How do people commit sins easily? How will I be saved?

- Everyone around me commit sins very easily. When I see them, bad thoughts always come to my mind. How shall I be saved?

Dear Brother / Sister,

We will be saved by increasing our belief, and we will be a means of salvation for the people around us by increasing their belief!

Why and how does a person, especially a Muslim, commit sins? Because not every Muslim is a true believer in the true sense!

The Quran states the following:

“The desert Arabs say, “We believe.” Say, “Ye have no faith; but ye (only)say, ‘We have submitted our wills to Allah,’ For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (al-Hujurat, 49/14)

The multiplication table is indispensable in mathematics but not everyone who knows the multiplication table by heart is a mathematician.

Similarly, saying “I have become a Muslim” is a prerequisite, the first step, of becoming a Muslims but not everyone who utters it can be called a perfect believer.

Being a perfect believer, that is, believing, requires proof. As a matter of fact, the Quran states the following:

“Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, ‘We believe’, and that they will not be tested?” (al-Ankabut, 29/2)

The determination and decision of being a believer belongs only to Allah because only He knows the state of people’s hearts, their sincerity or hypocrisy. Allah will definitely decree according to the Quran, based on whether a person obeys the commands revealed in it and avoids the prohibitions imposed in it.

Allah forgives or does not forgive sins based on His wisdom; it is His decision. No one can intervene - God forbid. For, He knows what, why and how the person in question did or did not do under what conditions.

We decide based on appearance; we do not decide to judge people.

Allah has determined all kinds of relationships we believers have with other people and also with other believers. We need to know based on appearance whether the person we face is a believer or not so that we can continue our relationship within the limits determined by Allah.

Therefore, some deeds of worship such as the 5 daily fard prayers are encouraged to be performed in congregation in Islam; and, what is more, Friday prayers were rendered fard to be performed in congregation.

After those explanations, let us deal with the issue of Muslims and believers who commit sins:

Sinful Muslims 

There are deficiencies and mistakes in a Muslim’s both faith and creed in the form of “abdication of reason” though he is a Muslim because he has not yet fully “internalized” his belief and has little or no meditation:

A person says “I am Muslim!”

- However, he does not perform prayers, give zakah, perform fasting and hajj; maybe he does some of them, but “sometimes, not always!”

- He drinks alcohol, gambles, commits fornication and receives interest!

- No hijab (tasattur)!

- He lies and backbites!

- He does not love, respect and understand his parents, elders or neighbors!

- He does not work; he does not earn through legitimate ways!

- He evades tax and hires illegal workers!

- He violates rights of others!

- He does not care about halals and harams!

There are a lot of heedless people in our century who say “I am a Muslim!” in this way.

Our duty is to warn them and address them as follows:

“My brother! You say, ‘I am a Muslim.’ but you live as if you are a member of the People of the Book or a non-Muslims! You say, ‘I believe in Allah, the Prophet and the Quran’ but either you do not know what you believe in or you are not aware of what you say, or what you do or do not do. If you pass away in this state, it will be very, very difficult for you in the hereafter! I do not say it; Allah says it in the Quran! That is all.”

They are today’s Muslims, most of whom are flagrant sinners, about whom you say “they are constantly sinning” and there are plenty of them around us. They are in such heedlessness because they cannot internalize their belief and raise it to an investigative level.

Our advice to them is to repent immediately, seek Allah’s help, and immediately begin performing 5 daily fard prayers, without interrupting them by any excuse; it is a prerequisite.

They should benefit from the great interpretations of the Quran made by the scholars of this age in order to increase their belief, and especially in order to increase their dimensions of contemplation. The rest will happen by Allah’s leave.

Does a believer not commit sins?

If we consider that even prophets make some involuntary mistakes, it is certain that every human being can and does commit sins. Man can sometimes commit sins unintentionally, and sometimes by being deceived by his soul and Satan. However, a believer immediately realizes it and repents at once and then asks for forgiveness.

Since Allah knows His slaves and many of their deficiencies very well, He introduced repentance and forgiveness.

In conclusion, the essence of the issue is “belief”, as it holds true in all other issues; what we need to do is to increase our belief; and the aim of Satan is to destroy it or at least weaken us. We should not give him any chance to do it; we should ask Allah for help!

Questions on Islam