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What is the ruling on one who publicizes a sin out of ignorance or forgetfulness of the hadith: "All of my Ummah are pardoned except for those who publicize their sins"? And is his ignorance or forgetfulness forgiven?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The aforementioned Hadith is authentic, and it states that the entire nation is forgiven except for those who publicize their sins. Publicizing sins means that a person commits a sin secretly and then discloses it to people. So, a person who commits a sin secretly and conceals himself has only one sin. However, if he publicizes it or mentions it to others, this is another sin. Scholars say that the Hadith indicates that whoever conceals himself with Allah's concealment, Allah will forgive him from disgrace and punishment. But whoever exposes himself is not forgiven and is held accountable for the sin. Publicizing a sin is another sin, and it may remove the sin from the ignorant, the forgetful, and the mistaken. A Muslim must repent to Allah from all sins, for whoever does not repent is among the wrongdoers.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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