Will Allah forgive the violation of others’ rights?

The Details of the Question

- The following article confused me. It is stated that Allah can forgive the violation of others’ rights without asking the person whose rights have been violated. Will you answer it?

A writer gives the following answer to a question:

"There is no such verse. I do not know any sound hadiths in that sense. There are some weak and medium hadiths in terms of soundness aiming to encourage and to warn people. These kinds of narrations, which aim to frighten and encourage people, include some additions and fabrications. However, that statement is contrary to the meaning of the following verse: “Innallaha yaghfirudh-dhunuba jamia: For, Allah forgives all sins”. There is no distinction like others’ rights and private sins. There is no sin that Allah will not forgive if He wishes. Furthermore, the following is stated in some hadiths:  'If Allah Almighty wants to forgive a person who violated another person’s rights, He will give great rewards to that person in the hereafter and persuade him to forgive the person who violated his rights. And, Allah will forgive the person who violated his rights.' In my opinion, they were all produced in order to underline the importance of other people’s rights. When Allah wants to do something, He does not have to ask for the approval of anybody. It is useless and nonsense to seek a reason for Allah’s forgiveness."

The Answer

Dear Brother / Sister,

As far as we understand, the writer does not claim that violation of others’ rights will definitely be forgiven; he says, "Allah can forgive them if He wishes", which is a correct determination. The reason is as follows:

As far as what we understand from the Islamic scholars,

- All sins – including violation of others’ rights – can be forgiven by Allah except the sins of polytheism and unbelief of those who die as polytheists and unbelievers.

“Allah forgiveth not (The sin of) joining other gods with Him; but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this: one who joins other gods with Allah, Hath strayed far, far away (from the right).” (an-Nisa, 4/116)

The amnesty expressed in the verse includes all sins above including violation of others’ rights – except polytheism. 

However, it is not stated in the verse that the sins will definitely be forgiven but that they can be forgiven.

The phrase “but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this” mentioned in the verse does not indicate that the forgiveness is for everybody but that it is for some people and some sins based on the wish of Allah.

- The forgiveness of sins based on repentance in particular is a principle of Allah. It is stated in many verses and hadiths that sins will be forgiven if the repentance is accepted.

From this point of view, it is understood that violation of others’ rights is different from other sins because the repentance of the sins that are not related to the violation of others’ rights can take place by regretting, confessing and sincere repentance. However, for violation of others’ rights, it is necessary for the person whose rights were violated to forgive, which is very difficult. Therefore, the forgiveness of violation of others’ rights is much more difficult than the forgiveness of other sins.  

As a matter of fact, sins are divided into three with the notion of zulm (oppression/wrongdoing). Anas narrates: The Prophet (pbuh) said, 

“There are three kinds of oppressions: The oppression that Allah will never forgive; the oppression that Allah will forgive; the oppression that Allah will not overlook."

a. The oppression that Allah will never forgive is associating partners with Allah because shirk (polytheism) is a great oppression. (This state is valid for those who die in shirk.)

b.  The oppression that Allah will forgive is the oppression the slaves do to themselves in their relationship between them and their Lord.

c. The oppression that Allah will not overlook is the oppression the slaves do to each other; He will not overlook those sins unless they compensate for their oppression.” (Suyuti, al-Jamius-Saghir, 2/94; Majmauz-Zawaid, h. no:18379)

In some other narrations the notion “sin” is used instead of “oppression”. (see Majmauz-Zawaid, h.no:18380)

- The writer of the article mentioned above did not take the hadith above and similar ones into consideration because he regards them as weak. 

However, Ahl as-Sunnah scholars agree unanimously that sins related to the violation of others’ rights has a different position. 

The Prophet (pbuh) states the following in a hadith reported by Abu Hurayra:

“Whoever has oppressed another person concerning his reputation or anything else, he should beg him to forgive him before the Day of Resurrection when there will be no money (to compensate for wrong deeds), but if he has good deeds, those good deeds will be taken from him according to his oppression which he has done, and if he has no good deeds, the sins of the oppressed person will be loaded on him.” (Bukhari, Mazalim, 10, Riqaq, 48)

The statements of the sound hadith above indicate that the rights of individuals are different from other rights.

“Think not that Allah doth not heed the deeds of those who do wrong. He but giveth them respite against a Day when the eyes will fixedly stare in horror.” (Ibrahim, 14/41)

It is understood from the statement of the verse above that sins occurring due to violation of others’ rights is different from other sins. 

However, we should state it again that if Allah wishes, He can forgive violation of others’ rights by persuading the oppressed people and no one has the right to oppose it.

Questions on Islam

Was this answer helpful?
Author:
Questions on Islam
Subject Categories:
Read 37 times
In order to make a comment, please login or register