Ali Ataie – Mercy, Forgiveness & Salvation Episode 16 Forgiveness
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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.