Month 10, Day 9: Sin and Virtue in Islam

Since we were talking about sin and repentance last time, I thought today would be a good time to look a little more into what Muslims consider sinful—and what they consider virtuous.

Unlike Christianity and Judaism’s explicit lists of sins—the Seven Deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments—Islam’s Qur’an has lots of references to sin, but no overall list.

Me? I’m a list-maker at heart, so I’ll try to give you a few of the “biggies,” just for simplicity’s sake.

Major Sins in Islam

1. Worshipping idols

2. Not obeying your parents

3. Lying

4. Committing suicide or murdering someone else

5. Committing adultery or engaging in premarital sex

6. Collecting interest on investments

7. Stealing from orphans (Seriously? Is this something you run into a lot in your daily life? How about just no stealing, period?)

8. Making a free person a slave (I assume it’s okay to have a slave who’s already a slave. Nice.)

9. Killing a baby (again, who are the people who came up with these? Wow.)

10. Gossiping or slandering someone

I don’t know. It seems to me like there’s a lot left out and a lot that’s there that doesn’t really need to be. It’s okay to keep slaves, but don’t gossip! What the hell?

Anyway, if those are the major sins in Islam, then what are the major virtues?

Virtuous Deeds in Islam

1. Learning and being studious

2. Freeing slaves (which, if you ask me, seems to contradict the list of sins, where it’s okay to have slaves in the first place)

3. Being truthful

4. Respecting your parents

5. Donating to charity

6. Returning items after you borrow them (Seriously? That’s a major virtue? Isn’t that just common courtesy?)

7. Opposing injustice

8. Being kind to your family

9. Being kind to animals

10. Giving food to poor people

Overall, these lists strike me as either common sense (and hence, unnecessary to mention as “major” sins or virtues) or kind of kooky. How does fighting injustice even make it onto the same list with returning your neighbor’s lawn mower (or, in my case, my snow blower—you know who you are, sinner!).

Maybe I’m overdramatic, but I want “sins” to be sins—hell-worthy, absolute abominations, things like torturing animals for sport (hear that, Michael Vick?). And I also want “virtues” to be heaven-worthy acts of true nobility—not stupid little petty things like remembering to return books to the library.

Ugh. I’m in a bad mood. Maybe it’s the lack of wine. But I’ll try to move on. It’s probably a sin to be pissed off at the fact that I can’t have wine.