One of the topics that I am really looking forward to hear is the topic of Repentance. After being inspired by the Talk of Sheikh Yasir Qadhi on Repentance, I would like to write on this topic and share with others. Bismillah.
Being a Muslim does not means
that we are free from committing sins. In fact, a human being is prone to
commit a sin. Just as our Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said in one of his narrations, as narrated by Anas who said:
“All the sons of Adam are sinners…”
(Related by At-Tirmidzi and Ibn Majah).
When we commit a sin, some of us
will develop a feeling of frustration and defeated. And such feelings will
drive us towards sadness and ultimately we become hopeless. We think that our
sins are huge that we will be deprived of the Mercy of the One God, Allah. We feel
that Shaytaan has already won over us and such humiliation will make us feel
even worse.
Sinning is a tool of parting us
away from Allah. It can also become a tool to bring us closer to Him. It is a
matter of our perception and acceptance. When we let negativity and extreme
frustration dwell over us, we are in fact paving a path towards our own
destruction.
Frustration over our failure to
avoid sin is acceptable. It is in fact what we should be feeling of. With a
balance tune, it can be a means of making tawbah. But having an extreme feeling
of frustration will turn ourselves into a hopeless state of mind. It will eat up
our Iman and will turn us into depression.
If we ever fall into the hole of this, we should always remind ourselves of this beautiful verse from the Qur’an:
“Say, "O My servants who
have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy
of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the
Forgiving, the Merciful.” Az-Zumar; 53
When we go through each word of
the above verse, we can extract an invaluable pearl that can shine our life in
this world and ultimately in the hereafter. For me, this verse if full of Rahma
and Love. Just read it twice or thrice, and ponder upon it. You will find Allah’s
Mercy spreading widely in front of you and you just have to open the door and
embark into it. Some scholars said, the widest door you can ever find in Islam
is, the door of Repentance. No matter how big our sin is, be it as enormous as
the mountain, or even to the sky height, we can always turn to Allah and He
will wipe away all of our sins. Just ponder upon the following Hadith Qudsi,
where Allah said:
“O son of Adam, as long as you
call upon Me and put your hope in Me, I have forgiven you for what you have
done and I do not mind. O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of
the sky and then you would seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of
Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the earth
and then you would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would
certainly bring to you forgiveness close to filling it.”
Subhanallah! Just see how massive
Allah’s Mercy is. One of the beautiful names of Allah is Al-Ghafur (الغفور) which can be roughly
translated to “The Forgiver and Hider of Faults”. It is the ‘nature’ of Allah
to forgive and he loves to forgive. He loves to forgive us as much as the love
of traveler upon finding his lost camel. Just as the Prophet’s saying which
was narrated by Anas bin Malik:
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Allah is more pleased with the
repentance of His slave than anyone of you is pleased with finding his camel which
he had lost in the desert.” (Sahih Bukhari)
We often repeat the same sins
over and over again and it might be that we feel like “ok that’s it. I am not
going to change after all”. Hold on my brothers and sisters. Before we dwell
ourselves on this thought, just consider the following Hadith Qudsi:
A servant committed a sin and he
said: O Allah, forgive my sin! Allah the Exalted said: My servant has committed
a sin and he knows he has a Lord who forgives sins and holds him accountable.
Then the servant returned to his sin and he said: O Allah, forgive my sin!
Allah said: My servant has committed a sin and he knows he has a Lord who
forgives sins and holds him accountable. Then the servant returned to his sin
and he said: O Allah, forgive my sin! Allah said: My servant has committed a
sin and he knows he has a Lord who forgives sins and holds him accountable, so
do what you will for I have forgiven you.
Allahuakbar.. We should cry
reading this hadith. Just open our eyes and read it again and again. How can a
servant of Allah loses his hope in the forgiveness of Allah when Allah has sent
down this hadith? How can we give up upon the Mercy of Allah, when we have such
powerful hadith within us? Indeed the true loser is the one who deprive
themselves from the Mercy and Forgiveness of Allah. Just think about this –
when we feel that we are not a good Muslim and we can never be forgiven, we are
actually saying that we know Allah better than Allah knows Himself. It’s like
we are saying that Allah is incapable of forgiving us. Allahuakbar, what a
great slander against Allah?? How can we judge Allah as incapable of forgiving
our sins when He said by himself that He is At-Tawwab and Al-Ghaffar? Allah
himself declared in Surah Al-Ghafir verse 3 that he is “The Forgiver of sin, Acceptor of repentance,..”
Thus, it is encumbered upon us to
seek the forgiveness of Allah day and night. When we are riding our bike, or
driving our car, or sitting in a train, moist our tongue with the seeking of
Allah’s forgiveness - اَسْتَغْفِرُ اَللّهَ الْعَظِیْمَ (I Seek the forgiveness of Allah). Remember
this hadith – “All the sons of Adam are sinners, but the best of sinners are
those who repent often.” (Related by At-Tirmidzi and Ibn Majah) So let us be the best of sinners and elevate ourselves
closer to Allah, The Forgiver of all sins.
A note to myself. May Allah forgives all of my sins.
