Surah al-Furqān (The Criterion)

Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said:

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The three gravest major sins are disbelief, then unlawful killing, then unlawful sexual intercourse, as Allah has ordered them in His words:

“Those who do not invoke another god besides Allah, nor kill a soul whose killing Allah has forbidden except with just cause, nor commit unlawful sexual intercourse.”

In the two Sahīh collections, it is related that 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ūd said:

“I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, which sin is greatest?’

He replied, ‘To set up a rival to Allah when He created you.’

I asked, ‘Then which?’

He replied, ‘Then to kill your child for fear that he will share your food.’

I asked, ‘Then which?’

He replied, ‘To commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife.’”

There is a rational basis for this ordering: human beings have three faculties—the faculty of reason, the faculty of anger, and the faculty of desire. The highest is the rational faculty, which distinguishes humans from all other animals and which they share with the angels. As Abū Bakr 'Abd al-'Azīz, a scholar of our school, and others have said:

“Angels were created with intellect but without desire,