English Translation
Book by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Shirk: associating partners in worship with Allaah
3. Grave-worship
4. Sacrificing to anything other than Allaah
5. Allowing what Allaah has forbidden and forbidding what Allaah has allowed
6. Magic, fortune-telling and divination
7. Astrology, or believing that the stars and planets have an influence on people’s lives and events
8. Believing that certain things can bring benefit when the Creator has not made them so
9. Showing off in worship
10. Superstitious belief in omens
11. Swearing by something other than Allaah
12. Sitting with hypocrites and wrongdoers to enjoy their company or to keep them company
13. Lack of composure in prayer
14. Fidgeting and making unnecessary movements in prayer
15. Deliberately anticipating the movements of the imaam (when praying in congregation)
16. Coming to the mosque after eating onions or garlic, or anything that has an offensive smell
17. Zinaa - fornication and adultery
18. Sodomy (homosexuality)
19. Not allowing one’s husband to have marital relations for no legitimate reason
20. Asking one’s husband for a divorce for no legitimate reason
21. al-Zihaar
22. Having intercourse with one’s wife during her period
23. Having intercourse with one's wife in her rectum
24. Not treating co-wives fairly
25. Being alone with a non-mahram woman
26. Shaking hands with a non-mahram woman
27. A woman wearing perfume when going out or passing by nonmahram men
28. A woman travelling without a mahram
29. Deliberately looking at a non-mahram woman
30. Seeing one’s womenfolk behaving in an immoral fashion and keeping silent
31. Making false claims about a child’s lineage, or denying one’s own child
32. Consuming riba (usury or interest)
33. Concealing a product’s faults at the time of sale
34. Artificially inflating prices
35. Trading after the second call to prayer on Friday
36. Gambling
37. Theft
38. Offering or accepting bribes
39. Seizing land by force
40. Accepting a gift in return for interceding
41. Hiring someone and benefitting from his labour, then not paying him his wages
42. Not giving gifts equally to one’s children
43. Asking people for money when one is not in need
44. Seeking a loan with no intention of repaying it
45. Consuming haraam wealth
46. Drinking khamr - even a single drop
47. Using vessels of gold and silver, or eating or drinking from them
48. Bearing false witness
49. Listening to music and musical instruments
50. Gossip and backbiting
51. Slander
52. Looking into people’s houses without their permission
53. Two people conversing privately to the exclusion of a third
54. Isbaal - wearing clothes that come down below the ankles
55. Men wearing gold in any shape or form
56. Women wearing short, tight or see-through clothes
57. Wearing wigs and hairpieces, whether made from natural or artificial hair, for men and women
58. Men resembling women and women resembling men, in dress, speech and appearance
59. Dyeing one’s hair black
60. Having pictures of animate beings on clothing, walls or paper, etc.
61. Lying about one’s dreams
62. Sitting or walking on graves, or answering the call of nature in a graveyard
63. Not cleaning oneself properly after passing water
64. Eavesdropping on people who do not want to be heard
65. Being a bad neighbor
66. Writing a will for the purpose of harming one of the heirs
67. Playing backgammon
68. Cursing a believer or someone who does not deserve to be cursed
69. Wailing (at time of bereavement)
70. Striking or branding the face
71. Abandoning a Muslim brother for more than three days with no legitimate reason

Introduction:

Praise be to Allaah; we praise Him and seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls and from our evil deeds. Whomever Allaah guides will never be led astray, and whomever Allaah leaves astray, no-one will guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allaah Alone, with no partners or associates, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

Allaah, may He be glorified and exalted, has laid down obligations which we are not permitted to ignore, and has set limits which we are not permitted to transgress, and has set out prohibitions which we are not allowed to violate.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whatever Allaah has permitted in His Book is allowed, and whatever He has prohibited is forbidden; whatever He has remained silent about is a concession, so accept the concession of Allaah, for Allaah is never forgetful.” Then he recited the aayah: “. . . and your Lord is never forgetful” [Maryam 19:64]. (Reported by al-Haakim, 2/375; classified as hasan by al-Albaani in Ghaayat al-Maraam, p. 14)

The things which have been prohibited are the boundaries or limits set by Allaah: “. . . And whosoever transgresses the set limits of Allaah, then indeed he has wronged himself . . .” [al-Talaaq 65:1]

Allaah has issued a threat to the one who transgresses His set limits and violates His prohibitions, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): “And whosoever disobeys Allaah and His Messenger, and transgresses His limits, He will cast him into the Fire, to abide therein; and he shall have a disgraceful torment.” [al-Nisaa’ 4:14]

Avoiding that which has been forbidden is a duty, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whatever you have been prohibited to do, avoid it, and whatever you have been commanded to do, do as much of it as you can.” (Reported by Muslim, Kitaab al-fadaa’il, hadeeth no. 130, Abd al-Baaqi edition).

It is well-known that some of those who follow their desires, who are weak at heart and have little knowledge, become irritated when they hear lists of prohibitions. They