Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)
Transgressions, the mistakes we make,
the lines we cross, the places we go that we shouldn't,
the feelings that we have that we need to restrict,
hold back and take charge of,
the self-control that we want to develop.
How do we define transgressions?
How do we define the trespassing
against the orders and the laws
that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has sent?
(gentle music)
I want you to know initially as Muslims that we believe sin
is not inherited and it's not through heredity.
So there are other faiths that believe
in a concept called the original sin,
meaning that Adam and Hawa, Adam and Eve,
they made that mistake,
which meant that every mistake thereafter is inherited
because of it,
that a human being had no choice,
that from the moment you were born
you were already a sinner.
For us as Muslims, we don't believe that.
We don't believe in the original sin concept.
Our belief is that we all begin on a clean slate.
And that clean slate can be wiped clean again.
And that you can have many, many opportunities
in your life to clear it.
Every day, every hour you can clear it
if you remain connected
to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And that is something we're going to study later on
when we speak about the psychology of redemption,
how to think about making ourself return to Allah
and fixing what we have made as errors between us
and other people and between us and our creator,
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
There are two important ways
that you and I need to understand sins in Islam.
The first is that one of the great categories of sin
is called shahawat.
Shahwa in Arabic means desires, things that we want.
And it's part of our animalistic nature.
So you, as a human being,
Allah says, Walaqad karramna banee adam
"We made Adam a noble, honorable person,
a noble honorable creation."
Allah separated between us and other creations
who came before us, those that walked the earth,
those that crawled on the earth,
other animals that were there,
and other species and types of things, like the jinn,
that were here previously.
But Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
said mankind are insan,
those who have an understanding,
although they forget at times,
yansaa, so we are insan.
We forget our place with Allah.
But we are also bashar.
We are also the furless ones.
We're not like the other animals and mammals on the earth,
meaning human beings have a central dignity
that is a result of the soul that is within our body.
And that soul makes us accountable.
But our bodies and our minds and our soul
at times still craves that which is haram.
And whenever we cross the boundary of that which is decent,
that which is good, into that which is haram,
that which is wrong, that which isn't the sunnah,
then we are fulfilling an animalistic urge
that we are ordered
and have been given the ability to restrict
because of our humanness.
So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
tells us to lower our gaze
from looking at something that is inappropriate.
Why?
Because you are different to other animals.
You are able to restrict yourself
from something that isn't just an urge
that I can do whatever I want whenever I want, right?
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,you know, he tells us
that before the day of judgment,
there will come a time
where people will lose that sense of shame,
that sense of morality.
And it will be as if they will commit sin and vulgar actions
in the middle of public streets the way animals do,
the way dogs do, the way other animals do.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protect us.
So the first type of category of sins
that we're going to look at are the sins of desire,
where we are ordered and have been given tools
to restrict ourselves
and have been taught how to have and develop self-control.
The second type of sins is not of actions
in a physical nature.
It's that of the mind and the intellect.
It's that of thoughts.
And that is called shubuhaat, doubts.
There are certain things that we say, "I'm not really sure."
We doubt Jannah.
A person might doubt hellfire.
A person might not understand why something is haram
and therefore say, "Well, I don't understand it,
so I'm not gonna do it."
Or a person might have in their heart,
well, they doubt why everybody else is doing it,
"Why can't I be like them?"
So they doubt the scripture that was sent
to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And those two main branches,
the desires and the doubts
are the two types of sins that any human being can perform.
Any sin that you think of is going to be in one of them.
Some of them are in both, right?
And all of the major sins, all of the minor sins,
and we'll talk about the difference between the two shortly,
all of them come under these two branches.
Islam was sent to protect five important things for us.
It was sent to protect our faithfulness in God,
that we don't worship anything but Allah.
So Islam taught us how to pray and who not to pray to,
who is Allah, who is not Allah,
and what are the things that make us knowing
of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And you can go back to the series,
Me, Myself, and Allah,
to understand this more about our Tawhid.
Number two, Islam was sent to protect the sanctity of life.
And it's for that reason that assault is wrong,
harming others is wrong, murder is wrong.
The third category is to protect property
and other people's belongings.
And under that, you will find that there's stealing is wrong
and using things without permission is wrong,
all of the things that relate to other people's property.
Number four, Islam was sent to protect the mind
and the clarity of thought.
And for that reason, anything that intoxicates,
anything that clouds the mind
and makes you think in a way that is less
than what you would normally think,
in amount that is sinful is deemed haram.
And fifth and finally,
Islam was sent to protect our lineages
and our family structures
because family is very, very important
so that a father knows who their children are
and children know who their mother and fathers are,
that there is complete openness
and that society is built on a strong foundation of families
because families are one of the indicators
of a healthy society.
This is what science tells us.
So Islam was sent to protect those five things.
All of the laws of Islam that make things haram,
that which is haram falls under one of those five things.
And anything that's haram is going to be
one of those two things, the desires or the doubts.
May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protect us
from crossing any boundaries
due to our desires that were not self-controlling
or to doubts that we haven't clarified
through increasing our knowledge.