Ammar Alshukry – Allahs Beautiful Names – When Allah INSPIRES You To Repent Al Tawwab
AI: Summary ©
The concept of never fully committing to a sin is different from desire and requires a change in behavior. The cycle of regret, regretting actions, hesitation, victimization, and discovering rights can lead to negative emotions. The actions of Muhammad during his journey to Allah's domain showed that he recounts a story of forgiveness and never deserved a death. forgiveness and being a source of goodness for others are important factors in avoiding sin.
AI: Summary ©
The initiator and acceptor of repentance.
Is a form which indicates the perpetual
initiation of repentance and the acceptance of repentance.
Allah says
about the story of Adam
And so Adam was inspired or taught words
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so Allah
accepted his repentance.
Allah is the constant acceptor of repentance,
the merciful.
Muslim.
He says that the promise of Allah, alayhi
salam describes the happiness of Allah when one
of us repents. And he says,
of 1 of his servants than a person
who had been traveling in the desert and
then loses his camel and then finds it
unexpectedly.
In another version, a longer version in Muslim,
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says that Allah
is more happy with the repentance of his
servant than a person who has his camel
in a waterless desert. And it's carrying his
provision,
his food, his drink,
and then the camel gets lost. And this
man
loses all hope of being able to find
the camel back. And so he lies down,
and he is despaired about his camel when
all of a sudden he finds that camel
standing in front of him. He takes hold
of the reins of the camel and then
he says out of his incredible happiness, he
says,
He says, oh, Allah, you are my slave
and I am your lord. And the prophet
said, he
said he
he made it all
mistaken.
He got the sentence all messed up because
of how happy he was. Now that image
of a person who's snatching life from the
jaws of death, he was gonna die and
all of a sudden he sees his camel
in front of him. That happiness that's being
described
is the happiness that Rasulullah
is describing to describe the happiness of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when one of us simply
repents.
Question for you, wouldn't you like to make
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala happy?
Then what do you have to do? You
simply have to repent.
Now, Tawba,
repentance has pillars that the scholars have mentioned.
Number 1, the first is that a person
commits to never doing the sin again. And
the word,
commitment,
is different than fantasy. It's different from wishful
thinking. It's different from just simply intention.
We know what commitment looks like in our
day to day life. If a person says,
for example, that they're committed to losing weight,
they're committed to a healthy lifestyle,
and they wanna change their life around with
diet and exercise. And then after you hear
that passionate speech, you then say to them,
let's go for lunch. Like, cool. And then
you go to a diner, and the first
thing that they order is burgers, large fries,
and a large soda.
You wouldn't consider them to be committed. Commitment
requires not just desire, but a change in
behavior. So when it comes to commitment with
regards to repentance,
it requires commitment, and that requires a change
in behavior. What caused that person to fall
into that sin in the first place? What
was the environment that they're in? What are
the pathways that normally send them down that
darkened path? And what do they need to
do to change it? So that's number 1.
Number 2, that they don't relapse. Number 3
is that they regret the sin. And then
number 4 is that if the sin has
to do with the rights of somebody else
that they return those rights. The first three
are between them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
if the sins between them and Allah. Allah.
But the 4th, if it has to do
with the rights of someone that they return
that right. So if a person stole money
from someone, they can't simply say, I repent
to you, oh, Allah, from stealing
$10,000 from so and so. No. I have
to return that money to that person. So
the 4th pillar of repentance is that if
it has to do with the rights of
somebody
demotivate
them. Instead, they should simply dust themselves off
and get back up and try again. And
if they were to do that a 100
times, sincerely committed,
Allah would forgive them a 101 times. Ibin
Tami
says, and let them be patient regarding what
is presented to them of obstacles and distractions
for it may not be long that Allah
assist
them with a spirit from him and decrease
faith in their heart. Meaning that if you're
trying to get over a sin, you have
to be patient, you have to endure. Don't
let the obstacles
stop you from journeying to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. You all know that story. Probably the
most famous relapse story in hadith is the
man who killed 99 souls.
And this man had wanted to repent. And
he goes to a great worshiper in the
masjid, and he says, I've killed 99 people.
Is there repentance for me? And the guy
says, no.
You killed 99 people? There's no way that
you can repress. So he kills him too.
That's how easy
so he made him a 100. He made
it a 100 souls.
That's how easy killing had become for this
person. That if somebody gives him an answer
that he doesn't like, he just simply kills
him. Now that's as good a reason as
any for someone to say, you know what?
This repentance thing isn't my it's not working
out for me, you know? This is obviously
who I am. Or maybe you'd say to
himself, like, this is proof that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala did accept my repentance. I'm destined
for the al fire. Look, I'm even
trying to repent. I show up to the
masjid, and I kill somebody in the masjid.
Like, there's no good in me. Right? But
that man didn't let that obstacle stop him
from his journey of what he wanted to
do. And so he continues until he finds
somebody else. And in this time, he finds
a scholar. He says, I killed a 100
souls. Is there repentance for me?
And the scholar says to him, and who
who can be between you and repentance to
Allah
But then he tells him you have to
go to another place though. You have to
go to another city because your people here
are an evil people. You're in a very
bad environment. You gotta leave. You can't be
around the same people, the same friends, the
same situation, and expect change behavior. You have
to put yourself in a better position. You
have to commit, and you have to change
your behavior, and so he did. And while
he was on his journey, as he covered
half the distance, he would pass away. And
there was a dispute between the angels of
mercy and the angels of torment and the
angels of mercy.
They they came and he said, you you
know, he belongs to us. He was journeying
to his lord. He was journeying in repentance.
And the angels of punishment said, this person
never did a virtuous deed in his life.
And then the prophet
tells us that another angel was sent, and
this one judged between them. And he said,
measure the distance between the two lands. If
he's closer to his origin,
then the angels of the punishment will take
him. And if he's closer to his destination,
the journey that he was taking, then the
angels of mercy will take him. And so
the angels of mercy collected his soul. And
so this man who was journeying to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala after killing a 100 souls
was forgiven and his repentance was accepted. And
he says, I heard this not once or
twice or even 7 times from the prophet
but I heard him saying even more than
that. I heard him saying, there was a
man called Al Kiphil among the children of
Israel,
and he didn't stay back. He didn't restrain
from committing sins. He committed every sin, and
a woman came to him once, and he
gave her 60
so that he could sleep with her. And
when he was in position that a man
was from a woman, she began to tremble
and cry. And so he said to her
like, you know, did I do something to
harm you? And she said, no. But I'm
only doing this out of need. The only
reason I'm here with you right now is
because of my need. In that moment when
she says that, he says to her take
the money and leave. He was so moved
by that moment. He said by Allah, I
will never disobey Allah
after that.
He repented
in that moment, but he would also die
that night.
And the next day, the prophet
said that written upon his door, it was
written.
Allah has forgiven.
I'm aware that I just told you 2
stories of Tawba and both of them ended
with the person dying. And I remember reading
the book by Ibn Khadama called
the story of those who repented. And it
was definitely a motif one after another, not
all of them, but enough times where I
noticed the person who was repenting in the
story ended up dying shortly after. And I
remember thinking to myself, like, so what? Does
doba cause people to die? Like, is that
something that that's gonna excite me to make
toba if I'm gonna die after it? But
I realized that I was looking at it
actually the wrong way.
Because the prophet
he says
that when Allah
desires good for someone,
he sweetens him. And the Sahaba, they said,
how does Allah sweeten a person? He says,
he guides him to some goodness, and then
he causes him to die in that moment.
So these people were destined to die, but
Allah
inspired them to Tawbah at the end of
their days to sweeten them, that their life
end with one of the greatest deeds that
they can do. And one of the greatest
things that we can do is assist each
other with regards to Tawba. I wanna end
this with guidance from.
Allah
begins
saying
He's the forgiver of sin, the acceptor of
repentance. The severe and punishment, the owner of
abundance. There's no deity except him. To him
is the destination.
Now Ibn Kathir mentions that there was a
man from a sham who used to come
and visit Umar ibn Khattab and
Umar on one occasion missed him. Where is
he? Where has he been? And so when
he asked what happened to so and so,
the people said he's been drinking.
And so Umar then summoned his scribe and
he wrote from
to so and so the son of so
and so.
Peace be upon you. I pray a lot
to you who's the forgiver of sins and
the acceptor of repentance. The severe in his
punishment,
the owner of abundance. There's nothing worthy of
worship except for him and to him is
the destination. He quoted to him verbatim
the beginning of.
And then Umar told the people around him,
he said, make du'a for your brother that
he approaches it with his heart and that
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, inspire him to repentance.
So when the letter reached the man from
Umar, he would read it again and again
and again. And he would read,
the forgiver of sins and the acceptor of
repentance. He's warned me of his punishment and
he has promised me that he would forgive
me. And then he would continue to repeat
it again and cry and then he desisted
from drinking wine.
When the news of that reached Umar ibn
Khattab, he says, this is what you should
do if you see your brother slip, that
you correct them and pray to Allah
for them, that he inspires their repentance and
don't be shaitan's helpers against them. So we
ask Allah
to accept our repentance, to make us of
those who constantly repent to him and that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes us a vehicle
of repentance for our brothers and sisters that
we assist them, we uplift them, and that
we be sources of goodness for them.