Fatwa ID: 01353

Answered by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Question:

I seen a family member fighting with 2 guys, and therefore got involved into the fight, but due to my adrenalin and anger i did not realise the other guy NOT fighting back …when i stopped i realised that 1 guy was trying to stop the situation and the other person involved was not retaliating, he was just grappling.  Due to my adrenalin and anger from my view it looked to me as if they both were beating up my family member, the shouting and swearing did not help the situation. I feel very guilty and regret the situation. Can you offer any advice please? Is this a sin i committed? And how i can repent for this sin or any sin.

Answer:

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

Hitting or fighting someone without any reason is a form of oppression. Islam explicitly forbids all forms of oppression and injustice.  Saaiduna Jabir Bin Abdullah narrates that the Prophet of Allah said “Be on your guard against oppression, for oppression is darkness on the Day of Resurrection.”   (Sahih Muslim)

Regarding your situation, even though you hit the brother by mistake and it is mentioned in a hadith narrated by Saaiduna Ibn Abbas that the Prophet of Allah said, “Verily Allah has pardoned] for me my Ummah their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and that which they have been forced to do under duress.” (Sunan Ibn Majah), it will be best to repent and ask for forgiveness from the brother you hit wrongfully.

Allah is the Most Merciful, the Most Kind and he forgives all our sins if we sincerely repent for our shortcomings however, grave and serious it may be.    

The following are some ahadith which have been taken from Imam Nawawi’s Riyadhus Saliheen indicating towards the merciful nature of Allah .

• Saaiduna Abu Hurairah reports that I heard the Prophet of Allah saying: "By Allah, I seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to Him more than seventy times a day.'' (Sahih Bukhari).
• Saaiduna Al-Agharr bin Yasar Al-Muzani narrated that: The Prophet of Allah said: "Turn you people in repentance to Allah and beg pardon of  Him. I turn to Him in repentance a hundred times a day".
  (Sahih Muslim).
• Saaiduna Anas bin Malik the servant of the Prophet of Allah narrated: The Prophet of Allah said, "Verily, Allah is more delighted with the repentance of His slave than a person who lost his camel in a desert land and then finds it (unexpectedly)".
  (Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).
• Saaiduna Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari  reported: The Prophet of Allah said: "Allah, the Exalted, will continue to stretch out His Hand in the night so that the sinners of the day may repent, and continue to stretch His Hand in the daytime so that the sinners of the night may repent, until the sun rises from the west". (Sahih Muslim)
• Saaiduna Abu Hurairah  narrated: The Prophet of Allah said, “He who repents before the sun rises from the west, Allah will forgive him”.(Sahih Muslim].

The scholars have written if the sin committed is related to Allah , then there are 3 conditions for the repentance of the sinner to be accepted.

1.      Refrains from committing the same sin again.

2.      Feels ashamed at what he has done.

3.      Makes a firm intention of not committing that sin again.

The sins that involve the rights of other men: there are four conditions for making tawbah for the sins involving other people’s rights. The fourth condition, apart from the three conditions stated above, is that it is compulsory that the rights be restored to the people and he has to ask for forgiveness from the person whose right is violated.

Only Allah Knows Best

Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham.