Secret Sin vs. Exposing Sin

[Ms DD]

Salaam aleykum

 

InshaAllah, this post may be beneficial.

 

In Islam, as I learned, there is a difference between sin and exposing of sin.

 

If someone drinks alcohol in secret in his house without letting the public know about it, then although he commits a kabeera, major sin, cannot be punished for that because this sin is between God and the sinner. Maybe, the sinner repents or not. Maybe, Allah punishes him or forgives him. People are not allowed to make this sin public because spying is not allowed in Islam. If you sneak through the window or eardrop through the door then you are committing a sins which will be punished severely on the Day of Judgment: Molten copper will be poured into you ears!!!!!!!!!!!! for spying. You even will receive a reward if you conceal the hidden sins of someone because everyone of us have hidden sins and we all have enough in our own souls to be concerned with.

 

If you conceal hidden, secret sins of a brother or sister then Allah will conseal your hidden sins on the day of Judgment and then inshaAllah forgive them. Usually, Allah will expose you sins to everyone who is assembled and everyone of the jinn and angels and humans and animals will hear what awful things you did. But if you conceal the secret sins of a brother or a sister then Allah inshaAllah will screen you sins and no one will be able to listen to the conversation between God and you. In this case there is no exposion of a sin so there is no enjoining good and forbidding evil.

Of course if you know somebody who does or did a major or minor sin in secret, then you can talk to him in secret and help him as a brother or sister because a jamaat and our brotherhood and sisterhood can change a person. This every Muslim is a brother of every Muslim and every Muslima is a sister of every brother or sister Muslim. No one lets anyone down, but to go to the public and expose the sin is a corruption in itself. When someone exposed a sin of another then the whole community is corrupted because the sin maybe was not on the mind of people but when a person tell so and so did that then this may cause disunity or disharmony.

 

Forbidding evil and enjoining good becomes a duty when someone exposes his sin to the public. If the same person goes out of the house on the street and drinks alcohol then the punishment is done on that person because he invites others to this sin and he corrupts the community. If someone starts a bad tradition then he will have a share in the sins of everyone who follows him until the day of Judgment. If there is a person who does not realize that he is sinning because he is not aware that that what he did is a sin then you just remind him or teach him.

 

If a person commits a sin openly, or tells somebody about it, he/she will be responsible even for the sin committed by the person influenced by such exposure. This is very relevant for modern youth when they commit a sin and then brag about it, and try to pressurise their friends into it, directly or indirectly.

 

Wassalam