Ṣaghāʾir

Minor sins — which can be expiated by consistent good deeds and by the avoidance of major sins, according to the Quranic principle that good deeds remove evil deeds (Hud, 11:114). Unlike the kabāʾir, minor sins do not require formal repentance if the believer consistently maintains their obligations and avoids the gravely forbidden. However, al-Dhahabi emphasises the doctrine of israr — that minor sins repeated without repentance accumulate and eventually become functionally equivalent to major sins. The distinction is meant to calibrate, not to trivialise: no sin is actually small when committed against the One who is infinitely great.

As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Dhahabī and the scholars of his school.