Major Sins Sermon (1): The Concept of Sin and Shirk

A sin is the leaving of what Allah commanded, or the doing of what He forbade. The Qur'an separates sins into great and small (kabira and saghira), and the Prophet preserved this ranking so that the believer would not flatten serious wrongs into the same level as smaller ones. This sermon defines the concept of sin, sets out the definition of a major sin, lists the seven destructive sins named by the Prophet, and treats in depth the first and gravest of them — shirk, associating partners with Allah. The remaining six are taken up in the Major Sins Sermon (Part 2).

What Is a Sin, and Why Are Sins Ranked?

A sin is any speech or act that contradicts Allah's command — whether by neglecting what He ordered or by doing what He forbade. A mature, sane Muslim who skips the prayer commits a sin of the first kind; the one who takes a life unlawfully commits a sin of the second kind. Both are sins; not both are of the same weight.

The Qur'an does not treat all sins as equal. Surah An-Nisa says:

إِن تَجۡتَنِبُواْ كَبَآئِرَ مَا تُنۡهَوۡنَ عَنۡهُ نُكَفِّرۡ عَنكُمۡ سَيِّـَٔاتِكُمۡ وَنُدۡخِلۡكُم مُّدۡخَلࣰ ا كَرِيمࣰ ا

If you avoid the major sins that you are forbidden, We will pardon your lesser ones and admit you to a noble entrance.

— Surah An-Nisa 4:31

The verse makes a clear theology of the moral life: avoidance of the great brings a covering of the small. A slap and a murder are not weighed on the same scale. As the classical jurist al-Ayni notes, the largeness and smallness of a sin is relative — a sin is small only by comparison to one that is larger.

The Qur'an does not give an exhaustive list of major sins. Surah An-Nisa 4:31, Surah An-Najm 53:32, and Surah Ash-Shura 42:37 speak of kaba'ir (great sins) as a category. The Hadith corpus then names the most socially destructive ones explicitly.

How Scholars Define a Major Sin

Islamic scholars have given more than one definition of a major sin. The most widely accepted is:

Any sin for which Allah has prescribed a legal penalty (hadd), and for which the Qur'an and Hadith have declared Hellfire for the one who commits it.

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami listed 467 major sins in his work az-Zawajir 'an iqtiraf al-kaba'ir. The hadith scholar al-Dhahabi enumerated over one hundred in Kitab al-Kaba'ir. When Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked, "Are the major sins seven?" he answered, "They are closer to seventy." In another narration he said, "They are closer to seven hundred — but with sincere repentance no major sin remains as a major sin, and with insistence even a small sin becomes a major one." That last clause is the moral pivot: persistent insistence on a small wrong promotes it; sincere repentance from a great wrong relieves it.

The Seven Destructive Sins

The Prophet (peace be upon him), in naming the most spiritually destructive sins, listed seven:

Avoid the seven destructive sins. They asked, "O Messenger of Allah, what are they?" He replied: "Associating partners with Allah; sorcery; killing a soul whom Allah has forbidden to be killed, except by right; consuming the wealth of an orphan; consuming usury (riba); fleeing from battle on the day of advance; and slandering chaste, innocent believing women."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Wills, no.

This list is not exhaustive — al-Ayni and others have stressed that the Prophet was foregrounding the sins with the heaviest social damage, not closing the category. Other sins named explicitly as kaba'ir elsewhere — for example, causing one's parents to be insulted — round out the picture. In this first sermon we will focus exclusively on the sin that heads the list: shirk. The remaining six are addressed in the companion sermon.

How Sin Affects the Heart

Sin's first damage is internal. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

When a believer commits a sin, a black mark appears on his heart. If he repents and asks Allah's forgiveness, his heart is polished clean. But if he returns to the sin, the mark grows; until it covers his heart entirely. This is the rayn (rust) Allah mentions: "No, rather, what they have earned has covered their hearts with rust" (Surah Al-Mutaffifin 83:14).

— al-Tirmidhi, Commentary on the Qur'an, no.

Three lessons follow. First, the highest practice is not to commit the sin at all. Second, when one slips, repentance must come quickly — before the mark sets. Third, when the heart is left in sin long enough, the seal described in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:7 — "Allah has sealed their hearts and their hearing" — actualizes itself.

Stories — How Shirk Destroys

The Calf of the Samiri

When Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) ascended for the appointed meeting with his Lord, his people, in his absence, melted their gold ornaments and the Samiri shaped the molten metal into a calf. They worshipped it. The calf, as the Qur'an makes clear (Surah Taha 20:89), neither heard nor spoke, neither helped nor harmed. When Musa returned, he confronted the Samiri, burnt the idol, and scattered its ashes in the sea. The lesson is plain: a hand strong enough to fashion an idol is also weak enough to be commanded to burn it. The power of any idol is only the fear of the one who turns toward it.

Luqman's Counsel to His Son

The Surah of Luqman preserves the counsel of a wise father to his son. What does the father place at the head of the list?

وَإِذۡ قَالَ لُقۡمَٰنُ لِٱبۡنِهِۦ وَهُوَ يَعِظُهُۥ يَٰبُنَيَّ لَا تُشۡرِكۡ بِٱللَّهِۖ إِنَّ ٱلشِّرۡكَ لَظُلۡمٌ عَظِيمࣱ‏

When Luqman said to his son, instructing him: "O my dear son, do not associate anything with Allah. Truly, shirk is a grave wrong."

— Surah Luqman 31:13

A father wanting to give his son one piece of wisdom places this first because it is the foundation that the whole of life is built upon; once shaken, nothing upper stands.

Excessive Praise of Prophet Isa

The Prophet (peace be upon him) often pointed to the Christian community's elevation of Prophet Isa (Jesus, peace be upon him) as a cautionary case. Isa was a noble prophet, a slave of Allah; yet successive generations spoke of him as "son of God" and eventually as "God" himself. The Qur'an's correction is firm: "They have certainly disbelieved who say, 'Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary'" (Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:72). The Prophet said:

Do not praise me as the Christians have praised the son of Mary. I am only Allah's slave. Say: "the slave of Allah and His Messenger."

— Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of the Prophets, no.

Love and reverence are right; worship belongs only to Allah. Excessive elevation of any creature — prophet, saint, scholar, leader — is a road that ends in shirk.

Riya — The Hidden Shirk

The Prophet (peace be upon him) called riya (showing off in worship) "the lesser shirk" (al-shirk al-asghar). It is praying longer because someone is watching; giving charity to be seen; performing the outer form of worship for Allah and the inner heart for human approval. He warned:

What I fear most for you is the lesser shirk. They asked, "What is the lesser shirk?" He said, "Showing off."

— Musnad Ahmad, no.

Surah Al-Kahf 18:110 closes this same door: "Whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord — let him do righteous work, and let him associate no one in worship with his Lord." Open idolatry is rare; this hidden version visits the heart of every worshipper. Renewing intention before each act is the daily defence.

Shirk — The Greatest of the Major Sins

The greatest of the major sins is shirk — associating partners with Allah. It is not merely a major sin; it is kufr (disbelief). Every prophet announced one message: Allah is One, He has no partner and no equal, and worship is owed to Him alone.

Surah Al-Ikhlas concentrates this truth into four verses:

قُلۡ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ‎ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ ‎ لَمۡ يَلِدۡ وَلَمۡ يُولَدۡ ‎ وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدُۢ

Say: He is Allah, One. Allah, the Self-Sufficient. He neither begets nor is born. And there is no equal to Him.

— Surah Al-Ikhlas 112:1-4

The pagans of Mecca, despite their idolatry, acknowledged that Allah had created the heavens and the earth — but they treated their idols as intermediaries: "We worship them only that they may bring us nearer to Allah." The Qur'an dismantles that logic, because intercession in Allah's presence is entirely at His leave; no one stands between the slave and his Lord without His permission.

The verdict on shirk, when died upon without repentance, is given in Surah An-Nisa 4:48: "Indeed, Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him; but He forgives what is less than that for whomever He wills." This is not a contraction of Allah's mercy but a description of one door that does not open: the door reserved for the one who refuses, until death, to come back. Repentance from shirk is accepted — every convert from idolatry to Islam is a witness to that. What remains unforgiven is the persistence in it.

Luqman's verse closes the matter: "Shirk is a grave wrong." The slave who owes everything to his Lord, who fails to give Him His due as the sole worshipped, has wronged both himself and the truth. Avoiding shirk is prior in rank to avoiding every other sin.

Putting Protection from Shirk Into Practice With VAAZ

The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah collection in the VAAZ app includes Al-Wahid, Al-Ahad, and As-Samad — the names that anchor the doctrine of tawhid in the daily heart. Reciting these is a steady way to keep the witness of unity fresh. The dua archive supplies short formulas for renewing intention before any act of worship; pairing this with the Sermon on Tawbah for sincere repentance and the Sermon on Taqwa for the inner training that keeps one away from major sins gives a complete framework.

The second part of this sermon takes up the remaining six destructive sins — sorcery, unjust killing, consuming an orphan's wealth, riba, fleeing from battle, and slandering chaste women. Continue to the Major Sins Sermon (Part 2) to complete the series.

References

1. The Noble Qur'an, Surah An-Nisa 4:31.
2. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Luqman 31:13.
3. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Ikhlas 112:1-4.
4. The Noble Qur'an, Surah An-Nisa 4:48.
5. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:72.
6. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Mutaffifin 83:14.
7. Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Wills and Book of the Prophets (Seven destructive sins; praising of Prophet Isa).
8. Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Commentary on the Qur'an (Black mark on the heart).
9. Musnad Ahmad (The lesser shirk — riya).
10. Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, az-Zawajir 'an iqtiraf al-kaba'ir.
11. al-Dhahabi, Kitab al-Kaba'ir.
12. Imam al-Ghazali, Ihya' Ulum al-Din, sections on repentance and sin.

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