Allah Most High has forbidden wronging Muslims, whether living or dead, and He has made their blood, property, and honor inviolable. It is authentically established in the two Sahīhs that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said during the Farewell Pilgrimage:

“Your blood, property, and honor are inviolable to one another, just as this day of yours is sacred, in this month of yours, in this city of yours. Have I not conveyed the message? Let those present convey it to those absent, for one to whom it is conveyed may understand it better than one who heard it directly” (1).

Allah Most High also said:

“Those who harm believing men and believing women for something they have not done have burdened themselves with slander and manifest sin.”

[Surah al-Ahzāb: 58]

Thus, whoever harms a believer, living or dead, when that believer has committed no sin warranting such harm falls under this verse. One who exercises independent judgment bears no sin; therefore, if someone harms him (2), he has harmed him for something he did not earn. Likewise, if someone had sinned but then repented of his sin, or was forgiven for some other reason such that no punishment remained due to him, anyone who harms him has harmed him for something he did not earn—even if his own action brought an affliction upon him.

The account of how “Moses disputed with Adam (3) and said, ‘Why did you cause us and yourself to be expelled from Paradise?’ Adam replied, ‘How many years before I was created did you find it written concerning me: “Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray” [Surah Tā Hā: 121]?’ He replied, ‘Forty years.’ He said, ‘Thus Adam prevailed over Moses in the argument’” is an established hadith in the two Sahīhs (4). However, many people have misunderstood its meaning, thinking that Adam invoked divine predestination as an argument that one cannot be blamed for sin (5). They then divided into those who denied its wording and those who subjected its meaning to false interpretations. This understanding is