The 4 levels of the Attitude towards Sin

This is by far one of the most influential pieces of information for all of us. It’s a practical, always relevant issue in our daily lives and it pertains to our weakness, namely that of succumbing to temptation and sins.

The First Level:
You commit a sin and you feel remorseful, regret and you lament it. You dye your hair, flirt lecherously around, imbibe alcohol, get yourself inked up but you are saying “Oh Allah, this is all my bad, my fault; I’m too weak to brush off the whispers of the Devil and the inclinations of my own Nafs. Therefore forgive me.” In such a case, God usually will have no qualms to forgive you, no matter how much or how big the sin, insyaAllah. He says in a hadith Qudsi, “O child of Adam, as long as you beseech Me and hope for Me, I shall forgive you whatever you have done, without minding in the slightest." But again, ourselves will know, do not take advantage of this purposefully.

That is why the Chief of Istighfar thought to us by the Prophet himself has this part,
“abou ulaka bi ni’matika alaiya, wa abou u bi dzanbii, farghfirlii,” which means
“I acknowledge the blessings showered upon me and I admit my sins, therefore forgive me”

The Second Level:
You commit a sin and you don’t feel bad about it. This one already has signs of the heart dying.

The Third Level:
You commit a sin and you are proud about it, you go tell everyone. This is bad for a few reasons; firstly it is a very impertinent and impudent thing on our part to feel good/proud about committing a sin. Very much like a sore loser, you are on the wrong side and you are happy, proud. The other thing is, you don’t even bother to cover your own shortcomings (‘aib), your own iniquities. Almost like throwing away your self-worth.

The Fourth Level:
You commit a sin, you are proud of it, and you condemn the Law of God as being backward, anti-modernity, and the likes of it. This is true sore loser. It is playing on the fences, with murtad and kuffar on one side. God save us from such things, Amin.

This is a serious issue especially today. In the western world the clash at this level mostly comes from the homosexual community. We do not condemn homosexuals as individuals; there is no right to do so. But we condemn their actions and their inclinations. This is because it is going against God. Science, medicine and even evolution, all prove that heterosexual is the way to go.

(Some people say homosexuality is common among animals and thus is normal; my foot! Since when do we take animals as our guides? Animals are also known to engage in necrophilia, pedophilia, fornication, incest. Are we going to condone all these as well?)

Right now there is no known genetic basis for homosexual tendencies, unlikely to be found in the future too, it is mostly psychological and this can change.

The thing is, homosexual communities tend to condemn the established Law of God as barbaric, backward and only fitting for backwater desert-dwellers. The condemnation of the law is absolutely unnecessary, totally a transgression. You have sinned, but why sin again by being a sore loser in front of God? What are you going to say to Him about rejecting His Favors upon you??? This is God asking a favor of you and you blatantly deny?

There is a reason why the verse “which of the Favors of Thy Lord do you deny?” is repeated many times in a surah called Ar-rahman, The Beneficient. It is supposed to appeal to our nature. Rejection only means the death of our hearts.

Such an issue is always much easier said than done, and I pray that God save me from hypocrisy as I type. Such issues are easy to understand but difficult to execute, hence the difference between knowledge and wisdom, between knowledge of paper and knowledge of taste. Each one of us inherently knows what is the right thing to do, that is our fitrah, which is why akhlaq exams, can just go in and smoke your way through, no need to mug. Knowing alone is easy but execution is hard and this is the test. You pass this and paradise is yours. This is precisely why we do not have paradise in hand, especially me. We pray to God for Support, Amin.