Religion and Theology

Islam is one of the major world religions in the world. It is also one of the staunch faiths whose applications of the teachings of the Quran are taken with utmost strictness. The Quran acts as the guiding principle in the everyday life of a Muslim faithful. This discussion delves deep into the Muslim faith paying particular attention on what is considered sin and how forgiveness is done in this religion (Murad. 57)
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In order to establish whether an act or omission in the Islamic faith the teachings of Prophet Muhammad are looked. Any act or omission which goes against these teachings is considered a sin. Sins are classified into three major categories which are sins against God the Almighty (Allah), sins against another human being and sins against the human race. However commission of sins does not make one cease to be a Muslim (Murad. 65-68).

Sins are further classified into other four categories. The first category is that of sins which can be forgiven without the guilty person having to repent their sins. The next category is of sins which can be forgiven by making up with good deeds. This means that if a person has sinned then they do something good as a way of making up for their initially bad deeds. These sins are known as tharaba sagina. The other category is of sins which can be forgiven after repentance but God the Almighty (Allah) can forgive even without repentance if He wills. These sins are referred to as tharaba kabira. The fourth category is of sins which are against a large group of people and forgiveness must be sought (Murad. 106-110).

For forgiveness to effectively take place repentance is necessary. Repentance is acceptance. This helps to give the person who have been wronged the rights and authority to forgive. The requirement however is that the person who has been wronged must accept to forgive the wrongdoer upon the latter repenting of his sins.

Islam is one of the religions where sin is taken with great weight. Everyday a Muslim faithful strives to please Allah and always tries to keep away with that which is forbidden or that which can make Allah angry. The wrath of Allah is feared in the Muslim faith. It is thus imperative that A Muslim faithful asks for guidance every single day so as not to fall into temptations and go against that which is the will of Allah. Muslims conduct prayers at least five times in a day and every time during these prayers guidance is one of the key issues that they pray for. Of all the sins that there are in the Islam faith the worst of them all is to compare Allah with any other being. This is known as blasphemy and it is classified as the worst sins of all (Murad. 153-159). This is what is known as shirk

The sins that a person commits is either through the influence by the devil (Shaytaan) or act of self control which leads a person to act way beyond the expectations of the Islam religion. Allah does not find pleasure with the bad deeds committed by human beings and only finds delight in the good deeds that mankind is involved in. It is only Allah who can help a person to refrain from sins and do only that which is right. May God the Almighty forgive us sins of the past, present and help us refrain from committing sins in future (Murad. 176-180).