ranks second among the grave sins and ruinous enormities. The wrongdoing and its punishment become even more severe when the victim is a blood-relative of the murderer, and they are intensified yet again when the motive is to cut the slain person off from the provision Allah had allotted to him through the killer’s own hand. Such a deed represents the ultimate miserliness and the height of bad opinion of Allah. For this reason the Almighty said: “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Indeed, killing them is a grievous sin.” ⦗17:31⦘

Third: “that you commit adultery with your neighbour’s wife.” Adultery holds the third rank among the abhorrent, destructive sins. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Do not even approach adultery; it is an outrage and an evil path.” ⦗17:32⦘ The sin becomes still graver when the woman is the neighbour’s wife— a neighbour whom Allah commanded His Messenger to treat with kindness, benevolence, and honourable companionship. How serious, then, is the matter when a man corrupts his neighbour’s bed, violates his sanctity, tramples his honour, and betrays his trust!

2 – The hadith shows that the gravest sin is to associate partners with Allah, followed by unlawfully taking a life that Allah has declared inviolable, and then adultery.

3 – His words ﷺ, “though He alone created you,” serve as a strong rebuke: it is among the ugliest of things to repay blessings with wrongdoing—how much worse when the Benefactor is the One who has granted you the greatest favours, beginning with bringing you forth from non-existence!