Being oblivious is something that requires sincere repentance. For instance, when you ask an oblivious person about his love to Allah (Exalted and Glorious) and if it is number one in his heart, you will unfortunately get a negative answer. Also when you ask an oblivious young woman to compare her religious status when she decided to put on hijab (head veil) to her status today, you would find that she is unaware that it is in constant decline. Do you know why? Because the sinful as well as the corrupt go through a phase when they feel that they are tired of these very sins that they become reluctant to fall in them again, let alone the extreme self-hate they experience. On the other hand, the oblivious person is always content with his conduct that he never realizes any of his defects. For instance, when you ask an oblivious young woman about her ethics, she tells you “My ethics are perfect” adding “I’m wearing hijab, am I not?” and she fails to realize the fact that she is oblivious. Thus, we have to be careful that Allah (SWT) should always be number one in our lives.
Satan has a very powerful role with oblivious people; do you know what he does? He never incites them to commit major sins; because once they do they immediately regret it and return back to Allah (SWT) to repent. Therefore, Satan does not want them to awake at all; on the contrary he wants them to stay in their slumber till their lives end. Consequently, sinful people repent faster than oblivious ones.
Hence, why do we need to repent? Because we have major sins, thousands of minor sins, lots of blessings we did not thank Allah for, sins we’ve committed in the past and did not repent about them though we have already abandoned them, and last but not least we have to repent for being oblivious.
Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, “Say: "O my Bondmen who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (TMQ, 39:53). You see, all your sins will be forgiven even your major ones if you have the intention for true repentance. Can you imagine what will actually happen when we repent? Allah (SWT) will forgive all sins. Hence, let us agree to repent this very minute. Read the verse once again.
But you may wonder sometimes what Allah (SWT) wants from us? Read this verse with me, in which Allah says what can be translated as, “Allah doth wish to turn to you, but the wish of those who follow their lusts is that ye should turn away (from Him), far, far away. Allah doth wish to lighten your (difficulties): for man was created weak (in flesh).” (TMQ, 4:27-28) Then, Allah wants to forgive us and whoever insists on not repenting, wrongs his own soul. In other verses Allah also says what can be translated as, “Those who invoke not, with Allah, any other God, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred, except for just cause, nor commit fornication, and any that does this (not only) meets punishment. (But) the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be doubled to him, and he will dwell therein in ignominy. Unless he repents, believes and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is OftForgiving, Most Merciful.” (TMQ, 29:68-70) This means that Allah (SWT) will not only forgive us, but will also change the evil we were doing into good.
For instance, I am certain that Allah (SWT) has forgiven the young man who has not prayed for 5 years and now intends to repent and pray, and even intends to pray the Sunnah (non-obligatory) prayers. Moreover, He has erased the 5 years of not praying from his deeds. You have to be absolutely certain of Allah’s forgiveness; it is once you have the intention supported with sincere effort, Allah (SWT) will forgive you and change your evil into good.
The young lady who was too busy with worldly matters like fashion and routine husband and children chores to be close enough to Allah, and intends to repent, feeling the urge deep inside to do it, will be blessed with Allah’s forgiveness. Moreover, with her intention to carry out righteous deeds, Allah will change her evil into good. This means that repentance in itself guarantees forgiveness, and that the intention to increase righteous deeds grants that Allah (SWT) will change your evil into good. See how bountiful Allah is?!!
The Prophet (peace be upon him) narrated a scene on the Day of Judgment when Allah orders a man of his bondmen to read his book of deeds and he passes by his evils one after another which glooms his face because of the huge number of evils and he thinks himself totally ruined. Then Allah tells him “O my bondman, have not you repented for all that?” And he replies “yes my Lord”, then Allah orders him to reread his book of deeds, and he passes by his evil and finds them changed into good. All evils changed into good deeds and he takes the reward of repentance. Hence, why don’t you repent? Then the man hopes that he has had much more evils to be changed into good deeds and he
says to Allah: O my Lord I had other evils that angels did not write. And the Prophet (PBUH) laughs at that man who wants to deceive Allah on the Day of Judgment as Allah changes evil deeds into good ones. Don’t you want to repent now? It is as if Allah (SWT) wants to tell us that repentance erases all previous evils. Therefore, let’s have a new start.
When he talks about repentance, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says that he repents and asks for Allah’s forgiveness more than 100 times a day. You see, Allah’s messenger, who is infallible, was repenting and asking for Allah’s forgiveness daily. Those who feel that they are in no need to repent should observe how the prophet’s companions used to count his asking for forgiveness throughout the day; which could reach 70 times. In a single session he would keep repeating “Astaghfirollah, Astaghfirollah…” [O, Allah I ask thee for forgiveness]. He would then continue talking and smiling with his companions, only to stop for a while when they were busy doing something else, to return back to his dhikr (remembrance) and asking for Allah’s forgiveness saying “Astaghfirok Rabby wa Atobo Elaik” [O, Allah I repent to thee and ask your forgiveness].
The Prophet (peace be upon him) says that: Every night Allah (SWT) unfolds His hand for those who did evil in the day to repent and He unfolds His hand every day for those who did evil in the night to repent.
Think with me, who is the one in need to ask the other for repentance Allah (SWT) or the bondman of Allah. Of course the bondman is the one in need for it and not Allah (SWT). Observe how the door of repentance is permanently opened 24 hours a day and is never closed.
In another Hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says "In the last third of each night [from 1:00 to 5:00 approx.] Allah (SWT) gloriously descends into the first sky a glorious descending which suits His glory. And He calls: ”Is there any one who wants to repent and I grant him repentance. Is there any one who wants to ask for forgiveness and I forgive him? Is there any supplicate and I give him." As if Allah (SWT) is telling us that if we failed to wake up at that particular time in the past, the chance is still there as He will keep on calling us each and every night. Do you know what we usually do at that part of the night? We sleep, watch T.V., or chat carelessly on the phone. All this while Allah (SWT) is calling for us!! For this reason Satan insinuates us to commit sins in this particular time to make us challenge Allah (SWT).
Allah (SWT) in a Qudsi (divine) Hadith describes such a state saying that, " I, mankind, and Jinn are in an odd case: I create, and they worship others. I give and they thank others. My blessings go down to them and their evils come up to Me. I kindly offer them My mercy despite I'm in no need of them. And they are fighting Me with sins while they are in poor need of Me. Those who are praising Me, are in My attendants. Therefore, whoever wants to be in My attendants just celebrate the praises of Me. Those who obey Me, are those whom I love. And those who disobey Me, I never
exclude them of My Mercy. If they repent, I grant them My love, and if they refused to repent, I will cure their hearts by afflictions till they are purified from defects. The good deed in My accounts equals ten and more, and the evil deed equals one and I forgive. I swear with My Glory and Honor, if they ask for forgiveness I'll forgive them. Whoever repents and comes to Me, I'll receive him though he is far away. And whoever turns back, I'll call him closely telling him O My bondman where are you going? Do you have another God? O mankind, I created thee with my Hands, and brought up thee with My blessings and you disobey. If you repent afterwards, I'll accept thee. Where can you find a God like Me, The Most Merciful, Most Forgiving."
I'll tell you a true story. I know a man, 40 years old; who said to me "One day I wanted to repent for all of my past evils, so I tried to remember each year in my life and what I was doing during it and repent for everything and ask Allah to forgive me. I decided to judge my deeds since I became responsible for my actions, that is since I was 14 or 15 years old and found that the most evil deed Iwas doing is disobeying my parents for which I asked Allah (SWT) to forgive me, and so on for each and every year passed in my life. After that I felt that I am someone else and I sensed a great
happiness in my heart; the same feeling I had on my wedding day or the day my child was born." I told him that there is a Hadith that ensures what he was saying and feeling; it describes the happiness of Allah (SWT) when one of us repents. It is like that of a man walking in the desert and holding his camel which carries his food and water and suddenly the camel eloped from him. Then the man felt sure that he would die and started digging his grave desperately, when suddenly he found his camel returning back to him with his food and water. He was extremely happy to the extent that he got confused when he was thanking Allah (SWT) that instead of saying "O Allah You are my Lord and I'm your humble bondman" he said the opposite. The prophet PBUH swears that the happiness of Allah (SWT) exceeds this man's happiness.
If you repent now, you can be granted the love of The Most Gracious because the moments of repentance are very dear to Allah. Hence, it is a Sunnah to ask people who repent to make supplication or Dua’a for you because their Dua’a is accepted and also because they are granted Allah's love. If you are in serious need of something and you want Allah to grant it to you, repent now.
I'll tell you something that will help you to repent. It actually happened to me: I was with ten of my friends and I wanted to stir up the will of repentance inside them, so I told every one of us to bring a paper and a pen and to divide the paper into two halves. Every one of us would write his sins on the right half and Allah's blessings on the left one. Try to do this now and notice what you have written in the part of Allah's blessings, for instance: eyesight, hearing, logic, feeling, that you are a Muslim, etc. Of course that you are a Muslim should be written as number one, but unfortunately I said it at the end and this is because a lot of us are not aware of this blessing.
As for the other half of the paper try to write your evil deeds; for instance that you don't care about praying Al-Fajr on time; that you don't care about being humble in prayers, that you abandon the Holy Qur'an, or about not wearing Hijab (if you are a young woman). And then look at what you've written, only to find yourself crying heartily. Among the blessing of Allah which my friends wrote were being Muslims; that they were well brought up; or that they are blessed with advanced mental abilities. Each one counted and wrote the different blessings of Allah till we reached the youngest of us, who was 18 years old. The way he expressed himself was so simple; he said "The greatest blessing that Allah (SWT) has granted me is that He is my God and that He forgives me and loves me to that extent." Notice how wonderful it is to express your love to Allah (SWT).
A Hadith in Bukhari and Muslim narrates that a 40 year old man from the people of Israel committed every possible sin in his life without repenting. When nearing death, he said to his children, "When I die burn my body until it becomes ashes. Then, grind it and wait for a windy day to scatter it over the mountains, because if Allah holds power over me He will punish me in a way that no other sinner would ever face." Of course, this is unacceptable in the Islamic Shari'a/law, but it was a tradition for the people of Israel. When the man died, his children did as they were told.
However, Allah (SWT) ordered him to "BE" and he became a man with a complete body again. Allah (SWT) asked him why he did that, and he replied “Because I feared Thee and Your Punishment for my evil deeds.” Allah told him “Because you feared Me, I forgive you. Go to heaven”.
Let us ask ourselves how many times we repent to Allah (SWT) in our life. I'm afraid a day might come when we become like that man.
Another incident also took place in the era of Musa (Moses) (PBUH). The people of Israel went to Musa and asked him to pray to Allah for rain to fall as it had not fallen for a whole year. Certainly, life is difficult without rain. Musa gathered the people of Israel and began to pray to Allah, saying:"O Allah, The Lord of rain, You have always answered me. Without rain we will die". Allah (SWT) answered him saying that the rain will not fall because among them is someone who has been disobeying Him for 40 years. As a consequence of his evil deeds, Allah has forbidden them from
rain. Musa then asked Allah (SWT) what must be done for the rain to fall. Allah said, "Remove him from your group and the rain will fall again."
Musa began to speak to the people of Israel explaining to them the situation about the man who disobeyed Allah for 40 years and how he must leave for the rain to fall. This man knew himself but he looked right and left hoping someone else will step up. No one did so, making him feel greatly ashamed. When no one came out, Musa (AS) called for the man. Ashamed, the man started making dua’a to Allah (SWT) saying, "O Allah, I disobeyed you for 40 years and you never exposed my evil deeds. If I step up today, I will be exposed. If I stay, we will all die without the rain. What can I do? All I can do is to repent, regret what I have done, and ask for Your forgiveness. I promise Thee that I will never return to my previous acts. O Allah, protect me and accept my repentance." Amazingly, it began to rain.
Musa was astonished because the rain fell while no one left the community. Musa asked Allah (SWT) and He told him that the rain fell because of My happiness with the repentance of My servant after disobeying Me for 40 years. Musa asked Allah to tell him who that person was in order to join his happiness. However, Allah (SWT) told him that after concealing the man's evil deeds for 40 years, He will not expose him now after his repentance.
Surely, it is a blessing from Allah when our deeds are only known to Him. What if Allah exposes our sins? What if our sins were written on our house? What if a smell is expelled from us whenever we sin?
Truly, don't you agree that we must love Allah (SWT) more than we do? Do you feel the urge to repent in your heart?
If you want to repent at this very moment, you have to adhere to the following three conditions for repentance. These three are achieved by the heart.
1) Regret committing the sin. Your heart should feel remorseful for committing that sin, reminding yourself that you must not go back to it since Allah concealed it. The Prophet PBUH said that repentance is feeling regretful.
2) Stop committing that sin.
3) You must have a resolution not to return to that sin in the future, which is the most important condition.
Religious scholars say that whoever repents to Allah but knows in his heart that he will return to it again is acting in a way that ridicules Him.
For instance, if you asked a young man who repented because he dated young women, he would tell you “I have repented and stopped dating, but I cannot delete their phone numbers from my cell phone."
Hence, if you followed the three conditions, you will be granted Allah's love, and all your past evil deeds will be erased. Moreover, if you perform good deeds, your past evil deeds will be replaced with good deeds. Now consider what your happiest day will be. Is it your wedding day? Is it the day you joined your favorite college? Without a doubt, the happiest day in our lives is the day of our repentance.
An example of this situation is with Ka'b Ibn-Malik, a companion of the Prophet (PBUH). Ka'b committed a grave mistake by not attending the battle of Tabuk, which made the Prophet (PBUH) very angry. Allah (SWT) ordered the Prophet's companions to stop communicating with K’aba for 50 days. When the 50 days were over, K’aba was praying the dawn prayer (Fajr) on the roof of his house. At that time, the revelation came to The Prophet (PBUH) with the verses of repentance indicating that Allah (SWT) accepted the repentance of Ka'b. This is in Surat At-Taubah (chapter of the Holy Qur'an) in verse 117, which can be translated as, "Allâh has forgiven the Prophet (PBUH) the Muhâjirûn (Muslim emigrants who left their homes and came to Al-Madinah) and the Ansâr (Muslims of Al-Madinah) who followed him (Muhammad PBUH) in the time of distress (Tabûk expedition), after the hearts of a party of them had nearly deviated (from the Right Path), but He accepted their repentance. Certainly, He is unto them full of Kindness,
Most Merciful." (TMQ, 9:117).
The Prophet's companions wanted to tell K’aba about the glad tidings of Allah's forgiveness. One of them rushed to a mountain and loudly called K’aba to inform him that Allah has forgiven him and accepted his repentance. Another companion rode his horse and went to congratulate him. K’aba said that on his way to personally hear the good tiding from Allah's apostle (PBUH), he met many people congratulating him for Allah's forgiveness. When he reached the mosque, the Prophet (PBUH) looked at him and smiled while his face was as bright as a full moon. The Prophet said,
"Come K’aba." K’aba sat in front of him as he was told that receiving Allah's forgiveness is the best day in life from the time he was born.
Let us now examine three cases of people who repented, in hope of following their example. First, let us assume that you repented then returned to the same evil deed. Could you repent once again and be forgiven? Yes you can, adhere to the previous three conditions of repentance and Allah will accept it. This is confirmed in the Hadith where the Prophet (PBUH) tells us that a man came to him and asked "If I did an evil deed, will it be written?" Allah's apostle (PBUH) said, “Yes, the angels will write it in your book of deeds.” The man asked, "What if I repented?" The Prophet said, "It will be erased." The man questioned again, "What if I returned to it?" The Prophet said that it will be written. The man continued asking, "And if I repented?" Once again, the Prophet said it will be erased. The man repeated his question several times and then asked, "How many times will it be erased?" The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Allah does not tire from forgiving until you tire from repentance.”
Once again, don’t you agree that we must love Allah (SWT) more than we do?
Regarding the three cases, the first is about a man who killed 99 souls and wanted to repent but wondered if Allah will accept his repentance or not. The man asked an ascetic worshiper and was answered negatively that his repentance would not be accepted. Out of frustration, the man killed the worshiper and reached a number of 100 killed souls. Nevertheless, he was frustrated and wanted to repent. Once again he asked whether his repentance will be accepted or not. The people advised him to go to a certain religious scholar. He went to him and the wise man said, "No one can forbid Allah’s forgiveness. Yet, you must leave the land you are in as it is a land of evil. Go to a certain land for its people are virtuous." (When we apply this to our case, we find that our land, thanks to Allah, is good. Yet, what is meant here is to abandon bad companions. If you ask about repentance, I will first ask about your companions to judge whether you will be committed to repentance or not. Hopefully, you will choose good companions who can support you in obeying Allah.)
Thus, the man decided to leave his land and go to another one. While he was on his way to the virtuous land, he died. The angels disagreed whether he was forgiven or not. Allah (SWT) then sent an angel to judge by measuring the distance between the two lands. If he was closer to the virtuous land, the angels of virtue will lift his soul to heaven and vice versa. When they measured the distance, they found that he was closer to the virtuous land with a span of the hand. As a result, the virtuous angels lifted his soul and he entered heaven. Therefore, let us strive to be closer to that span of the hand with our good deeds.
Another case is with Malik Ibn-Dinar's repentance. He was a pious man and one of the prominent scholars in the Muslim Ummah. Yet, during an earlier phase of his life, he was not religious. He described himself as being impious, sinful and drunkard for he committed every possible sin. One day, while still impious, he was in the super market and found a man trying to buy some sweets with a cheaper price for his daughters since the Prophet (PBUH) said that whoever makes his three daughters happy will enter Heaven. The desire to have a daughter grew in Malik Ibn-Dinar's heart. For some reason, the vendor refused to sell the sweets with a cheaper price. Thus, Malik beat the vendor, took the sweets, and gave them to the man asking him to let his three daughters make dua’a for him. Malik thought about getting married and having daughters. He wondered who would accept him as a husband since he was disliked.
Malik went to the auction, bought a female slave, and then set her free to marry her. He had a baby girl and named her Fatima. He loved her very much to the extent that as Fatima grew older, the love of goodness increased in his heart while evil decreased. Whenever she found him drinking alcohol, she would take the cup away from him as if she was inspired by Allah to do so. Fatima died when she was three years old. After that, Malik said, "I became worse than before. One day, I decided to drink alcohol to the point that I dropped unconscious like never before. I dreamt that I was on Dooms Day and that a caller was calling people by their names to stand in front of the Almighty Allah (which all of us one day will experience). I saw people trembling from fear. The caller then called me to stand in front of the Almighty. I was trembling, and I saw a snake that wanted to bite me. I ran away from it, but it was behind me all the time until I reached a weak man and asked him for assistance. The weak man said "O my son, I'm a weak man and I can't save you from that snake. Try to run in this direction and you may escape the danger of the snake." I ran in that direction but I found the Hell Fire in front of me and wondered, “Am I escaping the snake to be thrown in the Hell
Fire?” I returned and the snake was still behind me. I saw the weak man again and asked him to assist me. He replied that he is too weak to do anything. He said run in the direction of a certain mountain to escape from the snake. I saw some children playing. When they saw me they called. Fatima, saying "O Fatima, save your dad."
"Fatima came, grabbed me with her right hand, and pushed the snake away with her left hand. She then sat on my lap as she used to do in her life. I was nervous. She said, "O my dad", and then recited the holy verse, "Has not the time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed (to them)." I asked her about that snake and she told me it was your evil deeds which intensified to the point of killing you. Then, I asked her about the weak man and she replied "He is your righteous deeds which have become weak because of their scarcity. If I did not die so young, you would have not been going to Heaven." Then she recited the same verse again "Has not the time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed (to them)." I woke up from my slumber saying, "O Allah, yes it is time. The time is now." I went to perform wudu' (ablution) and went to the mosque to pray Fajr. I was surprised when the Imam recited the same verse from my dream, "Has not the time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which
has been revealed (to them)."" From that day on, Malik Ibn-Dinar’s sincerely repented.
Finally, let us make a sincere intention to repent and start a new with Allah.
LECTURES DELIVERED ABROAD
A SPECIAL SERIES BY AMR KHALED
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