The Seven Deadly Sins & Islam

Friend Cheryl Lynn asks an important question regarding whether Islam innumerates deadly sins in the same fashion that the Catholic Church reckons seven deadly sins.

I found one link explores the significance of "seven" in Islam, but makes no mention of cardinal sins.

Another link describes sloth (laziness) as the greatest sin, and mentions one Muslim's comments, but again, no reference to cardinal sins in Islam.

I shall continue to search for a list of sins in Islam, but my suspicion is that I shall find nothing which resembles the seven deadly sins of Catholicism.

I should mention that Hinduism, and the Ramayan, list five deatly sins or enemies. I always have trouble reciting all from memory. "Kam, Krodh, Lob, Mudha, Matsariya". The Shri Ram Chakra, or Krishna Chakra is a pentagram, whose five points represent those five sins, and a point at the center represents Ram/Krishna, the all attractive one, who draws us ever away from the five enemies.


Let us look at a search engine for Hadith and Qu'ran:

The word "sins" appears 178 times in 138 Hadith:

...

Narrated 'Aisha: Whenever Allah's Apostle ordered the Muslims to do something, he used to order them deeds which were easy for them to do, (according to their strength endurance). They said, "O Allah's Apostle! We are not like you. Allah has forgiven your past and future sins." So Allah's Apostle became angry and it was apparent on his face. He said, "I am the most Allah fearing, and know Allah better than all of you do."


and here is a MOST interesting Hadith:

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Whoever performs Hajj to this House (Ka'ba) and does not approach his wife for sexual relations nor commits sins (while performing Hajj), he will come out as sinless as a newly-born child. (Just delivered by his mother)."

The above Hadith asserts that a new born child is without sin. Many Christian denominations disagree, and feel that even a new born child has the capacity for sin. We see that an infant becomes angry, and is perhaps greedy and slothful, and also, a potential glutton for pleasure. We cannot blame a helpless infant for these proclivities, but neither can we call the infant sinless, since they have all the precursors to sin in their nature at birth.

.....

In the Qu'ran, Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall's translation, the word "sins" appears 36 times in 34 verses.


...
When I search the Qu'ran on "commandments" I find only one verse:
And gave them plain commandments. And they differed not until after the knowledge came unto them, through rivalry among themselves. Lo! thy Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they used to differ.
( Al-Jathiya, Chapter #45, Verse #17)


...

My personal theory is that one will not find an enumeration or exposition on a list of cardinal sins PRECISELY because the stress of the Qu'ran is that if you confess that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, and perform the actions that the Qu'ran prescribes, then you shall be forgiven all your sins, even if you continue to commit them, and therefore it matters not if you know the nomenclature and anatomy of those sins.


...

I feel it is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT to realize this profound difference between Islam and Christianity, regarding a presence or absence of "a catalog of sins".
....

By shear chance, just now, I stumbled upon the following link, which quotes from the writings of Russian Bishop Khrapovitsky:


"But how much is mistaken the one, who thinks that Christian life is limited by the process of listening to the word of God, that the word of God by itself, without our efforts, can sanctify us. On the contrary, in the parable about the sower the Lord clearly showed that the pure acceptance of the word through faith without a struggle is not more stable than that sprout of the seed on the stony ground, which dries in the heat of the sun; that only those souls can be suitable for the Divine Kingdom, which, having accepted the word, "bring forth fruit with patience," and only that one who, listening to the teaching of Christ, fulfills it, erects the building of salvation on the good ground (Luke 6:47). The disciple of God will be the one, who continues in His word (John 8:32), who keeps it (8;52), who, having received it in meekness (James 1:21), is the doer of the word (1:22), but not only a hearer (1:23), for the Jews as well heard the word, but it is said about them: "The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (Hebr. 4:2). Then among Christians appeared talkative rebels, but the apostle threatened them to come and test "not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power" (1 Cor. 4:19). About his sermon the apostle said that "our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance" (1 Thes. 1:5)

So, the word of God gets its saving significance only with the firm decision to change own sinful life and with the strife of man to accomplish, what he had decided, what is within his powers. Let the sectarians, who calmed their conscience in pure dead faith, and who are saying that the blissful word of God by Itself creates new life in them without any efforts of theirs, become silent. The very Word teaches us, the faithful, that the Evangelic teaching saves only on the condition that man struggles against his sin."


...
I often quote this passage from the writings of Maximos the Confessor:

"Do not say that you are the temple of the Lord, writes Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 7: 4); nor should you say that faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ can save you, for this is impossible (emphasis supplied) unless you also acquire love for Him through your works. As for faith by itself, 'the devils also believe, and tremble' (Jas. 2: 19)."

St. Maximos the Confessor, THE PHILOKALIA, Volume Two, p. 56.
[inserted on May 14, 2007]




Here is an interesting trans-cultural list of sins that I chanced upon:

Allow me to provide some examples of trans-cultural common moral law. Each of these are very similar to commandments found in the Holy Bible. The references in parentheses after the quote are strikingly similar commandments or moral teachings found in the Bible:

* "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you." - Ancient Chinese (compare to Matthew 7:12)

* "Slander not." - Babylonian, Hymn to Samas (compare to Proverbs 10:18)

* "Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded." - Hindu (compare to Ephesians 4:29)

* "I saw in Nastrond (i.e. hell)... beguilers of other's wives." - Old Norse, Volospa

* "Has he approached his neighbor's wife?" - Babylonian, List of Sins (compare to Exodus 20:14; I Corinthian 6:9-10)

* "And approach not fornication; surely it is an indecency, and evil as a way." - Koran, Sura 17:34 (compare to I Corinthians 6:9-11-18)

* "If a man violate the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man, and still lives in her father's house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless." - Code of Hammurabi, Verse 130 (compare to Deuteronomy 22:22-27)

* "Your father is an image of the Lord of creation, your mother an image of the earth. For him who fails to honor them, every work of piety is vain. This is the first duty." - Hindu, Janet

* "There is a duty to care for parents." - Greek (compare to Exodus 20:12, Matthew 15:3-6, I Timothy 5:8)

* "Whoso takes no bribe... well pleasing is this to Samas." - Babylonian (compare to Deuteronomy 16:18-20, Proverbs 17:23)

* "To wrong, to rob, to cause to be robbed." - Babylonian, List of Sins

* "I have not stolen." - Ancient Egyptian, Confessions of a Righteous Soul (compare to Exodus 20:15, Revelation 21:8)

* "Whose mouth, full of lying, avails not before thee; thou burnest their utterance." - Babylonian, Hymn to Samas

* "In Nastrond (i.e. hell) I saw the perjurers." - Old Norse, Volospa (compare to Exodus 20:15, Revelation 21:8).

* "With his mouth he was full of Yea, and in his heart Nay?" - Babylonian, Hymn to Samas (compare to Matthew 5:37, Ecclesiastes 5:4-6)

* "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken... If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out." - Code of Hammurabi, Verses 196-200 (compare to Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20)

* "I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, a ferry boat to the boatless" - Ancient Egyptian (compare to Deuteronomy 24:19, Matthew 25:31-46)

* "You will see them taken care of... widows, orphans, and old men, never reproaching them" - Redskin native Americans (compare to James 1:27)

* "There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can" - Roman, Cicero (compare to Proverbs 24:10-12 and 31:8-9)

* "Nature and reason command that nothing uncomely, nothing effeminate, nothing lascivious be done or thought" - Roman, Cicero (compare to Romans 1:18-27 and 2:14-15, I Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21, Philippians 4:8)

* "Death is to be chosen before slavery and base deeds." - Roman, Cicero

* "Death is better for every man than life with shame." - Anglo-Saxon, Beowulf (compare to Daniel 3:14-18, Hebrews 11:32-38, Revelation 12:11)

The striking similarities in the moral codes of various cultures and religions and that sanctions are imposed upon transgressors are evidence of the existence of an objective right and wrong and the universal concept of justice which traverses cultural boundaries.



...
The above author is listing sins from various cultures and traditions in an attempt to demonstrate that there is an ABSOLUTE MORALITY, and that the notion of relative morality is a dangerous one.

I had a serious of dialogues some years ago with a Christian named Sean, which I posted as "The Sean Dialogues".

Western Abrahamic religions "speak from Authority" as you say, with non-relativistic Absolutes in Morality.... (Thou shalt do this and thou shalt not do that.... or else)....

whereas, in Hinduism/Buddhism/Jainism et.al ..... it is all a PROCESS, i.e. karmically the rewards and punishments are all built into the "physics" of the thoughts, words and deeds.... but furthermore.... the whole process of countless rebirths is an unavoidable process of purification... in each lifetime (rebirth), we are working out the knots and wrinkles so to speak, sometimes as a thief, sometimes as a holy renunciate... but the sum total of these rebirths, of this karmic pinball machine, ultimately leads to Moksha, Liberation, Salvation, re-union with the Divinity, no more rebirth.... and furthermore,.... ultimately all souls are "saved". This does NOT mean that Hindu/Buddhist Karma is moral relativism.... it simply means that things are not as simple or cut-and-dry as not eating pork, tithing, circumcision, praying 5 times per day, baptism, or going on Hajj pilgrimage, not farting in the Mosque, etc etc etc.....

In a sense, this karmic "process" which I am describing is very scientific.... when compared to all the circumcision/baptism mumbo-jumbo of Abrahamic religions, which seems rather arbitrary, and leaves out people like the Australian aborigines who never got to meet a priest or an imam or a rabbi until the 19th century.....


When you look at the entire history of the Hindu/Buddhist/Jain peoples, they seem far more humble and gentle than the history of Islam and Christianity, with slavery, wars of colonial aggression, genocides, crusades, inquisitions, witch burnings, religious persecutions.... When one looks at the history of Abrahamic peoples, in comparison to Hindus and Buddhists, it would seem that your ABSOLUTES and your Authority and your non-relative Morality are a huge failure.

Look at the "sinfulness" of Saul before he became St. Paul.... (Saul was present and partly responsible for the murder of very first Christian martyr, St. Stephan, a deacon)....

Saul/Paul's conversion has uncanny parallels with Valmiki, who was a thief and murderer, but repented and went on to write the Ramayan (which is sort of the Hindu version of the Gospels, except that Ram is the incarnation, not Jesus)...

And it was King David's repentance over Uriah's murder which produced the 51st Psalm...(Have mercy on me, according to thy great mercy....)..... I know you are going to be angry with me for mentioning the Bible.... but if you notice in my website... its what i do,... its my "thing".... its how my mind works.... so I hope you can be patient with me....

I am trying to point out that both in Hinduism and in Christianity, sometimes, hitting rock bottom (Immorality) can lead to repentance... which may then produce morality, and even a Saint.....


Here is a post in response to the question "What does religion have to offer?"

Religious faith offers each person, young or old, these four things:

1. Hope, Peace, Purpose and Identity;

2. Hope for the future (Eternity),

3. Peace in each present moment,

4. Purpose for one's earthly life and existence, Personal Identity, Individuality and Uniqueness in face of the question "Who am I?".

Without religious faith in a higher power or dharma underlying existence, then each person is nothing, in the sense that at the moment of death they cease to exist, there is no ultimate consequence for any action or thought, we have come into being accidentally, our individual existence has no purpose or meaning, and had never come into being in our individual consciousness, it would ultimately make no difference since we are of no inherent value even to ourselves.

HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION) could you personally be moral in a world in which there ARE NO ABSOLUTES? And what would be your MOTIVE for being moral (remaining moral) in such a world of no absolutes? This is a most interesting question.

Given the fact of human nature that "anything goes," regardless of whether society preaches moral relativism or moral absolutism, therefore I feel that the manner in which I discuss things at my website is far more honest and realistic, namely, that souls will work out these behaviors during the course of their lives, and from rebirth to rebirth. Furthermore, the scenario which I present, of everything and everyone and every experience having its purpose, and of all souls ultimately being perfected and saved, is far more reasonable and efficient and reflective of a genuinely compassion Creator, in contrast to the senselessness of eternal torment and punishment with absolutely no hope of reform, and only one brief human life in which to "pass or fail" the test.....

Recycling, whether it be of bottles, paper or souls, is more sensible and environmentally sound that making everything DISPOSABLE, use one and throw it away... even in PHYSICS, the CONSERVATION of matter/energy is ESSENTIAL, FUNDAMENTAL (i.e. nothing is ever LOST).....

I am thinking right now about my webpage "How good does one have to be?" Rabbi Harold Kushner discusses the verse "therefore be thou PERFECT before me (Tamim)". Kushner proposes his own understanding that God did not expect Abraham to be PERFECT, but rather to be true to himself, so that when he did periodically "fall down", he would always pick himself up, dust himself off, and try harder, remaining "true to himself" (I am dredging this up from my memory, so it may be inaccurate).... and then Kushner mentions Mother Theresa's words (I think)... where she says , "We are not here to be SUCCESSFUL, but to be FAITHFUL"...

And consider the parable of the prodigal son, raised (presumably) in a society of ABSOLUTE morals, who takes his "inheritance," and goes to a foreign land (where they raise PIGS!), and squanders everything. Yet, it is only when the prodigal son hits ROCK BOTTOM, that the realization also hits him "Hey, I would be better as a hired hand in my father's house, than working for this cruel master slopping pigs"...

The points I am making is that, even in societies of MORAL ABSOLUTISM, boys will be boys, and people still sin and break commandments, and FURTHERMORE, it is somehow the experience of sinning and then repenting (a learning process), that makes Sauls into Pauls, makes King David write the beautiful Psalms, and makes thieves on the cross cry out "Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom"......


....

+++++ added Monday morning

Obviously, one might attempt to compose one's own list of sins in Islam. From what I know it seems that atheism would be number one, and ascribing partners to Allah (shirk) would be number two. But my question is not WHAT the list might be, but WHERE is it in Qur'an or Hadith or oral tradition, and if it is absent, then why is it absent. What might that absence indicate?

The Old Testament lists the Ten Commandments. Jewish tradition catalogs 617 mitzvahs (positive and negative injunctions) in the Torah. Jesus recites the Beatitudes in his Sermon On The Mount. The Roman Catholic Church formulated the seven deadly sins, and the seven virtues, and Dante took poetic license to embellish upon these.


Islamic tradition discourages poetry, as one may learn from this excellent article.

I sense that in this pro-Muslim article, one may find a description of the historical dynamics which discouraged the formulation of a list of sins.

The following excerpt from the above link offers profound insight:

These five axioms were cardinal to the Mu'tazilah. Contention or denial of any one of them removed the contender from Mu'tazilah rank. And yet, if we were to characterize Mu'tazilah doctrine by a single dominant idea, we are compelled to say that the whole thrust of their movement revolved around the problem of man's ethical nature, which they regarded as the central problem of the self. Their concern was a very Islamic one, since in Islam the end-all and be-all of human life – indeed, of all creation – is the realization in space-time of a divine trust. And their reasoning was clear. If God is transcendent – and the Muslim believes He is – He may not be said to invade, or be invaded by, creation. God is forever unique. Therefore, there is in Islam neither incarnation nor pantheism; neither emanation from God nor fusion into God. These are all constructs devoid of foundation. The only unquestionable, given reality is that man, the creature, stands under an imperative, namely, the command of value; that he is commanded as well as moved by value to seek its realization in the realm of the actual.

...

Perhaps one may find something akin to a catalog of sins in Sharia law:


http://www.masnet.org/history.asp?id=585

Islam developed a comprehensive law that covered the whole span of human life. This comprehensiveness flowed from Islam's conception of human life as created for the fulfillment of imperatives constituting the divine will. All acts, therefore, are seen as falling within the purview of the law and are either wajib (obligatory), mubah (permissible), mandub (recommended), makruh (recommended against) and haram (prohibited). At the same time, the law of Islam acknowledged the general welfare of humans to be its purpose. It divided that purpose as consisting of daruriyyat (universal necessities), hajiyat (personal needs), and tahsinat (desirables).



While ethics recommended the kind treatment of wife, children, and relatives, the law prescribed that feeding, sheltering, and caring for them be equal to one's treatment of oneself. In the same spirit, the law abolished all interest and instituted interest-free financing for all. It granted the captive the power to ransom himself by contract, the ignorant the right to be taught, and the deprived the right to partake of the wealth of the affluent.



The law further declared it a punishable sin to speak evil of one's neighbor even when the evil was true; to reject the neighbor's compensation and apology; to fail to visit him in sickness. One must help a neighbor in want, return his greeting with a better one, give him good counsel at all times, whether he asks for it or not; even to bless him when he sneezes. A Muslim is obliged to protect his neighbor's family and property in his absence, to attend his funeral and burial when he dies, or perform his obsequies in case of need.



Islamic law prohibits man from spying, lying, and being deceptive. It forbids speaking without knowledge, loud speech, entering another's house without knocking, and the assumption of airs of pride and superiority. It commands to keep oneself clean, to put on one's best when in congregation, to fulfill one's promise under all conditions, to maintain one's decorum at all times, and to bend one's head to parents and elders, to men of knowledge and those in authority.



Thus the corpus of laws constituting the Shari'a is usually divided into twelve departments:



1. Rituals and liturgy

2. Personal status

3. Contracts

4. Torts

5. Criminal law

6. Constitutional law

7. Taxation and public finance

8. Administrative law

9. Land law

10. Law of trade and commerce

11. International law

12. Ethics and personal conduct



Law is often said to be the mirror of civilization in the sense that when it has grown mature and complete, civilization reflects itself in its laws. This view assumes that law is a product of civilization, produced like other features of civilization by the forces operating within it. The opposite is the case with the Shari'a. Rather than being a product or reflection of Islamic civilization, the Shari'a is its first cause. Its observance by the Muslims of the world is the source that generated Islamic civilization, that nursed and protected it in history. The Shari'a was, and continues to be, the civilizing force among Muslims.