A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
The ill effects of sin.
It is rare for a sin to occur in isolation.
Rather, it is usually preceded or accompanied by,
or followed by, various other sins.
For example, the envy and resentment the brothers of Yusuf (peace be upon him) felt toward him
led them to commit multiple sins.
It began with their accusation against their father,
who was a noble prophet, claiming he was in clear error.
“When they said: Verily Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, many though we be. Lo! our father is in plain aberration.” (12:8)
Then came their lying to their father,
and their deception to take Yusuf with them.
Then they forcibly took Yusuf’s shirt to use it in another crime.
Then they cast Yusuf into the well,
exposing him to the danger of death.
They followed this up with repeated lies.
They feigned tears hypocritically to sell their fabricated story about a wolf killing their brother,
and lied by smearing blood on Yusuf’s shirt.
Similarly, take the sin of adultery, for instance.
It is preceded by the sin of forbidden gazing and all the other precursors to adultery.
It is often accompanied by the consumption of alcohol and drugs,
and by deception and lying to conceal that sin.
A person might even resort to theft to obtain the money needed to commit it.
A pregnancy may result from it,
leading the woman, alone or with her partner, to seek to get rid of the fetus and kill it.
Or, if their affair is exposed, they might eliminate whoever discovered and revealed it.
And so on, it continues.
Thus, a sin rarely stops at the point of its initial commission.
Another ill effect of sin is that when a person commits it for the first time,
they feel a sense of unease and their conscience pricks them for doing it.
Yet, it is not long before they repeat it a second and third time,
until they become accustomed to it and their internal rejection of it fades away.
Then, their attachment to it intensifies until it becomes difficult for them to abandon it.