Tradition

مِنَ الذُّنُوبِ الَّتِى لا يُغْفَرُ: ليتنى لا اُؤاخَذُ إلاّ بِهَذا!

Imam Hasan al-’Askari (‘a) is narrated to have said: “Among the sins that will not be forgiven is the sin where an individual says: ‘How I wish this was my only sin.’”1

Brief Commentary

In Islam, it is possible for lesser sins to be transformed into greater sins. One such way is when an individual considers the lesser sins as being small and inconsequential in nature. This is in fact one of the dangerous insinuations which Satan can make to man where he tells people that their sins are actually nothing to worry about because they are of no account. In certain cases, greater sins, which create fear and worry in people, can actually pose a lesser risk because people quickly recognize them and work to avoid them wholeheartedly.

With lesser sins, there is always the risk that a person may discount them and see them as being trivial in nature. When such sins are committed repeatedly, they are then transformed into greater sins. Such sins are the cause of great torment and difficulty for people, both in this world and the next. They become greater sins because, in a way, one is breaking the sanctity of God by repeatedly and purposefully disobeying him and doing what he has made forbidden.

• 1. Tuhaf al-’Uqul, p. 366, Wasa'il Al-Shi’a, vol. 15, p. 313, Mustadrak Al-Wasa’il, vol. 11, p. 351, Al-Khisal, vol. 1, p. 24, Ghaibat Al-Tusi, p. 207, Kashf Al-Gumma, vol. 2, p. 420, Al-Manaqib, vol. 4, p. 429.