Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 613 [Read full issue]
Sin
"Sin is that which wavers in your soul and which you dislike the people finding out about." [Muslim]
In this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave two very important signs of a sin. The first sign is a completely internal sign within the human being. It is the feeling of the soul with respect to that act. The second sign is also regarding an internal feeling but deals with the outward reaction to the act itself.
Sin causes an otherwise wholesome soul to be uneasy and troubled. The soul is unhappy and worried about sin and its consequences. It cannot rest with the idea of committing a sin.
The soul also hates that anyone should find out about the sin that it has committed. The commentators on this hadith stress that the meaning of "the people" in this hadith is the respected or religious people. For example, a person may not care if other evildoers see him commit a sin. However, it is from the people that he respects and the people of honour that he would wish to hide his sins and bad deeds.
Al-Haitami points out that what is meant here in this hadith are the deeds that one does not wish others to know about from a religious and moral point of view. He says that there are some deeds that one may not wish others to know about out of extreme shyness, embarrassment, custom and so forth. These are not necessarily sins. This hadith is referring to the acts that one's conscience feels bad about because the soul feels that they are morally wrong.
These are the two signs of a sin. These signs occur because a person is naturally disposed to favour what leads to good results and avoid what leads to negative results. However, sometimes one's desires overtake a person, making him blind and dumb, and he does something even though he knows the results can be very negative.
Compiled From:
"Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi" - Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo, pp. 1026 - 1028