Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
al-Kabair li al-Dhahabi
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Nadwah al-Jadidah
al-Kaba'ir (The Major Sins) is an ethical and legal treatise written by the Syrian hadith scholar and historian Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (673–748 AH / 1274–1348 CE), enumerating and detailing major sins in Islamic law based on scriptural texts .
Purpose and Definition
Al-Dhahabi defines major sins (al-kaba'ir) as those acts prohibited by God and His Messenger in the Quran and the Sunnah, as well as in reports transmitted from the righteous early predecessors (al-salaf al-salih) . He cites the Quranic promise that avoiding major sins secures the expiation of minor misdeeds and admission into Paradise, quoting the verse: إِنْ تَجْتَنِبُوا كَبَائِرَ مَا تُنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ نُكَفِّرْ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَنُدْخِلْكُمْ مُدْخَلًا كَرِيمًا ("If you avoid the major sins which you are forbidden, We will remove from you your lesser sins and admit you to a noble entrance") [al-Nisa': 31] .
Addressing the differing definitions among scholars regarding what constitutes a major sin, al-Dhahabi adopts the criterion that any transgression for which a prescribed legal punishment (hadd) is mandated in this worldly life—such as murder, fornication, and theft—or for which an explicit threat (wa'id) of punishment, divine wrath, damnation, or a curse is pronounced in the Hereafter by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, constitutes a major sin . He also notes that major sins vary in gravity, citing polytheism (al-shirk) as the greatest among them .
Structure and Contents
Al-Dhahabi structures the book into dedicated chapters addressing individual transgressions, bringing the total enumeration to seventy major sins :
- Opening Sin: The work opens with the first and gravest major sin, associating partners with God (al-shirk billah), dividing it into major polytheism and lesser forms .
- Subsequent Chapters: The treatise proceeds through major offenses against human life, family, and public morality, including murder, severing ties of kinship, sorcery, abandoning the obligatory prayers, withholding zakat, consuming usury (riba), usurping the property of orphans, consuming intoxicants, bearing false witness, deceit, and spying against Muslims .
- Closing Sin: Al-Dhahabi concludes the book with the seventieth major sin: reviling or disparaging any of the Prophet's Companions (sabb ahad min al-sahabah) .
Method and Sourcing
In compiling the work, al-Dhahabi systematically establishes the prohibition and severity of each sin by first presenting relevant Quranic verses, followed by prophetic hadiths adduced from authoritative collections such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as well as the Sunan works . As a hadith critic, he periodically comments on the chains of transmission, pointing out weak narrations when encountered in specific chapters .
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