Muslims commanded to conceal their sins
19-9-2016 | IslamWeb
Question:
If a person commits a sin and attempts to hide his sins lest Allaah expose them, is he a Kafir given that he does so trying to stop Allaah from doing some thing i.e he believes that he can do so? And, secondly, if after receiving news that someone has become Muslim, if someone says, "I do not care," what is the ruling on him? I have asked the same question before, but it contained errors, so ignore that. In addition, in case you received more questions, ignore them as they where due to errors from me. May Allaah reward you.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
The person who commits a sin and hides it out of fear that Allaah would expose him is actually doing the right thing. Though he was wrong to commit a sin, hiding his sin is definitely better than openly proclaiming it. It is prescribed for the Muslim to conceal his evil deeds from the people; the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, "All my followers will be forgiven except those who openly expose their sins." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Upon knowing that, how can one even think that a sinner who deliberately conceals his evil deeds is declared a disbeliever! Such a false idea stems from satanic whisperings that the devil casts into the heart of the Muslim.
It should be noted that when he conceals his sinful acts, he is not trying to stop the actions of Allaah; it is inconceivable that anyone could alter or hinder the actions of Allaah. In fact, when the sinner conceals his evil deeds, he is utilizing the prescribed means set by Allaah.
As for the person who expressed indifference towards a specific person's conversion to Islam by saying, "I do not care," he is mistaken because the Muslim is enjoined to rejoice at the conversion of new Muslims, although he apparently meant that the conversion of that person to Islam does not benefit him while his adherence to disbelief would not harm him either.
Allaah knows best.