What are the major sins in Islam?

Question

How many majors sins are there? Are there seven or seventy major sins?

Answer 1

Bismillah,

I think you are referring to the hadith about the seven sins that doom a person to hell (السبع الموبقات).

اجتنبوا السبع الموبقات، قالوا: وما هن يا رسول الله؟ قال: الشرك بالله، والسحر، وقتل النفس التي حرم الله إلا بالحق، وأكل الربا، وأكل مال اليتيم، والتولي يوم الزحف، وقذف المحصنات الغافلات المؤمنات.

“Avoid the seven sins that doom a person to Hell.” We said: What are they, O Messenger of Allah? He said: “Associating others with Allah (shirk); witchcraft; killing a soul whom Allah has forbidden us to kill, except in cases dictated by Islamic law; consuming orphans’ wealth; consuming riba; fleeing from the battlefield; and slandering chaste, innocent women.”

These 7 sins are not the only major sins, the Prophet (PBUH) referred to them as "sins that doom a person to hell" because they are so evil, and their evil is greater than other sins' (majors or minors).

Now, there is no consensus that the major sins are seven or seventy as you mentioned. Some scholars listed way more than seventy as major sins. However, the consensus is, a major sin is the sin that either has Hadd punishment in life (حد) OR a warning and a severe punishment in the Hereafter (وعيد)

Allah knows best!

Answer 2

Wikipedia writes:

Scholars 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.

The list of seventy major sins given by the Shafi'i (Sunni) scholar Al-Dhahabi (available as pdf), are as follows:

1. Ascribing Associates To Allah, The Most High (Shirk)
2. Killing A Human Being
3. Sorcery
4. Not Performing the Prayer
5. Not Paying Zakat
6. Breaking One's Fast During Ramadan Without an Excuse
7. Not Performing the Hajj When Able to
8. Showing Disrespect to One's Parents
9. Severing the Ties of One's Relatives
10. Adultery
11. Sodomy
12. Accepting Usurious Gain
13. Wrong Consuming an Orphan's Property
14. Lying About the Prophet
15. Fleeing From the Battlefield
16. The Leader Who Misleads His Followers, the Tyrant and the Oppressor
17. Arrogance, Pride, Conceit, Vanity and Haughtiness
18. Bearing False Witness
19. Drinking Alcohol
20. Gambling (Qimar)
21. Accusing a Woman of Adultery
22. Misappropriating Spoils of War, Muslim Funds or Zakat
23. Theft
24. Highwaymen Who Menace the Road
25. The Engulfing Oath
26. Taking People's Property Through Falsehood
27. Collecting Taxes
28. The Consumption of Haram
29. Suicide
30. Telling Lies
31. The Dishonest Judge
32. Bribery
33. Women Imitating Men and Vice Versa
34. The Pimp and the One Who Permits His Wife To Fornicate
35. Marrying Solely to Return to the Previous Husband
36. Not Freeing Oneself of All Traces of Urine
37. Showing off in Good Work
38. Learning Sacred Knowledge for the Sake of this World or Concealing It
39. Breach of Faith
40. Reminding Recipients of One's Charity to Them
41. Disbelieving in Destiny
42. Listening to the People's Private Conversations
43. The Talebearer Who Stirs Up Enmity Between People
44. Cursing Others
45. Breaking One's Promise or Pledge
46. Believing Fortunetellers and Astrologers
47. A Wife's Rebellion Against Her Husband
48. Picture-making
49. Loudly Lamenting For the Dead or When Afflicted With an Adversity
50. Excess Against Others
51. Overburdening and Arrogance Against Others
52. Hurting One's Neighbor
53. Hurting or Reviling Muslims
54. Harming the Servants of Allah
55. Dragging the Hem of One's Garment Out of Conceit
56. Men Wearing Silk or Gold
57. Fleeing of the Slave
58. Slaughtering in Other Than Allah's Name
59. Falsely Claiming Someone is One's Father
60. Arguing, Picking Apart Another's Words, and Quarreling
61. Withholding Excess Water From Others
62. Stinting When Weighing or Measuring Out Goods and Similar Merchandise
63. Feeling Secure From Allah's Devising
64. Despairing of the Mercy of Allah and Losing of Hope
65. Forgoing the Congregational Prayer to Pray Alon e Without A Legal Excuse
66. Constantly Missing the Friday and Congregational Prayer Without A Valid Excuse
67. Bringing Loss to the Bequest
68. Deception and Evil Schemes
69. Spying on the Muslims and Revealing Their Weaknesses
70. Disparaging the Companions of the Prophet

The text goes into the details as to why each individual sin is viewed as a major sin.