Do sins have side effects on us? Yes! Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, gave us a list of those side-effects of committing sins:
– gloominess of the face
– darkness in the heart
– weakness in the body
– deficiency in rizq / provision, and
– hatred in the hearts of people.
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Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, reported the following:
🔵 ❝When Imam Al-Shafi’i sat in front of (Imam) Malik (may Allah have mercy on both of them) and read to him, Malik was impressed by his intelligence, wisdom, and complete understanding. Malik said: Verily, I see Allah has placed light in your heart, so do not extinguish it with the darkness of disobedience (i.e. sins).❞ [Al-Jawab Al-Kafii]
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In his gathering that day, Imam Malik noticed a very bright, very sharp student, and that student was Imam Al-Shafi’i when he was young. He advised Imam Ash-Shafi’i that all of these great qualities can be diminished if he fell into sin!
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Imam Ash-Shafi’i also wrote this very famous line of poetry:
🔵 ❝I complained to Waki (i.e. teacher) about my bad memory, so he advised me to leave sins and said: Verily, knowledge is a light, and the light of Allah is not given to a sinner.❞ [Al-Jawab Al-Kafii]
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Imam Ash-Shafi’i had a phenomenal memory that he used to memorize the Qur’an and hadith, but he started to struggle with memorization at one point, so he complained to his teacher about it. Look how the teacher responded – He didn’t say it was because of evil eye, or hasad / envy, or black magic – although all of these reasons could be possible – but the first thing that he advised was to look within himself and fix that first. Stay away from any act of disobedience to Allah.
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Our sins have negative impacts upon us, not only in the hereafter, but also in this world. Nothing destroys our current life and afterlife more than committing sins. So steer away from them as much as we can, and always seek Allah’s forgiveness for all of our wrongdoings and shortcomings.
