Teasing A Repentant Sinner

July 10, 2024

4 min read 4 min

Question

I have a query. I want to know what Islam says about this. If a girl was unchaste when she was young and was also into some sort of zina, not the extreme one, and she did all that she should not have done like partying, dancing, smoking (no alcohol), clubbing, going out with boys, being close with them in some manner, because of fun and ignorance and she did not even offer prayer during that period but then slowly and slowly she started to do it less often. One day something happens in her life. A death happens and just wakes her up. She feels what was happening with her. What was she doing? Why was she doing all that nasty stuff? She feels that as if she was forced to do it. Then she leaves all of that and asks Allah’s forgiveness. She becomes a pious lady, leaving all that behind and promising never to do that again.

Is it permissible for any person to say bad things about that girl now? Can they call her that she is a prostitute and all that which she was not? People in her neighborhood and relatives and even her brother teases her and comments her saying that they know what all she did in her past. They are trying to defame her now. They are talking about her character and spreading rumors. Is it right for them to do this, when this girl has left all the bad deeds and has become a nice girl now? She doesn’t even go out. She stays in pardah, offers prayers and seeks forgiveness for all the time. She cries because of all this. Please answer what does Islam say about these people who are torturing her and calling her prostitute? What should be done to them?

One more thing that I want to ask is that why does the girl feel that she was in some kind of trap and that all of a sudden she was set free. And when she sits she can’t even realize that she could do such heinous acts in her past because she had been an innocent girl all her childhood. She could not even think of doing all that what she did. Is that due to some magic affecting her? Is all that is happening in her family is due that magic?

Answer

How is it possible to disrespect the repenting of a fellow Muslim, and at the same time hope that God will accept our repent?

We read in the Qur’an:

“O you who believe! Turn unto Allah in sincere repentance! It may be that your Lord will remit from you your evil deeds and bring you into Gardens underneath which rivers flow” (66:8)

and that “… God loves those who constantly repent … ” (2:222)

Any human being might fall in the trap of Satan and does things that later on will not be even imaginable for him/herself. From what you have written it is clear that the person has truly repented. In fact her very feeling that she cannot even think that she could do all that evil deeds is an indication of her changing her personality and becoming a beter person, that itself can only achieve by a true repent.

It seems like God has forgiven this girl but some people have not! If we expect God to be forgiving and nice to us in the hereafter, then we too need to be forgiving and nice to people, specially those who have had a genuine attempt to please their Lord by repenting.

As fallible human beings, we all need to repent to our Lord. It seems like the girl you mentioned has repented successfully. The question is, when will those who commit sin by teasing and defaming her are going to repent.

Answered by: Farhad Shafti

Date: 2015-01-16