The Woman Who Was Stoned, and Not Belittling a Sinning Muslim

During the time of Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him), there was a woman who committed zinā, adultery, and made tawbah for it. Under Islamic law she was still to be stoned to death publicly, and she was stoned, with Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) present among those there. This was the command of Allah (swt) given in the Qurʾān. Some of the Companions then asked: "Messenger of Allah, you had her stoned, yet you led the funeral prayer, ṣalāt al-janāzah, over her — how can this be?" Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) answered that her tawbah was such that Allah (swt) forgave not only her but perhaps as many as eighty other people from her family alongside her^**. A Muslim should never be belittled on account of his sin.

There is a warning in this. A person's behaviour may be corrected, but the person himself must not be attacked because of a wrong action — just as a child's wrong action should not be approved, yet nothing should be held against the child himself. Weakness, bad habits — often the reason sin becomes habitual is that it has been present since childhood, and bad habits of that kind do not leave a person easily; years of active effort may be needed to be rid of them. Some of the ʿulamāʾ say that certain bad habits never leave a person at all, and are only washed away once that person is laid on the washing table of the dead. So when a Muslim is seen sinning, he should be felt sorry for, prayed for, because he carries a soul, a rūḥ. Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) says that whoever belittles, humiliates, or looks down with contempt on a Muslim who has repented of a sin — saying to him, "you are terrible, you are despicable, you are a low life, you are good for nothing, you are rubbish, you are dirt" — attacking the Muslim rather than the action, will not have his own life taken by Allah (swt) without first being made to commit that very same sin himself. This holds with particular force where the Muslim in question has already made tawbah.

It happens in an argument: a person's past is thrown back at him. "I remember where you were three years ago," the taunt runs, "and suddenly you're a shaykh now, better than me — remember those days, you were in the casino?" Yet he made tawbah three years ago and has never gone back to that place since, and still that old sin is held over his head, belittling him for it. Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) says, in a different ḥadīth Qudsī, that Allah (swt) swears by His Might and Majesty that He will not take the life of the one who belittles another Muslim in this way without first letting him taste that very sin himself. The duty, then, when a sinning brother is seen, is to be merciful, to help him — if he is heading to the pub, to go with him in order to draw him out of it, not to sit down and join him: "I enjoy your company, let me have a squash — not beer, squash." That is not help, it is only endorsing what he is doing. Taking him out from that place, that is true help, and it must be done with compassion, with raḥmah in the heart — not with the attitude that, because a person is not changing at that moment, nothing more need be felt for him. A Muslim must feel raḥmah. Allah (swt) goes on accepting a servant's tawbah until his very last breath. Sins and acts of disobedience are usually the manifestation of bad habits that have crept into a person's way of life, and ridding oneself of them takes many, many repeated renewals of resolve — it is not easy, and everyone carries something in this regard, without exception.