KHUTAB II - 4. Repentance

4.  Repentance

  (20 June ‏2003)

Brothers & Sisters in Islam,   

Allah says in the Qur’an,

 وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ مِنْ مُصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ  (الشورى  :  ٣٠)

 And whatever of misfortune befalls you, it is because of what

 your hands have earned. And He pardons much.  (Q. 42:30).

 ‘Alī ibn Abī T.ālib (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said that the Prophet told him about the above verse as follows: “O ‘Alī, what ever befalls you, such as sickness, punishment, or misfortune in this world, it is because of what your hands have earned. Allah is more noble-minded than punishing you again in the Hereafter.  And what Allah has forgiven you in this world He would be gentler than punishing you after He has forgiven you.” What the Prophet means is that if Allah has punished you in this world for the sin you have done, He would not punish you again for this sin in the Hereafter, and once Allah has forgiven you for your sin in this world, He would not punish you for this very sin in this world or in the Hereafter. 

Commenting the above verse the early Qur’ān commentator ‘Ikrimah said that any misfortune befalls a servant of Allah it is because of a sin which Allah does not forgive except through this punishment, or because He wants to raise him to a higher position which he cannot reach except through inflicting him with this misfortune. One example is that a person asked Prophet Moses, saying: “O Moses, to pray to Allah to give me what He knows Himself what I am asking for.” He did, and he found out later that the man had been killed by a lion (or a beast of prey); his flesh was torn to pieces. So, Prophet Moses asked Allah, “What happened to this man, O Lord?” Allah said, “O Moses, he asked me for a high position which I knew he would not be able to reach with his own good deeds only, so I inflicted upon him with what you have seen, so that I shall make it a means for him to reach this high position.” The great and early scholar Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, whenever he mentioned this story, said, “Glory to Allah Who is able to grant him with this high position without inflicting him with misfortune! However, He does whatever He intends to do”

The expression  وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ  in the above verse has two meanings:

(a)       Allah forgives many more sins and disobedience without any limit, and this is the interpretation of the great and early Qur’ān commentator al-H.asan.

(b)      Allah forgives many more sinful and disobedient people by delaying punishment. This means that they will have more chance to repent, and the door of repentance in Islam remains open twenty-four hours a day without any intermediary for many years as long as one is still alive. It is a life long open door of repentance.

Speaking about the first interpretation Allah might punish us as atonement (كَفَّارَة) for one sin we commit, but forgives many more sins and could reach thousands in number, although not all of them. A man on his way to the mosque to perform the Friday congregational obligatory prayer had an accident. He should not complain and say, for example, “Oh God, why such accident did happen to me? I was going to the mosque to worship You, not to a casino for gambling which You have prohibited.” Allah might punish him as atonement for his sin and the money spent for repairing the car was to purify his remaining wealth by taking away the impure (h.arām) one.

Despite Allah’s generosity by forgiving many of our sins, and that is definitely very good news, there is no guarantee for the remaining sins which will be forgiven only by Him through repentance. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us to keep repenting by saying, “O Allah, forgive my sins what I know, what I do not know, and what You know better”  (اللَّهُمَّ اْغْفِرْ لِمَا أَعْلَمُ وَ لِمَا لا أَعْلَمُ وَلِمَا أَنْتَ بِهِ أَعْلَم)  and to ask forgiveness immediately after committing sin.  In another verse Allah says,

وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا أَوْ يَظْلِمْ نَفْسَهُ ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرِ اللَّهَ يَجِدِ اللَّهَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا (النساء : ١١٠)

And whoever does evil or wrongs himself but afterwards

seeks Allah’s forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-forgiving,

Most Merciful (Q. 4:110).

The term يَجِدِ literally means “he finds” in the present tense indicating Allah’s quick response that any moment we ask forgiveness, Allah is already there to forgive us without delay. The verse does not say, for example, سَيَجِد  or سَوْفَ يَجِد indicating the future (lit. “he will find”), although it is translated into English with this English sense.

Speaking about the second interpretation of the expression وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ in the above verse, that Allah forgives many more sinful and disobedient people by delaying punishment, He said in another verse, as follows:

وَلَوْ يُؤَاخِذُ اللَّهُ النَّاسَ بِمَا كَسَبُوا مَا تَرَكَ عَلَى ظَهْرِهَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ وَلَكِنْ يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ

إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى فَإِذَا جَاءَ أَجَلُهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِعِبَادِهِ بَصِيرًا (فاطر:٤٥)

   And if Allah were to punish men for which they earned,

 He would not leave a moving (living) creature on the surface

of the earth; but He gives the respite to an appointed term:

 and when their term comes, then verily, Allah is Ever

 All-Seer of His slaves.  (Q. 35:45).

 It means that if Allah wanted to punish the whole people in this world for all of their sins once for all, the whole earth would have been wiped out where not any single living being would remain on it.  ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd, the companion of the Prophet, said that the dung beetle would almost suffer punishment in its den because of the sin of the son of Adam. When a man enjoined to do good thing, and to avoid evil, a man told him to mind his own business, because the wrong-doer would harm only himself.  On hearing this, Abū Hurayrah, the companion of the Prophet, said, “It is not so, by Allah Who has no other god beside Him, by Allah in Whose hand is my soul, verily, the bustard (a large, swift-running bird) would have died by losing weight in its nest because of the wrong-doing of the wrong-doer.”  People are so sinful that they are no longer ashamed of committing sins. They even keep inventing more kinds of sins, increasing the number of sins in the list of sins, turning abnormal things into normal, giving new names, such as sex industry.

The above verse continues with the following verse,

وَمَا أَنْتُمْ بِمُعْجِزِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ (الشورى : ٣١)

And you cannot escape from Allah (i.e., His punishment)

 in the earth, and besides Allah you have neither any walī

(guardian or protector) nor any helper (Q. 42:31).

Since there is no escape from Allah’s punishment if He does not forgive, then the only solution is to take refuge to Him from His punishment.  The Prophet used to ask forgiveness from Allah, and  in a long tradition narrated by al-Barrā’ ibn ‘Āzib and reported by Bukhārī and Muslim, he used to say while he was in his bed  لَا مَلْجَأَ وَلَا مَنْجَا مِنْكَ إِلَّا إِلَيْكَ  meaning, “O Allah, there is no refuge nor escape from You except to You.” We should ask His protection from His punishment. If you want to spank your child for his mistake, and instead of running away from you, he comes to you asking your protection and tightly clinging to you, crying, “forgive me, ma!” or “forgive me, pa!, I repent” then, what would you feel? 

Conclusion: Although Allah forgives the majority of our sins, yet we should repent immediately after committing sin.

5. Those Who Lose Most 

 (27 June 03)

 Brothers and sisters in Islam,

People who lose most are mentioned in three surahs (chapters) of the Qur’an: surah Hūd (chapter 11), surah al-Naml (chapter 27), and surah al-Kahf (chapter 18). They are all people who lose most in the Hereafter.  The most disappointing and frustrating among them are those who lose most in respect of their deeds; they think they are doing good deeds, but in the Hereafter their deed will not be acknowledged. Instead, they will be punished.

Allah says in the Qur’an,

قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالْأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالًا. الَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعًا. أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآَيَاتِ رَبِّهِمْ وَلِقَائِهِ

فَحَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فَلَا نُقِيمُ لَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَزْنًا. ذَلِكَ جَزَاؤُهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ

بِمَا كَفَرُوا وَاتَّخَذُوا آَيَاتِي وَرُسُلِي هُزُوًا (الكهف : ١٠٣-١٠٦)

  Say: ‘Shall we tell you of those who lose most in

 respect of their deeds?—Those whose efforts have been

 wasted in this life, while they thought that they were

 acquiring good by their works?’  They are those who

 deny the signs of their Lord and the fact of their having to

 meet Him (in the Hereafter): vain will be their works, nor

 shall We, on the Day of Judgment, give them any weight.

 That is their reward, Hell; because they rejected

 faith, and took My signs and My messengers

 by way of jest.  (Q. 18:103-106).

The verses start with an order from Allah to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to say and ask a rhetorical question to attract attention to the listeners. Since the word قُلْ (“say”) is included in the revelation, it remains also included in the Qur’ān. There are many other Qur’anic verses starting with All