Tauba

Assalam o allaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu, my dear respected brothers, sisters and elders.

Qalallau Taala Az Wajal, Allahu la ilaha illa hual Hayyul Qayyum……..

In the name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most merciful. Salutations be upon our august master Nabi Mohammad SAW, his noble companions and the pious scholars who transmitted this true deen to us.

One day Adam AS said to Allah SWT that O Allah you have given so much power and control to Shaytan over me. How will it be possible for me to save myself from Shaytan. You have given so much power to Shaytan over myself and I am expected to not follow the footsteps of Shaytan in this imbalance of power and temptation.

Allah SWT then said to Adam AS that O Adam, I have appointed such beings over every one of your kind, means over each and every child of Adam AS to protect them from the onslaught of the Shaytan. It is mentioned in the Ahadeeth that every human being has Malaikah or angels over them to protect them. If it were not the mercy of Allah and these angels, the human beings would have been destroyed by the attacks of Shaytan or probably would have not even been existing in the state as we are today or if existed probably would have been worse than the animals.

Adam AS then requested to Allah SWT, that O Allah SWT, You have blessed me with this bounty, then give me another bounty. Allah SWt then said to Adam AS, O Adam, every good thing that you do, We will multiply it by 10 times and if you will do any bad deed it will be counted once. This has been a great bounty of Allah SWT.

Adam AS then said to Allah SWT, O Allah increase for me. Then Allah SWT obviously talks about the increase in the context of Shaytan having power of mankind. Allah SWT then said, My doors of repentance (tawba) will be open right until a person dies.

Now these are three bounties that Allah SWT has given to each one of us as a deterrent against Shaytan.

The Faqeeh and Muhaddith Abul Lays Al Samarqandi narrates an incident from Rasulallah SAW that gives a glimpse of how vast the mercy of Allah SWT is.

Once Umar RA came of Rasulallah SAW and he was crying very very severly. Umar RA, you know what type of a person he was and those who have learnt from ahadeeth will know that he was person of strong heart and when Rasulallah SAW saw him crying, it was very surprising for the prophet.

Nabi Kareem SAW said, O Umar, Ma U'teeka... What is that is making you cry?
Umar RA said that there is youngster that is standing at the door. He is crying so profusely that his crying is making me cry. Rasulallah SAW said to Umar RA that , O Umar call the youngster inside. Rasulallah SAW asked the youngster, Why are you crying? You cried in such a manner that you made even a person like Umar RA cry?

The youngster replied that he had committed a major major, a severe sin. Rasuallah SAW told him, If your sins are equivalent to the seven skies, seven earths and all the mountains on the earth, even then you do not have to worry because Allah SWT will forgive you.

The youngster replied that O Prophet of Allah, my sin is even more than the seven skies, seven earths and the all the mountains on the earth. Rasuallah SAW then asked him, Is your sin greater than the Kursi of Allah SWT?
He said, O Prophet of Allah, according to the understanding I have, my sin is even greater than the Kursi of Allah SWT. Rasuallah SAW then asked him, Is your sin greater than the Arsh of Allah SWT? He said, O Prophet of Allah, my sin is even greater than the Arsh of Allah. Rasuallah SAW then asked him, Is your sin greater than Allah SWT himself? It is a rhetorical question, Is your sin greater or Allah SWT greater. Obviously Allah SWT is greater over all things.

Nabi SAW then asked him, What is the sin you committed that is greater than seven skies, seven earths mountains, the kursi of Allah and even the Arsh of Allah SWT ? He said, O Prophet of Allah, I was a thief who used to steal the Kafan ( the burial shrouds) from the graveyard. Once a young girl was buried in the grave yard and after the family left, I took off her shroud, leaving her naked, and I ran away from there. When I was running I was over-powered by Shaytan and I returned to the grave and committed zina with that dead girl in the Qabr.

Abu Layth Samarqandi says, that, Then Allah SWT out of His Qudrat and Mercy gave life to that girl.

The girl addressed to that man, Are you not ashamed, firstly that you left me naked in the army of the dead where everyone had kafan except me and on top of that you left me infront of Allah SWT in a state of Janaabah. Don't you feel ashamed about it?

So this sin of mine left me paralyzed in my mental faculty and I believe that it is a sin that is greater than the seven skies, earths and the mountains and the kursi and Arsh of Allah SWT.

Nabi SAW heard this, and Nabi SAW sent him away. This person after the meeting with Rasulallah
SAW spent his time making tawba to Allah SWT.

For many days he would ask Allah SWT to forgive him and he made a dua to Allah SWT that if Allah SWT were to forgive him, then first inform Rasulallah SAW about his forgiveness.

Jibraeel AS came to Rasulallah SAW and asked him,
Did you create creation, or Allah created?
Allah created.

Do you provide sustenance to the creation or Allah SWT provides?
Allah provides.

If a person disobeys Allah, is he disobeying Allah or is he disobeying you?
He is disobeying Allah.

Then Jibraeel AS informed Rasulallah SAW that this person made such sincere tawba that Allah SWT has forgiven him. Faqeeh Abul Layth Al Samarqandi says that Rasulallah SAW called this person and gave him the bashaarah of his tawba.

Allah SWT has made each one of us weak and Shaytan does overpower us due to this weakness but one should not feel despondent and should not give up hope from Allah SWT. Each one of us is in the same boat and one should not feel that since our sin is so big we will be left alone by our creator. No, Allah SWT, will definitely forgive us , only if we seek repentance from Him sincerely.

One of the sahabi of Rasulallah SAW known as Wahshi RA. He was the qatil of Hamza RA ( the uncle of Prophet SAW) in the battle of Uhud. He wrote a letter to Rasulallah SAW, that I wish to accept Islam but I have some reservation. The reservation is that Allah SWT says in Quran al Kareem that those who do not commit shirk with Allah SWT, those who do not kill other people, and those who do not commit zina, Allah SWT forgives them. I would accept Islam but I have reservation, that all these three things mentioned in the Quran, I have committed all of them. I committed shirk, I killed people including your uncle and I also committed zina.

So if my tawba is accepted then that means that it is as if I have not done these three things but I HAVE done these three things. So Rasulallah SAW, wrote him back and said,

إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا فَأُوْلَئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ حَسَنَاتٍ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا

25:70 "Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful,"

Wahshi RA sent a message back, I still have a reservation. Allah SWT says in this verse that one has to repent, believe and do amaal saalih. This puts the conditions on my forgiveness. I want a forgiveness that is unconditional, what if I don't do amaal al Saleh, then my forgiveness is not complete. To this Rasulallah SAW replied to him,

إِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَلِكَ لِمَن يَشَاء وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللّهِ فَقَدِ افْتَرَى إِثْمًا عَظِيمًا
4:48 "Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin Most heinous indeed."

So Nabi Kareem SAW made clear to him Allah SWT says that Allah SWT will forgive anyone except that who does not commit shirk. So as long as he does not commit shirk, he has high chance of forgiveness.


He writes back to Rasulallah SAW,
For this too I have some reservation that Maghfirah is Muallaq on the Masheeat of Allah SWT. What this means is that although I seek forgiveness from Allah SWT, it is upto Allah SWT to forgive me. There is no way of knowing if indeed I am forgiven or not. I want to be forgiven completely and unreservedly. Upon that Rasulallah SAW replied to him with the ayah:

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

39:53 SAY: “[Thus speaks God:] ‘O you servants of Mine who have transgressed against your own selves! Despair not of God’s mercy: behold, God forgives all sins - for, verily, He alone is much-forgiving, a dis­penser of grace!’ ”

That Allah SWT says those who have become despondent of Allah’s mercy, do not lose hope for Allah’s mercy has no bounds.

So my dear respected brothers and sisters, do not let ourselves lose the sight of the vast mercy of Allah SWT. The doors are open and it is upto us to take the path of tawbah and ikhlas. If we take this path, the mercy of Allah SWT is waiting for us and with this mercy our duniya and akhira can become successful. May Allah SWT give us the taufeeq to ask forgiveness for our past sins and give us the ability to be steadfast on the path of righteousness. Ameen.

November 03, 2006