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What are the sins for which the one who commits them is punished in the grave?

2 min readAlso available in العربية

The causes of grave torment, summarized and detailed: As for the summarized causes, they stem from the servant's ignorance of his Lord, his neglect of His commands, and his commission of His prohibitions. Thus, the torment of the grave and the Hereafter are effects of Allah's wrath and displeasure.

As for the detailed causes, they include: backbiting, not purifying oneself properly after urinating, devouring people's flesh (slander), praying without purification, not supporting the oppressed, lying, sleeping through the Quran at night and not acting upon it during the day, adultery, consuming usury, laziness in prayer, withholding zakat, consuming the property of orphans, and assailing people's honor.

The torment extends to include sins of the heart, eye, ear, mouth, tongue, stomach, private parts, hand, leg, and the entire body, such as: lying, backbiting, false testimony, slandering chaste women, inciting discord, calling to innovations (bid'ah), speaking about Allah without knowledge, consuming people's wealth unlawfully, drinking intoxicants, adultery, sodomy, theft, betrayal, treachery, and cunning.

It also includes: those who consume usury and those who give it, the Muhallil (one who marries a divorced woman to make her lawful for her former husband) and the Muhallal lahu (the former husband), those who cunningly evade obligations and commit prohibitions, those who harm Muslims, rulers who do not judge by what Allah has revealed, those who issue fatwas without knowledge, those who aid in sin and aggression, murder, atheism (ilhad) in Allah's sacred precinct, negating the realities of Allah's names and attributes, prioritizing opinion over the Sunnah, wailing, forbidden singing and listening to it, building over graves, cheating in weights and measures, arrogance, showing off (riya'), the backbiters and slanderers (humazat and lumazat), those who disparage the Salaf (pious predecessors), and those who believe soothsayers and astrologers.

Also included are: the helpers of oppressors, those who do not cease from sin unless threatened by a created being, those who are not guided by the Quran and Sunnah, those who find the Quran heavy and are delighted by listening to forbidden singing, those who swear by Allah falsely and are truthful when swearing by others, those who openly commit sins, the lewd and foul-mouthed, those who delay and rush through prayers, those who withhold zakat, those who do not perform Hajj despite being able, those who do not fulfill rights, those who are not scrupulous in their words, actions, and eating, those who do not maintain kinship ties, those who do not show mercy to the poor and orphans, those who show off to people, those who withhold common necessities, and those who occupy themselves with people's faults instead of their own.

All of these will be tormented in their graves according to their crimes. Therefore, most of the inhabitants of the graves are tormented, and the victorious among them are few. The outward appearance of graves is dust, but their inward reality is regret and torment, for they are either a garden from the gardens of Paradise or a pit from the pits of Hellfire.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy