What if Sin is Not What You Think?
Have you ever felt like your relationship with God is like a legal contract?
That if you follow the rules…
…you'll be rewarded,
…but if you break them, you'll be punished.
When we reduce our relationship with God in this transactional way, we fail to see the spiritual truth behind why certain actions are considered wrong.
Imagine if we reduced the purpose of school to simply getting good grades. While grades matter, the true goal is to gain knowledge and grow. If we forget this, we may seek shortcuts to grades without fully engaging in learning
Similarly, if we view religious guidelines as mere rules to follow, our clever minds may lead us to do the bare minimum to uphold the rules and exploit loopholes wherever possible.
I remember a time when I found myself caught in this transactional mindset. I would go through the motions of prayer and good deeds, hoping to earn God's favor. But when I inevitably slipped up, I was more concerned with avoiding punishment than with nurturing a deeper relationship with God.
This approach left me feeling disconnected and unfulfilled, as if my spiritual practice was a hollow ritual rather than a transformative journey.
With time I realized that true repentance is not about meeting a set of external expectations, but about turning inward and realigning myself with wisdom.
This Sufi Comic is looking at forgiveness beyond just reward and punishment.
Art by Charbak Dipta
The behaviors we label as sinful—deceit, greed, cruelty—are wrong precisely because they create a barrier between ourselves and God. They cloud our hearts and make us forget the truth of who we are.
In the Quran, God reminds us:
"We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than his jugular vein" (Quran 50:16).
This verse points to a reality that is easy to forget: no matter how far we may stray, God is always intimately close. It is our own actions that create the illusion of separation.
Viewed in this light, the path of repentance takes on a deeper meaning. To seek forgiveness is not simply to avoid punishment, but to actively choose to remove the veils we have placed between ourselves and God.
The Arabic phrase "Astagfirullah," translated as "I seek forgiveness from God," is often followed by the words “wa-atūbu ilayhi” meaning "and turn back to God." It is a recognition that our sins, while serious, need not define us. We always have the opportunity to realign ourselves with Godly values.
But how do we actually remove these veils in practice? It starts with a shift in intention. Instead of focusing on outward rule-following, we turn our attention inward.
Through self-reflection, sincere prayer and right action we can reconnect with the divine spark within us. It is a gradual process of polishing the heart, of letting go of attachments and illusions.
As we do this inner work, we may find that our outward actions naturally begin to align with our highest values. We become more compassionate, more honest, more attuned to the needs of others.
Not because we are trying to earn reward or avoid punishment, but because we are living from a place of connection and truth.
In the end, the true nature of sin is not limited to breaking rules, but recognizing that it creates a veil of separation between us and God.
And no matter how far we may wander, the path back to God is always open.
