One Who Commits a Major Sin: Concealing It or Reporting It to the Ruler
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: If a person commits one of the major sins, is it better for him to go to the ruler to have the hadd (fixed punishment) carried out against him, or should he conceal his sin?
Answer:
Yes, he should conceal his sin. May Allah conceal it. He should repent to Allah and conceal his sin, unless the matter involves a right belonging to a created being, in which case he must pay the right to the created being or seek his forgiveness.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: If a person commits one of the major sins, is it better for him to go to the ruler to have the hadd (fixed punishment) carried out against him, or should he conceal his sin?
Answer:
Yes, he should conceal his sin. May Allah conceal it. He should repent to Allah and conceal his sin, unless the matter involves a right belonging to a created being, in which case he must pay the right to the created being or seek his forgiveness.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، ذكر الآثار عن تابعي التابعين ومن بعدهم — islamhouse.com (51:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.