In Islam - How To Keep Your Sins To Yourself

O you who believe! Avoid much suspicions, indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allâh. Verily, Allâh is the One Who accepts repentance, Most Merciful. (Quran, 49:12)

Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly (for forgiveness) and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean. (Quran, 2:222)

There is an English saying which goes like this:

What he/she doesn't know will not hurt him/her.

This saying is true but no sin which no one else knows should be shared with anyone. Only Allah knows and He may forgive you.

In Islam it is advised if you have sinned and only you know it, to keep it to yourself and not share it with another soul, not even your closest of friends, because although Allah knows you have sinned, if Allah wills He may forgive you.

Christians are able to go to church and confess their sins to a priest but muslims can directly confess their sins with Allah and repent to never do it again. This way Allah may forgive and save we may be saved from the hell fire. We should only ask for forgiveness from Allah and no one else. If a practicing Muslim acts in a sinful way, he/she should repent straight away to Allah and offer two rakat salat (prayer) and never do it again intentionally.

"Verily Allah has recorded the good deeds and the evil deeds." Then he clarified that: "Whosoever intends to do a good deed but does not do it, Allah records it with Himself as a complete good deed; but if he intends it and does it, Allah records it with Himself as ten good deeds, up to seven hundred times, or more than that. But if he intends to do an evil deed and does not do it, Allah records it with Himself as a complete good deed; but if he intends it and does it, Allah records it down as one single evil deed."

[Al-Bukhari & Muslim]

As Muslims or even non-Muslims, we should not disclose someone else's mistakes, wrongdoings or secrets that were shared with us in confidence. Would you like it if you shared information with someone and they told other people that you know? No? I thought so.

The way we live our lives, we have to try our best to keep confidentiality a priory. If we share everything with everyone, we will face consequences in this life and in the hereafter.

The Prophet (pbuh); 'If it is present in him, it would be backbiting, and if it is not present, it would be slander.'

The above hadith is referring to a person if he or she does have a defect and other people want to mock him or her for it, it is still not right do so because it is a sin.

With an individuals sins, is best left unsiad and undercover. Below are some examples of major and minor sins that people share with their friends and some family:

• Zina (adultery)
• Gambling
• Making truth into lies
• Making up stories to get attention
• Boasting about something they did which was a sin, but they feel good about it
• Sharing with other people bad things they said or did to another person

The list is endless, but i hope you understand what the message is here.

Allah said (translated to mean in general), 'If a person conceals someone elses sins, then I will conceal that persons sins on the Day of Judgement. If a person reveals another persons sins with other people, then I will reveal that persons sins to other people on the Day of Judgement.'

This can be interpreted to mean that we should conceal what we have in our breasts (heart), and not inform anyone else about it. Only Allah knows what we, humans and jinn, conceal in our breasts.

We hope and pray that on the Day of Judgement, Allah forgives all of our sins. Ameen.