HARÂM (II)

There are two kinds of harâm: One of them is harâm li-’aynihî, and the other one is harâm li-ghayrihî. The former is harâm in essence; it is always harâm. Examples of it are: Homicide, fornication, sodomy, consumption of wine or other alcoholic beverages, gambling, eating pork, and women’s and girls’ going out with their heads, arms and legs exposed. If a person says the Basmala-i-sherîfa as he or she commits the aforesaid sins or believes them to be halâl, i.e. if he or she does not attribute importance to the fact that Allâhu ta’âlâ has made them harâm, that person becomes a kâfir. However, if such people commit these sins although they believe that they are harâm acts and therefore fear the torment that Allâhu ta’âlâ will inflict on them, they will not become kâfirs, yet they will deserve torment in Hell.

Harâm li-ghayrihî is something that becomes harâm because it has been obtained by way of harâm although it is not harâm in essence. Examples of it are: To enter someone’s orchard, pick fruit, and eat them without the owner’s permission, and to steal someone’s household property or money and spend it. If a person who does so says the Basmala as he does so or says that it is halâl, he will not become a kâfir. If a person unjustly withholds someone else’s property that weighs as heavy as a grain of barley, in the altermath of life in this world Allâhu ta’âlâ will expropriate from that person the thawâb for seven hundred rak’ats of namâz which have been performed in jamâ’at –and which have been accepted (by Allâhu ta’âlâ). There is much more thawâb (rewards to be given in the Hereafter) in avoiding either kind of harâms than in doing acts of worship.