Authority to Forgive Sins: Sharʿi Clarification and Hadith Analysis
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
❖ Question
What is the authenticity of the following narration?
❀ ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ رضي الله عنه said:
قلت: يا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، إني أبايعك على أن تغفر لي ما تقدم من ذنبي.
“I said: O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! I pledge allegiance to you on the condition that you forgive my past sins.”
(Musnad Aḥmad 4/198)
❖ Answer
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu wa-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, ʿAmma Baʿd!
- The chain of this narration is weak.
- Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Thaqafī is majhūl al-ḥāl (unknown). Only Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him (al-Thiqāt 4/139).
❖ Clarification of the Meaning
- The intended meaning of “forgiveness” here is not that the Prophet ﷺ had the independent authority to forgive sins.
- Rather, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ رضي الله عنه was seeking reassurance regarding the crimes committed in the state of disbelief, such as his opposition to Islam and injustices against Muslims.
- He was worried that after embracing Islam, he might still be held accountable through qiṣāṣ (retaliation).
- Therefore, he requested that those past hostilities be pardoned upon his entry into Islam.
❖ Refutation of a False Belief
- To use this narration—or similar ones—to claim that the Prophet ﷺ had the authority to forgive sins is a false and baseless belief.
- The early generations of the Ummah never understood or practiced such an idea.
- The Ṣaḥābah رضي الله عنهم always sought forgiveness directly from Allah ﷻ, never from the Prophet ﷺ.
❖ Conclusion
- The narration is weak in chain.
- Its true meaning relates only to pardon of crimes committed during disbelief, not forgiveness of sins in the Sharʿi sense.
- The belief that the Prophet ﷺ possessed independent authority to forgive sins is invalid and has no basis in Qur’an, Sunnah, or the practice of the Salaf.
هذا ما عندي والله أعلم بالصواب
