Iṣrār
الإصرار على الصغيرةDefinition
Persistence in minor sin — the principle that repeating a minor sin consistently without repentance can transform it, in spiritual weight, into a major sin. This is one of al-Dhahabi's most important and practically urgent doctrinal points: the believer who thinks they are safe because they commit only 'small' sins, but never repents, never changes, and never takes their condition seriously, is in a more dangerous position than they realise. Israr erodes the conscience, habituates the heart to sin, and gradually closes the space between the minor and the major. The antidote is frequent tawbah, muhasaba, and the refusal to treat any sin as too small to be addressed.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Dhahabī and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Iṣrār.
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"sites and retreats in the world, boasting magnificent palaces, noble buildings, and remarkable gardens. The blessed refuge is a small cave in the middle like a small house, opposite a house said to be the prayer place of al-Qidr, peace be upon him. People rush to pray there. It has a small iron door surrounded by streets, and the mosque around it has a running water channel, with water descending from above, incomparable in beauty and uniqueness and shape. Nearby there are ablution facilities through which water flows. This blessed hill is the head of Damascus' gardens, with its water sources divided into seven rivers,"
— Ibn Battuta, Volume One: From Tangier to the Lands of the East
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"In some of those islands, I saw a woman with a single breast on her chest, and she had two daughters, one like her with a single breast, and the other with two breasts, except that one was large and contained milk, while the other was small and contained no milk. I marveled at their condition. We arrived at a small island among those islands, which had only one house with a weaver, his wife, children, coconut palms, and a small boat he used for fishing and traveling to wherever he wished among the islands."
— Ibn Battuta, Volume Two: From India to the Lands of the West
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"Ibn Laya said, the vigorous sheep have broad milk flow, and the swollen teat is lengthy and drags. The narrow one has a tight flow, and the small teated is like two nipples, and the tight one is where the hand does not cover the udder due to its small size. The authenticity of elevating this hadith is questionable. It might be reliant on a narration, as Ibn Jarir said, Muhammad Ibn al-Muthana told us, Muadh Ibn Hisham told us, my father told me, from Qatada, who heard from Anas Ibn Malik, who said, when the prophet of Allah, Moses, invited his companion to fulfill the term agreed upon between them, his companion said, every sheep born contrary to its usual color"
— Ibn Kathir, The Story of Musa
Appears in
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