LessonsMinor and Major Sins, Faith, and the Status of a Major SinnerQuiz

Sunni theologians: a major sinner who has not committed unbelief remains a sinful believer. Many Khārijī groups: a major sin can make its perpetrator an unbeliever, though individual Khārijī formulations differed. The Muʿtazilah: classified the unrepentant major sinner in a station between the two stations, neither believer nor unbeliever, with a distinctive account of final punishment.

These are genuinely different doctrinal classifications. They should be represented separately rather than compressed into the uncontroversial statement that sin is morally wrong.

A reported formulation attributed to al-Hasan al-Basri calls the major sinner a hypocrite. The intended sense must be read with the distinction between hypocrisy of belief and hypocrisy of conduct.

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Sunni, Khārijī, and Muʿtazilī positions

Minor and Major Sins, Faith, and the Status of a Major Sinner

Sunni theologians: a major sinner who has not committed unbelief remains a sinful believer. Many Khārijī groups: a major sin can make its perpetrator an unbeliever, though individual Khārijī formulations differed. The Muʿtazilah: classified the unrepentant major sinner in a station between the two stations, neither believer nor unbeliever, with a distinctive account of final punishment.

These are genuinely different doctrinal classifications. They should be represented separately rather than compressed into the uncontroversial statement that sin is morally wrong.

A reported formulation attributed to al-Hasan al-Basri calls the major sinner a hypocrite. The intended sense must be read with the distinction between hypocrisy of belief and hypocrisy of conduct.