📘 ❞ The Ill Effects of Sins ❝ كتاب ــ محمد صالح المنجد

عن كتاب The Ill Effects of Sins:
II did Hajj for myself, and a few months after Hajj I still had not seen any sign that my Hajj was accepted in the sense that I turned to worship more. On the contrary, I committed a lot of sins. Last year I resolved to do Hajj on behalf of my mother who has passed away. I asked one of the shaykhs (scholars) and he said that I should do Hajj on her behalf as I had intended, and I should pray a lot for forgiveness and beseech Allaah. So I did Hajj on behalf of my mother, traveling with one of the groups. During Tawaaf al-Wadaa' (farewell cicumumbulation), the overcrowding was very severe, so we did one circuit (of Tawaaf) and part of another circuit, then we went up to the roof, because of the severe overcrowding. Because of the overcrowding we were not quite sure of the exact spot where we had stopped on the lower level, but we did our best to make sure that we started our Tawaaf on the roof from the place where we had stopped on the lower level, and we continued with our Tawaaf until it was completed.
After my last Hajj, if I committed any sin – and I did many of them – I felt some tightness and constriction in my chest, and if I did any act of worship or obedience I felt happy and full of sincere feelings towards Islam and its people at this time… I am worried about the two pilgrimages and about the Tawaaf. Please advise me, may Allaah reward you.

Answer

Praise be to Allaah.

Firstly: we advise you to keep away from all sin, minor and major, and to beware of it and avoid it, for sin is bad news for the one who does it. We will quote here some of the effects of sin, as described by Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him):

1 – Being deprived of knowledge for knowledge is light that Allaah causes to reach the heart, and sin extinguishes that light. When al-Shaafa'i sat before Maalik and read to him, he admired him because of the intelligence, alertness and understanding that he saw in him. He said, “I think that Allaah has caused light to enter your heart, so do not extinguish it with the darkness of sin.”

This short booklet is a translation of a khutba sermon delivered by
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih on the 12th of Muharram in the year 1411AH. Which has been published in Arabic under the title: Athar ulMa’aasee ‘ Alal Fardi Wal Mujtama.’