Lectures Delivered Abroad

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Repentance

In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful

Peace and prayers be upon our master the noblest Prophet Muhammad.  We praise Allah, thank Him, seek His help, His guidance and forgiveness.  We seek refuge in Allah from the wickedness of our souls and sinfulness of our deeds.  “He whom Allah guides, he is the rightly-guided; but he whom He sends astray, for him you will find no guiding advocate”.

The subject I want to talk about can be summed up in one sentence: “Let us have a new beginning with Allah (TWT)[1]“.  Let us try.  Let us repent to Allah.

Do you know what repentance is?  It is a serious word.

What should we do to repent?  Return to Allah (AW)[2].

Why should we repent?  Of what should we repent?  And what did we commit to repent?  Let me tell you about many things we do in our everyday life, yet we do not realize how grave they are; and how Ever-Forgiving and Compassionate Allah is.

Do we really love Him?  Do you know what we commit everyday without thinking?

We do many things; we even commit major sins.

Let us talk about major sins of a different type, other than drinking alcohol or having prohibited relations.  In fact, there are other serious misdeeds and disasters, such as abandoning salah (prayers) or neglecting the performance of some of them.  Imagine this: Allah has created you, and although you are His servant and worshipper, you simply tell Him that you can not worship Him!  You do not actually utter this with your tongue, but your actions say it.  Do you know what it means not to pray?  It is as if you are telling Allah, “Sorry Allah, I cannot prostrate to You (perform sujud), because Your worship is a burden on my heart!”

Is this not a major sin?  Do you know what is meant by a major sin?  It means that Allah (SWT) considers it a major sin.  You would happily watch a football match for two hours, but you get bored of the ten minutes you stand praying before Allah!  Allah is the Most Powerful.  Do you know that every soul is created and controlled by Allah?  You cannot even guarantee that you will live until you open your eyes after a wink.  We are nothing without Allah.  How could you not prostrate before Him for five minutes after all this?  Allah forgives often.  Yet, there is a certain circle, if anyone steps inside it, he will be running the risk of exposing himself to Allah's wrath.  Do you know what this circle is?  It is abandoning salah and being disobedient to our parents.

Hell has many gates; there is a gate of Hell called “saqar”.  Do you know what “saqar” is?  Allah says what can be translated as, “And what makes you realize what Saqar is?  It neither spares (i.e., no survivors remain) nor leaves (anything) behind” (TMQ, 74: 27-28)[3].

It is severe punishment.  In the same Surah, Allah says that the angels stand on the door of saqar asking those who enter it, what can be translated as, “What inserted you into Saqar?” They will say, “We were not of the ones who prayed” (TMQ, 74: 42–43).  Is there something more obvious than this!  In addition, they go on saying what can be translated as, “And we used to wade with the waders, (i.e., wade in vain talk).” (TMQ, 74-45). Do you know what this means?  It means that you join others in their sins, and partake in deeds that make Allah angry; so that on the Day of Judgment you are called with the sinners to be disgraced.

Are these not major sins?  Please take care of salah.  Do not tell me that you are not a good person and that you have committed many misdeeds and so on.  You have to pray!

Do not sever yourself from Allah.  When you abandon salah, you imply that you no longer need Allah.  It is as if you tell Him that you can handle anything in life without Him.  Do you see how serious it is?  In this way, there are many major sins and disasters that we commit in our lives, and of which we must repent.

How many years will we live?  Seventy.  Imagine!  For seventy years we are in the great exam.  If our deeds are mostly good ones, we will be rewarded with paradise.  But if most of our deeds are sins and misdeeds, we will be punished with Hell.

I would like to tell you that one hundred years ago, none of us were on earth, and after one hundred years there will not be one of us on earth as well.  Do you not know that no one lives on earth eternally?  Every period of time new people replace old ones; no one stays forever.  This happens every one hundred years.  Then what matters is: will we enter paradise or not?  Is Allah pleased with us or not?  Do you get my point?  We will all die in the end.

That is why we need to repent; because we commit major sins, like abandoning salah.  For Allah’s sake, is it reasonable to do so?  Is it normal that you have not woken up to pray salatul-fajr (dawn prayer) for the past five years?  How do you think about it?  Where is your mind!  Now, are you ready to repent after what has been said?

Wait a minute.  This is not the whole issue.  We still need to discuss the major sins and serious disasters that we commit but fail to realize how awful they are.  The real disaster is that we care too much for different matters, but when it comes to worshipping Allah (SWT) we do not care at all!  How come we have not repented until now?  Do you know what happens to our souls every night during sleep?  Do you know that sleeping is like death, but of a smaller kind?  Allah (SWT) takes our souls every night and returns them again in the morning.  Allah Almighty says what can be translated as, “Allah takes up the selves at the time of their death and the ones which have not died, in their sleeping.” (TMQ, 39:42)  This means that all souls go to Allah (SWT) during sleep, and He resumes saying what can be translated as, “Then He holds back the ones against which He has decreed death, and sends (forth) the others till a stated term.  Surely in that are indeed signs for a people who meditate.”

This means that the dead soul is not sent back to the body.  On the other hand, those whom Allah wants to live get their souls back again.  We are really very weak.  How could we disobey Allah and go to sleep when He is not pleased with us?

Do you know that Satan likes to push us towards sins at night in order to make us challenge Allah and go to sleep in the hope that He may take our souls while we are at the top of sinfulness?  Satan says, “Allah, is this not whom You dignified and preferred to me!  There he is disobedient and going astray”.  Please, do not ever sleep after committing a sin, your soul may not be sent to you again.  For Allah's sake, let us repent together to Allah.

There is another great sin which is ingratitude towards parents.  A mother's tear is worse in Allah’s perception than the sins of a whole year.  The face of a father going red in anger is in Allah’s perception than the sins of a whole year!

A girl talking to a man behind the back of her parents is considered a traitor because she deceived her parents!  The messenger of Allah (SAWS)[4] said, “Every traitor will be flagged on the Day of Judgment.  On every flag, there will be written “this is the treachery of so-and-so”.  Why is it treachery?  Because she made an unlawful relationship behind the back of her parents.  Allah says what can be translated as, “And benignancy is not to come up to the homes from their backs; but benignancy is for man to be pious; and come up to the homes by their doors, and be pious towards Allah, so that possibly you would prosper” (TMQ, 2:189).  She will be asked on the Day of Judgment about those wronged by her disloyalty: her father and her mother!

Ingratitude towards parents is one of the most dangerous major sins.  What is the way out then?

It is repentance.  We have to repent and adopt a different attitude concerning our relationship with Allah (SWT).  I can tell you that, apart from major sins, we commit thousands of minor sins on a daily basis - such as an unlawful stare at a woman, or women coming of their homes without hijab, etc.  The Prophet (SAWS) says that each Muslim will come on the Day of Judgment and Allah (SWT) will say, “Spread the records of his sins before him.”  Ninety nine records of sins will then be spread; each of them will reach the horizon (about forty kilometers).  Can you imagine the scale of your deeds weighed down by unlimited sins (backbiting, gossip, unlawful looks, making fun of others, and so on).

Despite all our sins, Allah is Most Merciful to us.  Let us get nearer and nearer to Him.  Do we commit sins other than the major and minor sins?  Yes, we do.  We do not thank Allah for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us.  Is there still anything we have to repent from?  There is still a very serious sin, being heedless of the signs of Allah (SWT)

In fact, people are of three kinds:

The first kind includes the believers who always try to improve.  They may commit sins, but they ask for Allah's forgiveness at once, and exert their utmost efforts to gain Allah's satisfaction.

The second kind is that of the wicked who do not refrain from any sin.  This kind of person is extremely bad.

The third kind is that of those who are heedless of the signs of Allah.  The majority of people nowadays belong to this group.  Such people are inattentive to their relationship with Allah.  They may have good manners, they may refrain from bad deeds - such as smoking - they may do nothing wrong.  Yet, they do not have sufficient knowledge of Allah.

Let us ask frankly, what are your priorities?  Your first priority may be girlfriends, second football, third the future and money, etc.  Where is Allah in your life?  Do you include gaining His satisfaction in the list of your priorities?  How much importance do you give to your relationship with Allah?!  Please, we have to reconsider our priorities, to make worshipping and satisfying Allah (SWT) the first priority in our lives.

We need to repent from such inattentiveness.  Do you know that it is worse than a major sin?  Do you know that the one who is heedless of the signs of Allah is worse than the sinner?  The wicked sinner is not pleased by committing sins, because he knows that sins bring humiliation.  On the other hand, the heedless person is not aware of being in a state of obliviousness.  He deceives himself by believing that he is on the right track.  He remains all his life in this state, fooled by Satan.  Do you know how Satan deceives the heedless person?  He makes him sink deep into his inattentiveness, year after year, until the end of his life.  He is not tempted to commit sins, because - in this case - he would recover from his inattentiveness and return to Allah.  That is why being heedless of the signs of Allah is worse than committing major sins.  Do you realize now why repentance is a must?  After speaking about serious sins we commit, let us turn to another point.  Let us consider the great blessing which Allah (SWT) bestows upon us in the following verse.  Allah Almighty says what can be translated as, “Say, (This is addressed to the Prophet) “O My bondmen who have been extravagant against themselves, (i.e., who have committed sins) do not feel despondent of the mercy of Allah!  Surely Allah forgives guilty (deeds) all together; surely He, Ever He, is The Ever-Forgiving, The Ever-Merciful” (TMQ, 39:53).  Can we still be forgiven?  Yes, for Allah is the Ever-Forgiving, the Ever-Merciful.

Young ladies and young gentlemen: after what has been said, do you love Allah or not?  Who rescued you from the swamp of sins in which you were about to sink but Allah (SWT)?  Then, Allah Almighty adds what can be translated as, “Surely He, Ever He, is The Ever-Forgiving, The Ever-Merciful.  And turn penitent to your Lord” (TMQ, 39:53-4).  ‘And turn penitent to your Lord’ means return to Allah.  You should intend now to repent from all your sins as soon as possible.  You already know that hajj (pilgrimage) obliterates all sins; so does repentance.  It wipes your sins and leaves you like a new-born baby.

Allah (TWT) says what can be translated as, “And turn penitent to your Lord, and surrender to Him, even before the torment comes up to you; thereafter you will not be vindicated.” (TMQ, 39:54).  Allah urges us to submit to His orders, lest severe penalty would befall us while we are heedless.  Allah Almighty says what can be translated as, “Do they not know that Allah He, Ever He, accepts repentance from His bondmen” (TMQ, 9:104).  Allah accepts his servant's repentance as soon as he offers it.

Let us ask ourselves the following question: why does Allah show us such readiness to forgive?  That is because He is our Creator who loves us and wants to forgive us.

 

Allah Almighty says what can be translated as, “And Allah wills to relent towards you” (TMQ, 4:27).  Allah forgives us as soon as we ask for His forgiveness.  He also says what can be translated as, “And whoever does not repent, then those are they who are the unjust.” (TMQ, 49:11).  Allah (SWT) gets angry with His servant who does not want to repent.  Allah Almighty says what can be translated as, “And the ones who do not invoke another god (along) with Allah, nor kill the self that Allah has prohibited except with the truth nor commit adultery; (i.e., illegal sexual intercourse) and whoever performs that will meet the penalty for vice.  Doubled will be the torment for him on the Day of the Resurrection, and he will eternally (abide) therein degraded.  Except him who repents, and believes, and does righteous deed (s).  So those, Allah will turn (Or: substitute fair deeds in place of odious ones) their odious (deeds) into fair (deeds); and Allah has been Ever-Forgiving, Ever-Merciful.  (TMQ, 25:68-70).

Do you see Allah's willingness to forgive His servants?  He also replaces their evil deeds by good ones.  Do you still not love Him? 

It has been reported that the Prophet (SAWS) says, “A man comes on the Day of Judgment and Allah (SWT) says to him “read your sins”.  He changes color with every sin he reads, as he thinks that he is destined to eternal damnation.  Allah (SWT) tells him “Have you not repented?” He says, “Yes my Lord; I have repented.” Allah (SWT) then tells him, “Reread your book.” He rereads each of his sins and finds that it has been replaced by a good deed; every sin he reads is turned into a good deed, until all his sins are converted into good deeds.”  The man sees that his bad deeds have changed into good ones, increasing his score to Allah.  Thus, he says, “Lord, I have additional bad deeds that have not been written down by angels!”  Do you feel Allah's mercy?  How Ever-Merciful He is!  Has your heart started loving Him?  Do the worldly pleasures still have the priority over Allah's satisfaction and repentance?  The Prophet (SAWS) said, “O people, seek repentance from Allah.  Verily, I seek repentance from Him a hundred times a day.”[5]  Consider this act of the Prophet, the one who is perfect and infallible.  What did he repent for?  He expressed repentance for the absence of Allah from his thoughts at some moments.  His companions said, “The times during which the Prophet asks Allah's forgiveness in one meeting were counted up to more than one hundred and seventy”.  There is now an urgent need for repentance.  Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet (SAWS) said, “Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: "Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation?  Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request?  Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?”[6] Abu Mu'sa reported Allah's Messenger (SAWS) as saying that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, Stretches out His Hand during the night so that the people repent for the fault committed from dawn till dusk and He stretches out His Hand daring the day so that the people may reprint for the fault committed from dusk to dawn.  (He would accept repentance) before the sun rises in the west (before the Day of Resurrection).[7] Narrated by Ibn Malik Al Ansari, Allah's Messenger said, “Verily, Allah is more delighted with the repentance of his slave than a person who loses his camel in a barren desert then finds it (unexpectedly).”[8] Do you not see that repentance is easy?

It was reported in a Hadith, “One of the followers of Israel disobeyed Allah for forty years.  As he was nearing death, he made his will.  He requested his sons to burn his dead body after his death till it turned into ashes.  Then he asked them to grind the ashes, then wait for a stormy day and scatter them over the mountaintops.  After the father's death, the sons did what their father ordered them.  At Resurrection, Allah (SWT) asked the man to say the reason behind doing this act (and Allah knows best).  The man answered that he committed many sins and was afraid of Allah's punishment.  Allah (Blessed and Exalted be He) forgave the man's sins on account of his fear from Him.

In a Hadith Qudsi (Sacred Hadith), the Prophet (SAWS) mentioned that Allah (SWT) said, “Myself, Mankind and Jinn are in a great serious state.  I create them, then they worship other gods that they make for themselves; I bless them with my bounties, then they thank someone else for what I sent them; My Mercy descends to them while their evil deeds ascend to Me; I endear them with my gifts even though I have no need to any of them while they alienate themselves from Me with their sins even though they are desperate for my help.  Whoever returns to Me, I accept him no matter how far he is; and whoever turns away from Me, I approach him and call on him.  Whoever leaves a sin for my sake, I reward him with many gifts and whoever seeks to please Me, I seek to please him.  Whoever acknowledges My Will and Power in whatever he does, I make the iron bend for his sake.  My dear people are those who are with Me (i.e.  whoever would like to be with Me, let him supplicate to Me and remember Me).  Whoever thanks Me, I grant him more blessings; whoever obeys Me, I raise him and endear him more.  Whoever disobeys Me, I keep the doors of My Mercy open for him; if he returns to Me, I bestow him with My Love since I love those who repent and purify themselves for My Sake.  If he does not repent, I still treat him by putting them in hardship to purify him.  Whoever favors Me over others, I favor them over others.  I reward every single good deed ten times over or seven hundred times over to countless times over.  I count every single bad deed as one unless the person repents and ask for My Forgiveness in which case I forgive even that one.  I take into account any little good deed and I forgive even major sins.  My Mercy supersedes My Anger; My Tolerance supersedes My Blame; My Forgiveness supersedes My Punishment as I am more merciful with My slaves than a mother with her child.”[9]

Indeed, this is Allah.  Do you not love Him?!  Allah (SWT) says to Dawud “David” (AS), “O Dawud!  If those who are led astray from My path (i.e.  turn their backs on Me) knew how much I long for their penitence and yearn for their repentance, they would pine away with longings to seek Me.  O Dawud, these are My feelings towards those who are led astray from My path (i.e.  turn their backs on Me), imagine, then, how great My love is for those who seek (and follow) My path.” I swear by Allah, the most beautiful day in your life is the day in which Allah forgives you.

There was a man, named Ka'ab Ibn-Malik, who committed a major sin against the Prophet (SAWS) and this made Allah resentful.  As a result of such a sin, the man had been damned for fifty days during which no one spoke to him or greeted him.  One day, Ka'ab Ibn-Malik was performing fajr (Dawn prayer) on his house roof and the Prophet (SAWS) found out that Allah had forgiven him.  One of the companions told Ka'ab that Allah accepted his repentance.  Ka'ab wept and prostrated to thank Allah.  After that, on his way to the mosque, people congratulated him on this blessing.  When he entered the mosque, the Prophet (SAWS) - with his face as bright as the full moon - brought the good news to him.  He said to him that Allah forgave him.  That day was the best day Ka'ab had experienced since he was born.

How precious repentance is!  Is it not high time to repent?  Do you not long for expressing repentance?  There was, during the era of Musa “Moses” (SAWS), a man of his people who was disobedient and insisted on committing sins for forty years.  At that time, there was a drought.  Musa and his people stood to perform the prayer of drought and shortage of rain (salatul-estisqaa).  Rain did not fall.  Musa asked Allah to make rain fall and was answered that rain will not fall unless the disobedient servant leaves.  Musa gathered his people and told them that rain did not fall because of the sins of the man who had been misbehaving for forty years, and that in order for rain to fall, the sinner had to leave.  Nobody responded and the man knew himself but did not withdraw from the people.  He said, “O Allah!  If I leave, my guilt will be exposed to people, and if I stay with them, we will all die of thirst.  There was no way out except repentance and praying for Allah's mercy.  Forgive me, Allah, and conceal my guilt”.  As a result, rain fell and Musa wondered how this happened while the disobedient was still among them.  Allah told him that because He rejoiced at the repentance of His sinner, He ordered rain to fall.  Musa asked Allah to let him know this sinner to rejoice with him, but Allah told him, “I did not disgrace him for forty years.  How can I disgrace him now, on the day on which he repented?”

Let us ask ourselves about how often Allah conceals our sins!

How can we repent now?

Repentance has three conditions:

1-      Feeling sorrow for the sin, as the Prophet (SAWS) says, “Repentance is feeling sorrow.”

2-      Stopping the sin.

3-      Taking a firm decision not to return to the sin again.

Will Allah accept my repentance if I returned to the sin once more?  The answer is yes.

The evidence for this is the story of  the Prophet Muhammad with the man who visited him and asked:

If I performed a sin – O Prophet of Allah – would it be recorded?

The Prophet answered: Yes.

The man said: what if I repented?

The Prophet said: It will be erased.

The man added: What if I returned to the sin once again?

The Prophet answered: It will be recorded once again.

The man said: What if I repented?

The Prophet said: It will be erased.

The man said: What if I returned again?

The Prophet said: It will be recorded.

The man asked: What if I repented?

The Prophet said: It will be erased.

The man said: What if I returned again?

The Prophet said: It will be recorded.

The man asked: What if I repented?

The Prophet said: It will be erased.

The man asked: Until when will it be erased?

The Prophet (SAWS) answered, “Allah does not stop bestowing His forgiveness until you get bored of asking for it.”

Brothers and Sisters!

Do you feel these words?  We should love Allah, return to Him and start anew with Him.

In the end, I ask Allah – the Most Strong, the Firm One, the Forgiving, the Ever Merciful – to forgive us all and accept our repentance and to unite all Muslims.  Finally, we ask Allah to bestow His peace upon his Messenger.  Our last invocation is all praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

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