Repentance

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. 

Ungu - Bila Tiba