Is it Permissible to Talk About the Sins of Others?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

Is it Permissible to Talk About the Sins of Others?

Answer

About talking about ones sins to other: if someone says to someone that “I too did this before but it is not the right thing to do, so please be careful” will that be considered disclosing ones sins? cause the aim is to prevent the other from doing the same.

I hope you’re doing well, insha’Allah.

The principle is that one doesn’t talk about one’s sins–past or present–unless there is a genuine reason or specific benefit in doing so, that cannot otherwise be reasonably fulfilled.

When one does mention a sin, for such reason, it would be considered akin to a necessity. The principles of necessity are that:
(1) Necessity can dictate exceptions
(2) Exceptions are limited to the extent of necessity–and conditioned by the Sacred Law, not whim.

And Allah alone gives success.

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center