Comparative Theology · Common Ground
No one bears another's burden
Handle with care. This is a sensitive passage for Christians. Handle it with care and without triumph.
In short
- 1.Deuteronomy 24:16 forbids executing children for their parents' sin.
- 2.Ezekiel 18:20 states individual accountability directly.
- 3.The Qur'an repeats the principle in the same terms.
The claim being examined
Deuteronomy and Ezekiel state that children shall not die for their parents' sin, and the soul that sins is the one that dies.
The Islamic position
Islam holds exactly this: no soul carries the burden of another, and each person is accountable for their own deeds.
Analysis
Ezekiel 18 is a long argument for one idea: each person answers for what they themselves did. It was written against a saying of the time that children pay for their parents' sins. That sits very awkwardly beside the later Christian teachings that everyone inherits Adam's (PBUH) sin and that one innocent person can be punished in place of the guilty.
From the Qur'an
أَلَّا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌۭ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ
allā taziru wāziratun wiz'ra ukh'rā
That no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another.
From the Bible
Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.
Read it in their BibleThe one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child.
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