By Ishola Balogun

•Rabi-ul-Awwal
A SIN is an act in contrast to the will of Allah. A sin is committed when someone causes harm to to others or to any other creature of God. There are laid down rules and legislation and going against these ordinances of God is considered as a sinful act.

It can be a delibrate act as a result of the desire to satisfy self interest.  A ‘sin’ is something which one knows is evil and against the guidance of their Lord, but because of temptation or lack of control of one’s desires, one commits the act and thus falls into sin.

An error on the other hand is something which one determines to be correct and acceptable, but it is incorrect or unacceptable.  One carries it out because one is unaware of the full situation, condition or repercussion of the act.  Both of course has its consequences. While sin carries its own punishement as laid down by God, whatever we do wrongly has its own immediate or long time effect too. Let me illustrate this point between sin and error with the story of Prophets Adam and Yunus.

Adam (a.s.) approached the forbidden tree and ate from it in the Garden. Inspite of the fact that he had been forewarned, Adam sucummbed to Shaytan’s intrigues to eat from it. He disobeyed God  with the aid of Shaytan.  That was a sin.

Again, we can also allude to the error committed by Yunus (Jonah a.s) in the Quran. Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh, a large city in the Assyrian empire.  The city which was steeped in wickedness was 45 miles in circuit, with a population of over a hundred and twenty thousand people.

He was rejected and he denounced Allah’s wrath on them.  But they repented and obtained Allah’s forgiveness.  Jonah was discouraged by the apparent failure of his mission and ran away from the city. He was hasty and went off to take a ship as if he could escape from Allah’s plan. According to the Quran, “…he had done acts worthy of blame.”  The ship was fully laden and met with bad whether.

Unfortunately for Jonah, the sailor and other people in the ship immersed in superstition wanted to know who brought bad omen to them and Jonah was considered to have brought the bad omen of a stormy wheather to them and so, they threw him out.

It was a river that contained huge and extraordinary fishes.  Jonah fell into the stomach of one of them. But right there, he repented saying ‘there is no God except You. Glory be unto You,I was indeed wrong’.  By that singular action of repentance, Allah, the Most Gracious forgave him and he was cast out ashore.

He was refreshed and strengthened. Human beings are weak and thus have the capacity to sin just as they have the capacity to plan. When someone plans, he also needs to be able to suppress his natural desires for his plan.  Both, sometimes might be at crossroads giving way for sin. This is quite different from animals that live from moment to moment obeying their perceptions of the present and their instinctive drives.

Human beings are able to look to the future – conceptualise it and form an intention to act. This conscious intention can override even the most powerful of our instincts. Through it we have capacity to cause ourselves harm in the short term in order to realise the greater good of our plan in the long term. As an inevitable part of this, we gain the potential to sin.

Sins are of three types: i. against Allah; ii. against brotherhood; iii. against humanity.
Allah Most High Has pointed out several injunctions on sin in the Quran as a warning.

He says: Those who avoid the greatest of sins and indecencies, and forgive when they are angry (al-Shra 42:37) Those who avoid the greatest sins and indecencies, except for oversights, (will find that) surely your Lord is ample in forgiveness.

(Al-Najm 53:32) The companions once asked the Prophet: “which is the greatest sin?”  The Prophet (s.a.w.) answered, “To associate partners with Allah (known as shirk)”  Then he was asked, “Which is the biggest sin after that?”  And he (s.a.s.) said, said: “associating anything with Allah; magic; killing without a just case; taking what belongs to an orphan; devouring usury; turning back when the army advances or what is known today as apostasy; and backbiting and slandering.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

There are three things a believer can do to keep away from sin and insulate himself as much as possible.  Although we know that as human beings, we cannot claim to be perfect or claim to be sinless no matter our endeavour before Allah.

However, these three things are: one, to keep the Commandments of Allah at all times; to abstain from the haraam (forbidden); and to be pleased with the decree of Providence and be contempted with it.
This was in response to a question on the difference between sin and error sent in by a reader recently.

Rabi-ul-Awwal

The Islamic month of Rabi ul Awwal has begun. Prophet Muhammad, (s.a.w), was born on the twelfth day of this month, and a number of Muslims around the world often celebrate with songs, poetry, special events, and various other tributes. But the greatest tribute to God’s Last Messenger is his legacy found in his followers in every time and place when they are inspired by his “beautiful example” (Quran 33:21).

How are you inspired by the Prophet? It’s a question we should all ask of ourselves, as well as whether or not we are truly reflecting his example. This is a food for thought not only for us as individuals but as leaders in our various areas and those who struggle to choose their role models.

Let us be inspired by Muhammad (s.a.w). May Allah guide us to emulate the last Prophet, a mercy to the world (Quran 21:107).