him who is careful of Allah's rights, absorbed in His love, fear and obedience, that he neglects the servants' rights entirely or falls short in them. Joining the standing by Allah's rights and His servants' rights is very rare, attained only by the perfected among prophets and veracious.
Al-Harith al-Muhasibi said: "Three things are rare or wanting: a goodly countenance with modesty, a good character with religion, and a good brotherhood with faithfulness." One of the early generation related: Dawoud (upon him be peace) sat alone; Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said to him: "Wherefore do I see you alone? He said: I have left the people for Your sake, O Lord of the worlds. He said: O Dawoud, shall I not tell you what preserves the people's faces for you and wherein you attain My pleasure? Treat the people according to their characters, and keep the faith between Me and you."
Allah counted in His Book good treatment of people among taqwa's characteristics, and placed it first: "Prepared for the Allah-fearing, who spend in ease and hardship, restrain anger and pardon people; Allah loves the well-doers." Ibn Abi ad-Dunya related, through his chain, from Sa'id al-Maqburi: "It reached us that a man came to 'Issa ibn Maryam (upon him be peace) and said: O teacher of good, how shall I be Allah-fearing toward Allah as He deserves? He said: By an easy thing: love Allah with all your heart, work with your effort and strength as much as you can, and have mercy for the son of your kind as you have for yourself. He said: who is the son of my kind, O teacher of good? He said: every son of Adam. And do to none what you love not be done to you, and fear Allah as He deserves."
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) made good character the most complete of faith's characteristics: Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawoud extracted, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "The most complete of the believers in faith is the best of them in character." Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi extracted it with the addition: "A man may be a believer while having in his character something that diminishes his faith." Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawoud, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah extracted from Usama ibn Sharik: "They said: O Messenger of Allah, what is the best thing given to the Muslim? He said: Good character."
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) announced that the man of good character attains by his character the degree of the faster and the stander in prayer, lest the aspirant to taqwa turn from good character to fasting and prayer, thinking that dispenses him of their merit. Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawoud extracted, from 'A'isha, the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "The believer attains by his good character the degree of the faster and the stander." He announced that good character weighs heaviest in the scale, and that its author is the most beloved of people to Allah and nearest of them to the prophets in assembly: Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawoud and at-Tirmidhi extracted, from Abu ad-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "Nothing weighs heavier in the scale than good character, and the man of good character attains by it the degree of the faster and the stander in prayer." Ibn Hibban extracted in his Sahih from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr... and the hadith continues upon the merits of good character and the reward of its holder.