10 Adverse Effect of Sins that are Dreadful to Your Life Growth
Our Lord, make us devoted to You; make our descendants into a community devoted to You. Show us how to worship and accept our repentance, for You are the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful. -Qur’an 2[Al-Baqarah]:128
One truth is humans are bound to sin, you can’t escape your share of it. Only Angels are flawless. God created them without free will and they consciously obey the instruction of their Lord. Man, on the other hand, is tested with this intellectual curiosity to question God’s will. He thereby transgresses into sinful ways. So to sin is indeed part of human nature but to repent and seek God’s forgiveness is tantamount to being a truthful servant of God. You have a Lord Who is Ever-willing to forgive, no matter how great you might have erred.
The dark side of sinning is what we’re focusing on in this piece. And it’s necessary for us to be able to trace the root cause of some life challenges which may be attributed to this act of negligence. The great scholar Ibn Al Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah mentioned some of these in his book: Al-Jawab al-Kaafi — in sha Allah, we shall examine some in brief.
- Prevention of Knowledge: The similitude of sin is like a black spot that darkens the heart. Knowledge, on the other hand, is a light that illuminates the heart. Hence, both cannot live in the same heart. Imam Malik was the teacher of Imam Shafii and when he discovered his extreme brilliance, he admonished him thus: “I see that Allah has cast in your heart a light, so do not darken that light with the darkness of sin.”
- Prevention of Provision: There’s a beautiful hadith in which Allah’s Apostle (SAW) said: ‘‘The holy spirit cast into my essence that no soul shall perish until it completes its lifespan and its provision, so fear Allah, and seek it beautifully. And do not let the delay of that provision cause you to seek it through disobeying Allah. For what is with Allah cannot be acquired except through obedience to Him.” — Saheeh Al-Jami’
- Feeling Distant from Your Creator and righteous ones: Every time you commit a sin and fail to repent, you distant yourself from God The Almighty and the sweetness of faith gradually evades from your heart. So you don’t find comfort with pious people as you’re more inclined to being with the sinful ones.
- Things Become Difficult for You: God tells us in the Holy Qur’an:
And whoever fears Allah; He will make for him of his matter ease. — Qur’an 64[At-Talaq]:4
So obviously, the one who disobeys Allah will not find his affairs facilitated. His means may become tightened and would find doors closed upon him.
5. Your Prayer isn’t Accepted: Sins hinder the acceptance of du’a. Let’s journey through this famous hadith of Abu Hurayra (RA):
“…A person travels for a long time in the way of Allah, his hair disheveled and covered with dust. He lifts his hand towards the sky and makes the supplication: “O Lord, O Lord!” However, what he eats is haram, his drink is haram, and his clothes are haram. How can his supplication be accepted since he feeds himself with haram?” — (Muslim)
6. Weakens the heart, body, and soul: One of the evils of sins is the weakness of the heart. A person finds it hard to show mercy and compassion from the heart. Persistent sinning leads to weakness in the body and limbs. They find it hard to bow down and pray nor fast for the sake of Allah. When this becomes perpetual, then it affects the soul if one dies in that state.
7. Shortens a person’s lifespan: A person may live long but if it’s in a sinful way, then their life is devoid of Allah’s blessings. The longevity of life is not superior to the purpose of existence. In a period of heedlessness, you might think you’re living the life. However, what is this life if not utilized in servitude to the One Who gave you life?
8. Sins open doors for more sins: Sinfulness is like a chain reaction where one sin leads to another. The more you continue sinning without repentance, the better you get established as a sinner. A good example is telling lies. You can hardly tell a lie without bringing up another false tale to cover-up. The Prophet (SAW) said:
Beware of lying as lying leads to transgression and transgression leads to the fire.
9. Becoming insignificant before Allah: The transgressor has no value in the sight of Allah except that He gives him respite to repent before his lifespan comes to a halt. Look through Islamic history, the smaller army has always conquered the larger one with more sophisticated weapons. How has this been possible? When the Muslims conquered Cyprus, Abu Ad-Darda was crying and the people asked him why he was in a sober mood on a day of victory. He said: “how insignificant is the creation in the sight of Allah if they disobeyed His Command? This is a powerful nation conquered by the Muslims because of their disobedience to Allah”. It tells that the moment we become sinful, we lose our value before our Lord.
10. A path of wrath towards hell: Imam Hassan Al-Basri would often weep until the people ask him why he’s crying. Then he replies: “I fear that Allah will cast me into the fire and He will not mind”. People commit grievous sins today without caring what Allah will do to them. In another narration, Allah’s Apostle (PBUH) said:
Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “You must be truthful. Verily, truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man continues to be truthful and encourages honesty until he is recorded with Allah as truthful. And beware of falsehood. Verily, falsehood leads to transgression and transgression leads to the Hellfire. A man continues tell lies and encourages falsehood until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.” — Bukhari and Muslim
In conclusion, this piece wasn’t meant to drive us towards the guilt of being sinners. The goal is to seek repentance in order to earn God’s Forgiveness. This is from the endless bounties of Allah which we can only harness while we still breathe.
From Anas, radiyallahu ‘anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, say: “Allah the Almighty has said: ‘O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me, and hope in Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds in the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I shall forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with an earthful of sins and were you then to face Me, without having associated anything with Me, I shall grant you an earthful of pardon.’” — At-Tirmidhi
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