—wipe away bad deeds.” (Hud 11:114)
As for the major sins, nothing erases them except sincere repentance. Such repentance requires: (i) immediately abandoning the sin, (ii) resolving never to return to it, and (iii) feeling genuine remorse for having committed it. If the transgression involves wronging another person, one must clear oneself by restoring the right, asking forgiveness, or whatever else will remove the grievance.
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Minor sins are too many to catalogue or enumerate.
With respect to the major sins, the scholars have differed about how many there are. Some said seven, others seventeen, others seventy, and still others six hundred.
The soundest view is that they are limited by definition rather than confined to a particular number. The scholars have offered many definitions, the most comprehensive being that of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah: “A major sin is any sin for which there is a prescribed legal punishment in this world, or a threat of punishment in the Hereafter, or that incurs Allah’s anger, His curse, or the negation of faith from its doer.”
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Al-Ghazali reduced the various acts of disobedience to four categories of character traits: traits of domination, satanic traits, bestial traits, and predatory traits.
• The first, traits of domination, give rise to arrogance, boastfulness, self-admiration, love of praise, the pursuit of superiority, and the like. These traits are spiritually ruinous, yet many people are heedless of them.
• The second, satanic traits, produce envy, injustice, deception, scheming, cheating, hypocrisy, the promotion of corruption, and similar vices.
• The third, bestial traits, stem from the relentless drive to satisfy the appetites of the stomach and the genitals; from them branch fornication, sodomy, theft, bribery, misappropriation, and seizing worldly possessions without right.
• The fourth, predatory traits, engender anger, malice, and aggression against others through killing, assault, and the forcible seizure of people’s wealth.