Sincere Repentance

Authubillahi minashaytanirrajeem
Bismillahirraheem

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent the most Merciful, the one who gave us this life to be in His worship and to glorify His name. Salutations be upon Prophet Mohamamd SAW who was sent as the last guide to the humanity after whom there will be no more messengers and prophets.

Assalam o allaikum Brothers, sisters and my elders in Islam,

Allah SWT says in the Quran:

أَلَمْ يَعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ هُوَ يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَأْخُذُ الصَّدَقَاتِ وَأَنَّ اللّهَ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
(9:104)۔
Translation:
Know they not that Allâh accepts repentance from His slaves and takes the Sadaqât (alms, charities) and that Allah Alone is the One Who forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful?

When a youth does something wrong and hurts the parents with his or her actions, often times parents just absorb that hurt and do not show their feelings because they are worried that their anger or emotion is going to make the child far from them. But when the same child realizes that he has committed a blunder by hurting his parents and he comes back to them and apologizes and promises that he or she will never do it again, that is the most joyous sight for the parents. They feel happy that they became the shoulder to lean on when the child needed it. That joy is not explainable in words, it can only be seen in the eyes of a mother or father who experiences it.

Similarly, when the slave of Allah SWT realizes that he has committed a blunder or when he realizes that he needs to make his heart light and he turns to Allah in repentance, that very action is most beloved to Allah SWT. Every time a person repents sincerely, Allah SWT forgives.

The very word repentance or Tauba in islam means ‘To Return’ and in this very sense it means ‘To Return to Allah SWT’ to mend the relationship between ourselves and Allah SWT. It is for this reason that Allah SWT calls His servants to repent so that they can bring back their relationship in complete clarity and sincerity and so that the slave of Allah can have the highest status of Iman while in obedience to Allah SWT.

In this call, Allah SWT is asking the servants to:

- Purify themselves of all the sins and mistakes by making sincere tauba. This purity is the measure of closeness between a servant and Allah SWT.
- Creat taqwa of Allah SWT in the hearts and flee to Him for He is free of all the defects
- To expect the great bounty of Allah SWT and belief that this bounty is endless.



Allah SWT says :

وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
“…And turn to God all of you, O believers! So that you may be successful”


In this verse Allah SWT reminds all believers without any exception that they should return to Allah SWT for repentance so that they can be successful.

Some of us, we have developed this idea in our minds that repentance is only done when we have committed something wrong and so there is no need to ask forgiveness of Allah SWT if we have not done anything wrong.

Also, some of us believe that repentance can only be accepted by Allah SWT from those people who are in the best state of Iman and people like us who have lots of sins, will not be forgiven.

The beliefs of both of these groups of people are wrong.

A person who has complete faith in Allah and who is a true believer should not ever think that he does not need forgiveness of Allah SWT. Allah SWT has clearly said in the Quran for the people who have complete belief in Him:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ تَوْبَةً نَّصُوحًا عَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُكَفِّرَ عَنكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَيُدْخِلَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ
Translation:
O you who believe! Turn to Allâh with sincere repentance! It may be that your Lord will remit from you your sins, and admit you into Gardens under which rivers flow

So, a person with complete faith and obedience to Allah SWT is also asked to repent to Allah SWT because Allah will grant him success through this repentance and success of the Akhirah is the Paradise.

Ibn Umar narrated that Rasulallah SAW said:
“In our gatherings we counted the Messenger of God mention a hundred times
the following- ‘O my Lord, forgive me and accept my repentance, indeed you are
the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful’

If the best of the best servants of Allah SWT, the best of the best friend of Allah SWT is asking forgiveness from Allah SWT numerous times a day then how can you or me be absolved of this act.

Now if we look at the group of people who believe that their repentance will not be accepted because of their abundance of sins, we will find that this belief is also not correct.

Allah SWT says in Quran:
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَعْفُو عَنِ السَّيِّئَاتِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ
Translation:
And He it is Who accepts repentance from His slaves, and forgives sins, and He knows what you do.’

And Allah SWT says:

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
Translation:
Say: "O 'Ibâdî (My slaves) who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of Allâh, verily Allâh forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful

Hadeeth regarding a man who killed 99 people:

It is recorded in the two Saheeh, the Hadeeth of Abu Said (radhi allahu anhu) from the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) about the man who killed ninety-nine people. Later on, he regretted it and asked a worshipper among the children of Israel whether he could repent. He told him no, so he killed him, thus completing one hundred. Then he asked one of their scholars whether he could repent. The scholar said: 'What is stopping you from repenting?' Then he asked him to go to a town where Allah was worshiped. He set out for the town, but death came to him while he was on the way. The Angels of Mercy and the Angels of Punishment disputed over him, so Allah commanded them to measure the distance between the two towns; whichever he was closer to was the one to which he belonged. They found that he was closer to the town he was heading for, so the angels of mercy took him. It was said that when he was dying, he moved himself (towards the town), and Allah commanded the good town to move closer to him and the other town to move away. [See Fath al-Baree (6: 591)]

So my dear brothers, our Allah SWT is ghafoorurahim and he is Merciful and he forgives whom he wishes. If we make sincere intention to change ourselves and our habits, we must change our company and make associations with those who are righteous and we should continue to ask repentance from Allah SWT.

In order to repent from Allah SWT, there are certain conditions that we must keep in our mind.

- First and the foremost, a person should feel regret about his wrong action and he should feel sad and remorseful
- Second, he should have complete determination that he will not return to that sin again – This determination is very important.
- Third, to go away from the sin.

Inshallah if a person follows these steps then Allah SWT will accept his repentance. The ulema have also mentioned that there are some signs of the repentance of a person and one of the most visible sign is that after the acceptance of the repentance, the person would wish to do good deeds and would wish good for the others.

This repentance before Allah SWT has great rewards my dear brothers and sisters.

Allah says in Quran:
إِنَّ اللّهَ يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ (2:222)۔
Translation:
…Truly, Allâh loves those who turn unto Him in repentance and loves those who purify themselves.

Imam Abu Hurairah reports that Rasulallah SAW said:
“God is more pleased with the repentance of His servant when he turns
penitently towards Him than any one of you would be pleased on finding his lost
camel”.
Sahih Muslim

May Allah SWt give us the taufeeq to ask repentance from Allah SWT for all our previous sins and may Allah SWT give us istiqamah to follow the path of righteousness.



Delivered at Fredericton Islamic Association masjid on April 27, 2007