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:

I have 2 question which I want to ask you

1)Fantasizing about a crime or sin is a sin?

2)Whatabout the crimes or sins committed in dreams?

Both the above involves Robbery, Murder, Rape etc.Your guidance will be really helpful as I suffer from both despite my best effort to avoid them and later I feel very bad about it.

rgds/

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Fantasizing about sins

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 no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Q-1) Fantasizing about a crime or sin is a sin?

All evil thoughts are the works of Shaitaan. His standard approach is that he whispers evil thoughts into the people’s hearts, and tries to justify these deeds and make them fair-seeming. Fantasizing or obtaining pleasure from evil desires is indeed a wrongful act, and one, who sincerely believes in Allah and the Last Day, must abstain from it. Whenever an evil desire so much as enters the believers heart, he must immediately turn to Allah and seek refuge in Him by reciting, “Aoodo Billahe minas Shaitaan ir Rajeem” (I seek refuge in Allah from Shaitaan, the cursed.)

Q-2) What about the crimes or sins committed in dreams?

A sin is only a sin if one does it in his full senses. A person has no control over his dreams, and the law of Allah Subhanah is that he will not hold man responsible for deeds which are not in his control.

The Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws) was that he would seek the refuge and protection of Allah Subhanah, and recite the 113^th and 114^th Surahs of the Glorious Quran (Surah Falak and Surah Naas) whenever he went to sleep; and he (saws) exhorted the believers to do the same.

As a thumb rule, the basic law of sin and virtue in the sight of our Merciful Lord is as follows:

1. If a believer intends to do a good deed, Allah records a good deed in his Book of Records.
2. If a believer actually does the good deed, Allah bestows upon him ten times the reward of the deed (minimum).
3. If a person intends to do an evil deed, Allah does not record the evil deed in his Book of Records.
4. But if the person actually does the evil deed, Allah records one evil deed in the Book of Records.

Such is the Mercy and Grace of our Magnanimous and Generous Lord!

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan