Expiation of Sins

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Expiation (takfīr) of sins (Arabic: تکفیر الذنوب) is the elimination of sins or their consequences on the Day of Judgment as a reward of good deeds. In the Qur'an and hadiths, faith, righteous deeds, repentance, and alms-giving in secret, among others things, are counted among the actions that expiate sins.

Twelver Shiites and Ash'arites accept expiation only in the cases mentioned in the Qur'an and hadiths, but the Mu'tazila believes in expiation for all sins. Imami theologians maintain that the Mu'tazili view is against some Qura'nic verses according to which good deeds and evil deeds will be separately rewarded and punished separately.

Definition

Etymologically, takfir (expiation), means to cover and hide.[1] This is why the word "kafir", from the same root, is used for the one who is ungrateful for God's blessings, as if he hides them.[2] Takfir (expiation) in theology is the elimination of sins or their punishment with the reward of righteous deeds.[3] Takfir stands in contrast to ihbat, which is the elimination of the reward of righteous deeds as a consequence of sins. The word "takfir" is also used in the sense of excommunication, or attributing kufr (disbelief) to a Muslim.[4]

Causes of Expiation

In the Qur'an and hadiths, some deeds are introduced as expiating sins, including faith, righteous deeds,[5] repentance,[6] refraining from grave sins,[7] alms-giving in secret, jihad,[8] intercession,[9] visiting the shrine of Imam al-Husayn (a),[10] reciting the Qur'an,[11] and performing night prayers.[12]

Expiation in Theology

Expiation for sins is also a theological issue, usually discussed together with the issue of ihbat.[13] It is discussed under the topic of resurrection[14] by some Shi'a and Sunni scholars, and under the topic of promise and threat (al-wa'd wa-l-wa'id) by Mu'tazili theologians.[15]

Muslim theologians agree that if a disbeliever converts to Islam, his prior disbelief and sins will be expiated.[16] However, there is disagreement as to the sins committed by a Muslim while being a Muslim:

  • The Mu'tazila maintains that all sins can be expiated and that a righteous deed can eliminate all kinds of sin.[17] The reason behind this belief, it is said, is that the Mu'tazila believes that a person who does righteous deeds deserves reward and the one who commits sins deserves punishment. Now, if a person's deeds were a mixture of righteous deeds and sins, he would deserve punishment and reward at the same time,[18] which is not possible. Thus, the Mu'tazila developed the theory of ihbat and takfir to avoid this problem.[19]
  • Shi'a and Ash'arites[20] do not accept the theory of general ihbat and maintain that righteous deeds only expiate for those sins that are mentioned in the Qur'an or hadiths.[21] In this regard, they adduce verses such as "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it" [22], according to which righteous deeds and sins will be rewarded and punished separately.[23]

Elimination of the Sin or Its Punishment?

There is also disagreement as to whether the sin itself will be eliminated or only its punishment. It is reported that Abu Ali al-Jubba'i, a prominent Mu'tazili figure, maintained that the sin itself will be eliminated, but his son Abu Hashim, another outstanding Mu'tazili theologian, held that only the punishment will be removed.[24]

Muslim philosophers who believe that expiation eliminates the sin itself and at the same time maintain that no being goes out of existence give either of the following explanations:

  • Sin is essentially non-existent.
  • Just as the being of a sinner transforms into another being, his sins also transform into righteous deeds.[25]

See Also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt, p. 714.
  2. ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt, p. 714.
  3. ↑ Muḥammadī, Sharḥ kashf al-murād, p. 553; Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa, p. 422.
  4. ↑ Muḥmūd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Muʿjam al-muṣṭalaḥāt wa al-fāz al-fiqhiyya, under the word "Takfir".
  5. ↑ Qur'an 47:2.
  6. ↑ Qur'an 66:8.
  7. ↑ Qur'an 4:4.
  8. ↑ Qur'an 3:195.
  9. ↑ Qur'an 71:3-4.
  10. ↑ Ibn Qūlawayh, Kāmil al-zīyārāt, p. 126.
  11. ↑ Shaʿīrī, Jāmiʿ al-akhbār, p. p. 39.
  12. ↑ ʿAyyāshī, Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, vol. 2, p. 162.
  13. ↑ Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa, p. 422-427.
  14. ↑ ʿĪjī, Sharḥ al-mawāqif, vol. 8, p. 289-309.
  15. ↑ Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa, p. 422-427.
  16. ↑ See: Shubbar, Ḥaq al-yaqīn fī maʿrifat uṣūl al-dīn, p. 551.
  17. ↑ Shubbar, Ḥaq al-yaqīn fī maʿrifat uṣūl al-dīn, p. 550.
  18. ↑ Dānishnāma-yi Kalām-i Islāmī, Iḥbāṭ wa takfīr, p. 59.
  19. ↑ Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa, p. 422-423.
  20. ↑ ʿĪjī, Sharḥ al-mawāqif, vol. 8, p. 309.
  21. ↑ Shubbar, Ḥaq al-yaqīn fī maʿrifat uṣūl al-dīn, p. 549.
  22. ↑ Qur'an 99:7-8
  23. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 2, p. 170.
  24. ↑ Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa, p. 425-426.
  25. ↑ Daʾirat al-maʿārif-i Qurʾān-i karīm. Iḥbāṭ wa takfīr.

References

  • ʿAyyāshī, Muḥammad b. Masʿūd al-. Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī. Edited by Rasūlī Maḥallātī. Tehran: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya al-Islāmiyya, 1380 SH.
  • Baḥrānī, Ibn Maytham al-. Qawāʿid al-marām fī ʿilm al-kalām. Edited by Aḥmad Ḥusaynī. Qom: Maktabat Ayatullāh Marʿashī Najafī, 1406 AH.
  • Ḥumṣī Rāzī, Sadīd al-Dīn. Al-Munqadhu min al-taqlīd. Qom: Muʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1417 AH.
  • Ibn Qūlawayh, Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad. Kāmil al-zīyārāt. Edited by ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Amīnī. Najaf: Dār al-Murtaḍawīyya, 1356 Sh.
  • ʿĪjī, Mīr Sayyid Sharīf. Sharḥ al-mawāqif. Edited by Badr al-Dīn Naʿsānī. Qom: al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, 1325 AH.
  • Muʿtazilī, Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār. Sharḥ uṣūl al-khamsa. Edited by Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn Abī Hāshim. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿArabī, 1422 AH.
  • Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
  • Muḥammadī Gīlānī, Muḥammad. Takmila shawāriq al-ilhām. Qom: Maktab al-Aʿlām al-Islāmī, 1421 AH.
  • Muḥammadī, ʿAlī. Sharḥ kashf al-murād. Qom: Dār al-Fiqh, 1378 SH.
  • Muḥmūd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Munʿim. Muʿjam al-muṣṭalaḥāt wa al-fāz al-fiqhiyya. Cairo: 1999 CE.
  • Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-. Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān. Edited by Ṣafwān ʿAdnān Dāwūdī. Damascus: Dār al-ʿIlm, 1412 AH.
  • Shubbar, Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh. Ḥaq al-yaqīn fī maʿrifat uṣūl al-dīn. Qom: Anwār al-Hudā, 1424 AH.
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  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom: Maktabat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1417 AH.
  • Daʾirat al-maʿārif-i Qurʾān-i karīm. Iḥbāṭ wa takfīr (Persian).
  • Dānishnāma-yi Kalām-i Islāmī. Iḥbāṭ wa takfīr in the Journal of Kalām-i Islāmī. No 39, Fall 1380 SH.
  • Jaʿfarī, Yaʿqūb. Āshnāʾī bā chand iṣṭilāḥ-i Qurʾānī. Maktab-i Islam Journal, No 100, Year 33.
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