Invading Privacy and Concealing Sins
Today’s topic is on invading privacy and concealing sins.
Dear brothers, we are all guilty of sin and making mistakes. However, there is one thing in making that mistake and another in publicising the mistake and telling others about it. This is something that we are advised against by Allah SWT.
The imam mentioned the 19th ayat of Sura An-Nur in reference to this. It is translated to say:
Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicized] among those who have believed, will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know.
Dear brothers, as we can deduce from this ayat, Allah SWT likes to keep the sins of people private and therefore we should strive to do the same, both in the case of sins we commit and of those we hear others committing.
This commandment of Allah SWT is backed up by the actions of the Prophet SAWS. The imam mentioned the following hadith in reference to this:
I heard Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saying. “All the sins of my followers will be forgiven except those of the Mujahirin (those who commit a sin openly or disclose their sins to the people). An example of such disclosure is that a person commits a sin at night and though Allah screens it from the public, then he comes in the morning, and says, ‘O so-and-so, I did such-and-such (evil) deed yesterday,’ though he spent his night screened by his Lord (none knowing about his sin) and in the morning he removes Allah’s screen from himself.”
Dear brothers, we can see from this that the importance of concealing our sins is very important. This is a crucial reminder in todays age as we live in a world of mass information and communication across multiple platforms. From Facebook to WhatsApp, from smart phones to CCTV, our actions and deeds are recorded and distributed greater and faster than ever before.
We need to be mindful of this and try harder in the first instance to not commit sins that are ever more at risk at being shared across these platforms. Alongside that, we need to make a conscious effort in not sharing the sins of others. Whether it’s through gossip in the whatsapp groups we are in or through shared recordings that is so easily passed around, we need to be mindful that this is all a potential modern trap to have us disclose sins to others.
By making this effort and concealing the sins of ours and others, we can hope to be of those who are included in the group that is mentioned in this hadith of the Prophet SAWS who said:
The servant (who conceals) the faults of others in this world, Allah would conceal his faults on the Day of Resurrection.
