<P> However, regardless of one's outward deeds, God does not accept the forgiveness of those who are insincere in their repentance and only do so in order to avoid jahannam . </P> <P> It is not true repentance when people continue to do evil until death confronts them and then say,' Now I repent . </P> <P> The most heinous sins in Islam are known as Al - Kabirah (Persian: گناه کبیره ‎) which translates to the great or major one . Some authors use the term enormity . While every sin is seen as an offense to Allah, the al - Kaba'ir are the gravest of the offenses . Allah's power is thought to be only eclipsed by his mercy and thus small sins are tacitly understood to be forgiven after repentance . Not every sin is equal however and some are thought to be more spiritually damning than others . The greatest of the sins described as al - Kaba'ir is the association of others with Allah or Shirk . Scholar differ as to how many major sins there are . In contrasting major sins with minor sins (al - sagha'ir), the eighth - century Shafi'i scholar Al - Dhahabi found the hadith collections of Sahih al - Bukhari and Muslim ibn al - Hajjaj listed seven major sins, while the tradition from Abd Allah ibn Abbas stated that there were closer to seventy major sins . </P> <P> Some of the major or al - Kaba'ir sins in Islam are as follows: </P>

What is the first major sin in islam