Whoever initiates a bad deed in Islam will bear the burden of anyone who does it after him

28/05/2007| IslamWeb

Question:

I have a question about something I read in the Quran verse: 38 part 27, "That no burdened person (with sins) shall bear the burden (sins) of another."  So, how is that possible if Aadam’s son who was the first to kill, he will take sins from everyone who kills after him?  And how can someone who wears revealing clothes takes sins for someone looking at them with desire?  I am confused; this doesn't make sense to me.  Please help me to understand. 

 

Fatwa:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Allah Says (what means): {… And every soul earns not [blame] except against itself, and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another…} [Quran 6:164]. This verse means that no person shall be held accountable for the sins of another person that he did not commit.

Allah also Says (what means): {When he said to his father and his people, "What are these statues to which you are devoted?”} [Quran 21:52].

This does not contradict what the questioner said about Aadam's son who killed his brother and who will bear the sin of anyone who killed a person with no legal right until the Last Day. In fact, he bears that burden because he was the first person to kill, hence the first to introduce the obnoxious sin of killing in humanity. This is why the Prophet said: "Because he was the first to establish killing." [Al-Bukhari]

Had he not killed his brother, people would not have known killing. He was the first one to show them the way of getting rid of another person. So, he deserved special punishment for the act of teaching others this awful sin.

Similarly, the woman who displays her charm outside her home is in fact the one who caused marriageable men to look at her. So, she deserves punishment for that. Had she put on her Hijab and obeyed Her Lord's orders, she would have saved herself from unwanted glances of men. So, she is the one responsible for letting others look at her. By doing so, she commits a sin and so do those who look at her.

Since Satan will be punished for making people go astray although it is the people who commit the sins themselves under no compulsion, then people are also punished for causing each other to go astray. The Great Justice of Allah and His Great Blessing are materialized, among other things, in His awarding the Muslim reward of any good deed that he initiates and granting that person the same reward granted to anyone who does that deed without any reduction of the reward of the doer himself. The same rule applies to the person who initiates a bad tradition, he also gets its punishment and the same punishment inflicted to anyone who commits it.

Imaam Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, reported that the Prophet said: "Whoever, initiates (revives) a good deed in Islam he gets its reward, and the reward granted to anyone who does it after him without reducing the reward of the doer himself. And anyone who establishes a bad deed in Islam he bears its burden and the burden of anyone who does it after him, without reducing anything from the doer's sin."

Allah knows best.