​Literature on weeping in Islam and emotions in general, although on the rise, is still limited. This article, focusing on Islam’s heritage of lament for sin, seeks to contribute to the study of religiously informed emotions by highlighting the interests in heavenly purposefulness that depictions of weeping seek to convey. Such purposefulness, the data suggests, is not only penitential but also redemptive and bears ethical fruits for the community as a whole. Weeping in Islam is, then, not mere emotional expression; attention must therefore be paid to the spirit or ethical tone accompanying depictions of pious weeping, illustrated here by two works on weeping, one by Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī (d. 1223) and the other by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (d. 894). The study of emotionality in Islam, as illustrated in this article with the example of weeping, can enrich our appreciation of religious subjectivity in Islam and its place in Islam’s overall heritage of ethics​