Mirza Yawar Baig – Seek forgiveness
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses three conditions that make people regret or hesitant to commit a sin: stopping doing things to avoid forgiveness, not wanting to give charity, and not being given the opportunity to do something. They also mention a message from the Prophet s.a.w. about forgiveness and forgiveness of one's past and future sin. The speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking forgiveness and turning in actions to avoid future sin.
AI: Summary ©
Peace be upon you, and praise be to
Allah, Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the Messengers
and Prophets.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings be upon him and his family.
Next, on the subject of repentance, Istighfar and
Tawbah.
These are first of all two separate words.
Istighfar is to seek repentance, is to apologise,
is to be sorry, express our regret, be
contrite, and Tawbah is to turn towards, to
turn towards Allah.
So when we say Istighfar and Tawbah, the
understanding is that if you say any one
of them alone, the other one is automatically
met.
So if somebody says, make Istighfar to Allah,
that automatically means that also turn towards Allah.
And if somebody says make Tawbah, it means
make Istighfar.
But in terms of sequence, Istighfar comes before
Tawbah.
So we regret what we have done and
then we change.
Our Ulema have said that it is necessary
to repent for every sin.
Alhamdulillah, we know that Allah Almighty forgives minor
sins, even when a person has not consciously
made Tawbah, consciously made Istighfar.
For example, when we make Wudu, minor sins
are forgiven between two Farsalat, minor sins are
forgiven between two Umrahs, between two Jummahs, and
so forth.
Minor sins are forgiven, Alhamdulillah.
And we thank Allah for this.
But it is not for the slave to
imagine and say that if this is a
minor sin, I don't have to seek forgiveness.
That would be arrogance that would immediately make,
saying that itself would make that, that would
be a very major sin.
The sin of arrogance which May Allah have
mercy has, you know, it's one of the
things which are, unless Allah wishes to do
that, it is something which is not forgiven.
So therefore, it is the position of the
slave, position of Abu Dhiya, of the bondage
to Allah that we repent from every sin.
If the offence involves the rights of Allah,
not a human, then there are three conditions
to be met in order that repentance is
accepted The first one is to stop from
committing the sin.
The first thing to do is to stop
doing it.
Very, very important.
If I say that I am, that something
is wrong, then stop doing the wrong.
For example, from the hukukullah, the first and
most important, for the person who has taken
Shahada, for the person who has entered Islam,
is to pray on time.
So if I am not praying, or I
am not praying on time, if I am
being lazy about it and so on, so
immediately stop doing that.
Second one is to stop, is to feel
sorry for committing it.
So in the heart, and Allah knows what's
in the heart, so genuine regret, genuine, be
genuinely contrite, genuine regret for what we have
done.
And the third one is a strong commitment
never to do it again, never to commit
this sin again.
With strong resolve, I will never do it
again.
Now if the repentance does not meet any
of these three conditions, then it would not
be a sound repentance.
In addition to that, what Sayyidina Ali R
.A. and others have recommended is that you
also give some charity.
So every time we make this taqwar, then
give some charity as a sign of our
sincerity.
If the sin involves a human's right, which
is from the Hukuk Hulibat, and remember this
is human, whether Muslim or not, it doesn't
matter.
If you have violated anybody's right, then it
is that person's right that it should be
repaired.
So if the sin involves a human's right,
somebody's right has been violated, it requires a
fourth condition.
So the three conditions to stop doing it,
to feel sorry for it, and never to
do it again, these three are there.
In addition to that, to absolve oneself from
such a right, which is if it's a
property, he should return it to a rightful
owner.
If it is slandering or backbiting, one should
go and ask the person the pardon and
the forgiveness of the person who one spoke
against, who backbitted and so forth.
So making amends, this is very important.
The Sahaba asked the Prophet, they said, if
we have done something like this and the
person has died and we don't know where
to find them or something, he said, then
give a lot of charity on their behalf
and keep seeking forgiveness of Allah for them
and for yourself.
So one should also repent from all sins.
If he repents from some, his repentance would
still be sound according to the people of
knowledge.
However, he should repent from the rest.
Scriptural proofs from the Kitab and Sunnah and
the consensus of scholars, this is very, very
important to understand.
For example, Allah swt warned us and He
told us, وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِعُونَ Allah said, turn towards Allah swt,
all of you believers, جَمِيعًا, all the believers,
أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ, those who are believers, includes men,
includes women, لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِعُونَ so that you might
be successful.
In another place, Allah said, وَعَنِ اِسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ
ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ Allah said, and turn in
istighfar towards Allah swt, seek repentance, seek His
forgiveness and turn towards Allah.
So this is where, as I said, also
in another place Allah swt mentioned this in
the Quran, istighfar before tawbah, but as I
mentioned, if the two words are, if either
of the words is used by itself, then
the other one is implied.
And the third place where Allah swt warned
us and commanded us to make istighfar is,
He said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا تُوبُوا إِلَىٰهِ
تَوْبَةً نَسُوْهَا Allah said, O you who believe,
turn towards Allah swt in sincere repentance.
Abu Huraira r.a reported, he said, I
heard Rasulullah s.a.w. saying, by Allah,
the Prophet s.a.w. is speaking and
taking an oath by Allah, he said, by
Allah, I seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to
Him more than 70 times a day.
So istighfar and tawbah, the Prophet s.a
.w. said, I do it more than 70
times a day.
Imagine, the one who is masoom, who has
never committed any sins and who sins in
any case, whatever he committed, he may have
done or not done, it wouldn't be a
sin in the way that we do sins,
but for those who are of high status,
conditions are different.
So, whatever that be, Allah s.w.t.,
Rasulullah s.a.w., he said, I seek
forgiveness more than 70 times.
So, in the commentary, it says, Imam Nawawi
says, it is an inducement for seeking pardon
and forgiveness.
Rasulullah s.a.w., whose past and future
sins were forgiven, asked Allah s.w.t.'s
forgiveness and how about us?
We who commit sins on a regular basis,
how can we not seek Allah s.w
.t.'s pardon and forgiveness?
Sincere and ceaseless istighfar is essential so that
sins committed by us unintentionally are also forgiven.
So, this above hadith lays great emphasis on
seeking pardon.
Al-Aghar bin Yasir al-Muzani, Adel Anu
narrated that Rasulullah s.a.w. said, turn
you people in repentance to Allah and beg
pardon of Him.
I turn to Him in repentance a hundred
times a day.
So, the first hadith is in Bukhari, the
second one is in Muslim Sharif.
Another hadith, Anas bin Malik, r.a., he
was the Khadim of Rasulullah s.a.w.
and he said that Rasulullah s.a.w.
said, verily, Allah is more delighted with the
repentance of His slave than a person who
lost his camel in a desert land and
then finds it unexpectedly.
And this is in Bukhari and Muslim.
Imagine the imagery of this, a person who
lost his camel, if a person is in
the desert and this person suddenly finds that
he is minus his camel, imagine what kind
of terrible situation that person would be in.
But despite that, and then suddenly he finds
the camel, so he is in this state
where normally it would be like a death
sentence, right?
You are just stuck in the desert, you
can't do anything, you can't say, there's no
water, nothing, and suddenly the person has no
camel and then suddenly he finds the camel,
imagine how delighted he is.
And the Prophet s.a.w. gives this
imagery and says that this is how Allah
s.w.t loves and this is how
Allah s.w.t, how happy Allah is
when His slaves seek His pardon, which means
Allah will forgive, Inshallah.
In another version in Muslim Sharif, he said,
Ahmed bin Malik, Verily, Allah is more pleased
with the repentance of His slave than a
person who has his camel in a waterless
desert carrying his provision of food and drink,
and it is lost.
So this person, having lost all hope to
get it back, lies down in the shade
of a tree and is disappointed about his
camel and he just goes to sleep, he
is like giving himself up for death, when
all of a sudden he finds that camel
standing before him.
So he takes hold of his reins and
then out of boundless joy, he blurts out.
Out of extreme joy, he is kind of,
you know, he is flipped.
So he says, O Allah, You are my
slave and I am your Rabb.
So he commits this mistake out of extreme
joy.
And he says that Allah s.w.t
is as pleased as that when a person
turns to Allah s.w.t. His Hadith
also deals with the inducement and the merit
of repentance and pardon of sins.
Allah s.w.t is very pleased with
repentance.
One will not have to account for a
mistake made without any purpose and intention.
So this is important to understand.
If it's just a mistake, there was no
purpose, no intention, it just happened, then Inshallah,
this is not, this doesn't come under a
sin.
It's not called a sin and you may
seek forgiveness anyway, but the point is that
this is Inshallah, not punishable.
Also we learn that it's permissible to take
an oath to stress on one's pardon.
So Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said, By
Allah, I seek pardon.
So this kind of an oath is permissible.
And one can quote an instance for the
purpose of understanding elaboration, like this story of
this man in the camel.
Abu Musa ala Sharif reported that Prophet Muhammad
s.a.w. said, Allah s.w.t
will continue to stretch out his hand in
the night so that the sinners of the
day may repent and continue to stretch out
his hand in the daytime so that the
sinners of the night may repent until the
sun rises from the west.
And this is in Muslim Sharif.
And this hadith confirms and first of all
an essential attribute of Allah, that is the
hand which is stretched out anytime he wishes
without drawing similarity to it or interpreting it
in our sense.
Such was the attitude of our Salafi Salihin
with regard to all the essential attributes of
Allah.
It is deduced from this hadith that if
one commits a sin during any hour of
the day or the night, he should immediately
seek the forgiveness of Allah s.w.t.
We ask Allah s.w.t to forgive
us and to enable us to seek forgiveness
and to forgive us even where we may
have forgotten.
We ask Allah s.w.t for His
forgiveness all the time.