One of the greatest gifts from Allah upon us is the gift of keeping hidden away from the knowledge of others our private sins.

This gift entails not just Divine Mercy, but levels of it, as through it Allah saves us from having to deal with the impact of negative thoughts harboured by others about us, because of our sins, even after we may seek forgiveness from Allah, and Allah Almighty forgiving us.

Allah Almighty is the Entirely Merciful, and He’s forgiveness over us is easy. The situation is entirely different with the creation of Allah!

With the creation of Allah, their knowledge of our sins can sometimes become intertwined with our souls. As a result, we may be remembered for our slips, mistakes and transgressions long after we pass away, even though our slate with Allah Almighty had since been wiped clean.

Furthermore, It is also for this reason that Islam commands us to keep concealed the sins of others that we may know of, and to do so religiously.

In practicing this age-old command, not only do we achieve the benefits already shared for the concealment of sins at the individual level, but also preserve the ‘state of mind’ of the Ummah, by protecting the believers from becoming desensitised to those very same sins.

After all, It is from human nature to become more accepting of something frequently published or ‘marketed’ more openly.

As we can perceive; this idea of concealment is undoubtedly not just from being merciful to the sinner, but also the Ummah!

But what about the open sinner. The one who unashamedly publishes their transgressions, especially via social media?

Would Islamic Law (Fiqh) permit openly sharing their transgressions?

The collective writings of the Fuqahaa (Scholars of Fiqh), do not present the idea of a white canvass approach in publishing the open transgressions of others.

Rather the Fuqahaa permit outward/open efforts towards stopping the person transgressing; an approach that wouldn’t even be a consideration with hidden sins due to their concealed nature and confined status between a sinner and their Lord.

Accordingly, this approach would fall within the Shari’ah remit of conceptualising benefits and harms, and establishing an approach that doesn’t allow any harm to flourish in a greater way at the expense of benefit.

Accordingly, it would not be permissible to retweet/post/share someone’s published transgressions in a manner that would make new audiences aware of their sin, and or desensitise sensible people to the sin. Rather the least harmful means of aiding the cessation of the published sin should be explored.

May Allah forgive our past and inspire our future. Ameen.

And Allah knows best.