Stages of haraam.
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
(May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
Dear
Brother,
As Salam O Alaikum,
I hope you are doing fine and may Allah reward you for investing so much time
and effort in helping others under the guidance of Allah.
i need
to ask you few questions on Haram and halal, these question are based on the
group discussion i had with my friends and we could reach to definite
conclusion.
….lot
of people say that there are degrees of punishment on various haram things? for
example: few say that alcohol is haram and it is severe haram in nature,
whereas cigaratte is also haram but it is less severe or lesser degree of
Haram?
or in otherwords are there different stages haram or its just Haram?
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
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Answer:
Stages of haraam
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His
help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide,
and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear
witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His
Messengers.
Your
Question: ….lot of people say that there are degrees of punishment on various
haram things?
In light of the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah, it
is only obvious that just as there are various degrees of virtue, there are
various degrees of sins.
Offering a prayer at all times is indeed a virtue, but to
offer the same prayer in the Holy Mosque of Makkah, or in the month of Ramadan,
or in the Night of Qadr earns more and multiple rewards.
The smoking of tobacco is indeed an evil and a sin in the
Sight of the Lord, but because the prohibition and the prescribed punishment
for consuming intoxicants is mentioned by name in the Quran and the Sunnah, the
consumption of intoxicants like alcohol would indeed be a graver sin than the
smoking of tobacco in the Sight of Allah Subhanah.
Your
Question: …..or in otherwords are there different stages haram or its just
Haram?
In light of the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah, it
is only obvious that there are various stages of the ‘haraam’ or the unlawful……and
the barometer to determine the major from the minor is the level of its
prohibition and its prescribed punishments in the Book and the Sunnah. The more severe the text or the bigger its
prescribed punishment, the bigger would be its sin.
For example the absolute biggest crime or ‘haraam’ in
Islam is ‘shirk’ or to associate other gods with the One and Only Supreme
Lord….for this one crime is singled out by the Lord Most Mighty as absolutely
unforgivable in the Hereafter and guaranteed the abode of Hell Fire!
Allah says in the Quran: Chapter 4 Surah An-Nisa
Verse 48
Shirk (associating other deities with Allah) is
the only sin that Allah does not forgive, and He forgives, whomsoever He
pleases, sins other than this, for whosoever associates any other partner with
Allah, does indeed forge a big lie and commits the most heinous sin.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah
Maidah verse 72:
Whoever commits ‘shirk’ (invoking anything with
Allah), Allah shall forbid for him
Thus in conclusion it would be safe to determine that
virtues and sins in Islam are not based on a horizontal plane where every
virtue and every sin is the same….but they are graded on a vertical plane where
each virtue has a different grade and rank and reward, and each evil has its
own grade and rank and punishment. And
Allah Alone Knows Best.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only
due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me
alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is
the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
Wister