Ali Ataie – Mercy, Forgiveness & Salvation Episode 16 Forgiveness

This is Ali Atayi, lecture of

comparative religion and sciences of the Quran at

Zaytunah College. We're in the middle portion of

the month of Ramadan, which we ask Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala for his forgiveness.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran,

in a verse called Ayatul Imtihan, the verse

of examination.

Surat Ali Imran, ayah number 31.

He

says,

Allah

says, speaking directly to his Habib, sallallahu alaihi

alaihi wasallam, say, if you love Allah, then

follow me. Yuhbibkumullah.

And this verb is in the justive mood.

It's a result clause. Then will Allah love

you and forgive you your sins, for Allah

is forgiving and merciful. There are many believers

in God in the world today who believe

in something called the prosperity gospel, that the

amount of love that God has for you

is commensurate with the amount of money in

your bank account. That's not the gospel of

Jesus. That's the gospel of the antichrist

that

your salvation is through the world. What does

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say in this verse?

Ayatul Ibtihan. Why is it called the verse

of examination? First of all, who is being

examined? We're examining our own selves to see

where we stand. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says

in this verse that the level of love

that he has for his servants is commensurate

with the amount of itiba.

It the amount of adherence and i'tisam,

the amount of clinging to the messenger of

Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Adherence to the

way of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam

is the means of our forgiveness and the

prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as we said

in previous sessions,

on the authority of Abu Hurairah, he said,

I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgiveness

70 times a day he is khairil khalqila.

He is the best of creation.

We need to be in a state of

constant Tawba to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Tawba is the teaching of all the prophets.

No one can take our sin

and atone

vicariously

for us. Allah

says, No bearer of burdens can bear the

burden of another. The prophets were saviors

in the sense that they taught us about

sin and how to deal with sin. Their

teaching is a means by which we can

attain

salvation. The prophet

is Shafi'i.

He is the intercessor

on the yomul kiyama, and he is the

one whose intercession

is accepted, but he does not take our

sin. He does not take our sin upon

him in a beautiful quatrain

by the Hadarami mystic in Faqih, Sheikh Abdullah

ibn Anawi Al Haddad, the Mujedid of his

century, who is a descendant of the prophet

Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam from Imam Hussain alaihi

salam. He says

he

says

He says, by your life

by your life, a person is only the

son of his religion. That's all that it's

gonna come down to is your level of

taqwa. So he says don't forsake your taqwa

and lean on your lineage for verily Islam

exalted the Persian

Salman

and debased the noble

born from Bani Hashim Abu Lahab, the uncle

of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi

wa'alaalihi

wasalam.

No one died for your sins. No one

can die for your sins. In the Torah,

in the Old Testament, in the book of

Devarim,

Deuteronomy 2417,

it says and I quote in Hebrew. It

says, ish

Every man is put to death for their

own sin for their own sin. In Ezekiel

chapter 18 verse 20 from the from the

Nabi, also in the Hebrew bible, It says

the soul that sins, it shall die a

spiritual death. The son shall not bear the

iniquity

of the father

neither shall the father bear the iniquity of

the son. The righteousness

of the righteous, the tzadakah in Hebrew, the

righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him

and the rishah, the wickedness of the wicked

shall be upon him. But if the wicked

would turn

and the verb here in Hebrew is yashuv,

and yashuv means to literally turn, to reorient,

taba yatubu, to make repentance, to make tawba.

But if the wicked would make tawba, would

repent from his sins and do that which

is lawful and right,

He shall surely live. He shall not die.

And I'll end with the story from the

Ikhya ul Umadeen. This is from book 40,

Kitabdhikr

al mawt wama ba'ata,

by Abuhamad al Ghazali Rahimahullah

ta'ala. We study the Ihya

for purposes of of edification,

for knowledge. The ulama say if you don't

have the Ihia, you should sell your lihyah,

you should sell your beard to get the

Ihia al lumeden.

So he mentions a story, a beautiful story,

that there was a certain man in a

certain city who was the town drunk and

everyone knew he was a drunk open fasik

And this man died, and the people of

the town refused to have him buried in

their cemetery.

In fact, they didn't want him to be

buried in their town at all. So this

poor man's wife, she took her husband's body

and dragged it out to the desert. And

now she's digging the grave

for her husband. As this is happening, an

Arif Bilhah, a gnostic, is walking by and

he sees the scene. And immediately, he rushes

down

and helps her and digs the hole and

places her husband in the in the hole

and buries him and prays Janazah over his

body.

And then the wife says, do you know

who this husband of mine was? He was

the town drunk. He said, I don't know

about that. But what I do know is

last night I had a dream and a

voice told me that tomorrow you're going to

be walking in the desert. You're going to

see a woman trying to bury her husband.

Help her. Her husband is a man of

Jannah. Her husband is a man of paradise.

So that's what I did. And then he

left and the people of the town caught

up with him. And they said to him,

do you know who that man was? Why

did you help him? He said, I don't

know. And he told them he he told

them the story again. And then the people

of the town approached this man's wife and

they said,

how can this man be a man of

Jannah? Can you think of anything he used

to do? And she said, I can think

of 3 things.

He was never devoid of 2 or 3

orphans.

That he cared for more than his own

children.

In the morning when he would wake up

from his wine, he would go take a

shower, make hussul and then he would go

pray salatul fajr in jama'ah, in congregation,

in the Masjid. And when he would come

home at night from his wine, he will

go to a certain part of our house.

He would fall on his knees and raise

his hands to the heavens and say, oh

God, which corner of * are you going

to fill with this wretched servant of yours?

And he would make tawba to Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

give us his forgiveness

during these middle nights of the month of

Ramadan

and may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless all

of us.