[On Sins]
وَالْكَبِيرَةُ لاَ تُخْرَجُ الْعَبْدَ المُؤْمِنَ مِنَ الإيمَانِ، وَلاَ تُدْخِلُهُ فِي الْكُفْرِ. واللَّهُ تَعَالَى لاَ يَغْفِرُ أَنْ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ، وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنَ الصَّغَائِرِ وَالْكَبَائِرِ، وَيَجُوزُ العِقَابُ عَلَى الصَّغِيرَةِ، وَالْعَفْوُ عَنِ الْكَبِيرَةِ إِذَا لَمْ يَكُنْ عَنِ اْسْتِحْلاَلٍ، وَالاسْتِحْلاَلُ كُفْرٌ.
026- A great sin (kabīra) does not remove from belief the creature who believes, nor does it lead him into unbelief (kufr). God does not forgive the one who joins another (shirk) with Himself, but He pardons whomsoever He wills any sin, whether great or small, except this. The punishment of a small sin is permissible, and also the pardon (ʿafw) of a great sin, if it is not of the nature of considering lawful what is forbidden1; for that is Unbelief (kufr).
- Assigning a thing lawful or unlawful is the sole domain of God as the only one who is the lawgiver (shāriʿ) and no one else for it is a basic tenant of tawḥīd. Even the messenger is but a vehicle for transmitting God’s laws and not one who establishes or makes them. Therefore, it’s a principle of law that everything is lawful except what God has made unlawful that has come to us through divine revelation either in the Qurʾān or the authentic narriations. There are two other, agreed upon sources of law (qiyās, analogical reasoning and ijmāʿ consensus of the Prophet’s companions) so long as they don’t contradict the first two sources. There are other sources that specific to each legal school such (istiḥsān) use of one’s good judgement or discretion for Ḥanafī and Mālikī schools, (maṣāliḥ mursala) public welfare, actions of the people of Medina, (sad al-dharīʾa) blocking the means to illegal acts for the Mālikī school. For the Ḥanbalī school extends ijmāʿ consensus of the Prophet’s companions to include the next generations (tābʿīn) followers. Other sources are (ʿurf) existing custom, (istiṣḥāb) presumption of continuity meaning if an act was allowed at a certain times and we don’t know of anything forbidding it then we can safely assume that it continues to be valid, the laws of previous nations, namely Christian and Jewish.