Bilal Assad – Tawbah – Repentance
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AI: Transcript ©
All praise is true to Allah.
We send our gratitude team and our thanks.
May his prayers and blessings be unto his
the messenger of Allah, his family, his companions
and all those who follow him in righteousness
till the last hour.
Brothers and sisters,
tonight insha'Allah we move to our next topic.
Last week we spoke about
sincerity, Ikhlas.
And today insha'Allah, the next stage which still
involves the heart, we're going to talk about
tawba, repentance.
Repentance,
seeking Allah's forgiveness and returning to Allah after
we have turned away from him with sins.
My brothers and sisters, I cannot begin this
topic about repentance without firstly talking about the
nature of sins and sinful
behavior in Islam. Then we will go to
talk about the definition of what Tawba, repentance
means, what are its conditions,
we're also known to talk about the difference
between Tawba and something called Istaghfar,
seeking God's Allah's forgiveness. We're going to talk
about the signs of a person who is
a true repentant, the value of a repentant.
We're going to talk about
the way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
deals with this person, what happens to your
past sins, how to go about it. We're
going to talk about people's rights and how
to fix them, and the station of people
who repent on the day of judgment. My
brothers and sisters, I begin first of all
with the following introduction.
Let us all be clear and aware
that there isn't a single 1 of us
who is free of sin.
We all
sin.
There is no 1,
none of us
at all who is free
of sinning and making mistakes.
And such is the nature of the human
whom Allah created.
The prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam
said in the authentic hadith which is in
and other books
of hadith.
Every single child of Adam,
all humans,
sin.
And the best among them who do sin,
are the ones who constantly
repent.
If you recognize
very quickly,
Rasul Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the messenger of
Allah, our prophet, the last of all messengers
and prophets.
He said
that those who sin,
the best among them are the ones who
repent.
Therefore,
sinful behaviour
is natural,
but repentance
is a must.
Nobody must keep themselves
dirty with sins.
And the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam also said that Allah said
That, sorry, the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam said.
By the 1 who possesses my soul in
his power.
If you were not to sin,
Allah would have gotten rid of you.
No more humans on earth. He would have
made us all go extinct.
And he would have brought and replaced us
with a new creation
of a creature who does sin.
And then they constantly seek Allah's forgiveness for
their sins.
And Allah forgives them. The hadith is in
Sahih Muslim.
And if we learn anything from the original
story
of prophet Adam alaihis salam and his wife
Hawa'if
in the Quran.
When we hear the story of them eating
from the forbidden tree,
we find that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
contrary to the beliefs in other religions about
Adam and Eve and the sinful,
the initial sin
of the human of eating from the forbidden,
something that was forbidden that is Adam Alaihi
Salam Al Hawa.
Allah did not tell us or show us
the language of anger
and punishment of destruction upon Adam and Eve.
We don't find that Allah is saying to
them, I will punish you
for eating from the forbidden tree by placing
you on earth so you can suffer
and go through turmoil.
Absolutely not. For Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala already
told us in the Quran, the books before,
that he was going to create Adam and
place him on earth anyway. That was the
plan.
But they had to be in paradise for
this lesson to teach us something. And among
the things we learn are the following. Number
1,
that all human beings
commit sin naturally.
Number 2, if it wasn't that we did
not commit sin, we would not learn the
meaning of forgiveness and mercy.
A relationship between you and Allah
is based
on going and coming back.
So we sin
without meaning to do that and sometimes we
mean it out of our weakness.
And that Allah says come back, repent. Don't
let yourself die without repenting.
The relationship between us and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is sometimes a back and forward 1.
And each time you return back to Allah,
your iman, your faith and your love for
him rises.
As the poet says,
He says, I knew about the wrong and
the bad, not because I want to do
the wrong and the bad, but when a
person knows the difference between wrong and right,
then it is less likely for them to
fall in the wrong.
And we find that in the Quran number
3, that when Adam alaihis salam sinned,
he Allah says,
Adam alaihis salaam, he had learnt some words
from his lord beforehand,
which he used after he sinned.
Calling upon Allah to forgive him. So Allah
forgave him. Fata'aba'alai.
Allah turned to him in compassion
and forgiveness.
And then Allah said to him, You're going
to live on earth for a little while
and I will be
ever so with you
under my watchful eyes.
Be patient, you are under our eyes. He
said this to prophet Muhammad as well.
And he says, any guidance that you receive
from me, then whoever takes my guidance, then
they have succeeded.
But be aware of Shaytan, your enemy.
And he tells the children of Adam, be
aware of Shaitan, your enemy. He wants to
lead you astray and take you out of
paradise as he took your father and mother
out of paradise. Meaning, he doesn't want you
to go to paradise. He wants you to
go to * fire with him. So take
him as an enemy and do not assume
of sins as anything,
special.
We learned that why that Adam alaihis salam
ate from the tree only out of curiosity,
and only because shaitan, Satan,
deluded him and his wife to think that
there was a secret if they ate from
the tree.
They believed him when he said I swear
by Allah that I am advising you. And
the cruel criminal person always
says lies to you. Says you are going
to be angels. You're going to live eternity.
And they thought how can 1 swear by
God in lying, so they ate from the
tree and no secret was there really. The
first thing that happened to them was that
their clothing came off.
They were covered with lights and clothing and
some sort and it was it came off.
Therefore, it shows us that sinful behavior
slowly
darkens a person's heart,
hardens a person's heart,
makes a person become
normalized
to *,
nakedness,
lack of shame.
They normalize sinful behavior to the point where
a person not only never feels guilt or
shame anymore, but also normalizes the point of
even saying it's a good thing. It's happiness.
It's what brings us
joy in life to do sinful behavior, but
really it does not.
Brothers and sisters, therefore,
sinful behavior is normal, but repentance
is the quality of true,
honorable people whom Allah has valued in the
Quran
and through these messengers and prophets. They're the
best among people.
The repentant person
is a person who has a special status
with Allah.
And there are many verses in the Quran
which encourage us to return back to Allah
and never give up hope in that Allah
will forgive us not forgive us.
The pro Allah says, I am the way
you assume of me.
Only assume well of Allah and do not
give up returning to him. Don't ever let
Satan and the whispers tell you you have
no hope and that you will suffer and
you have no
you have no,
there's no point of returning and forgiveness and
changing your life and thinking that you do
not deserve
forgiveness.
No matter how many sins you've done in
your life and even if they reach the
mountains,
there is always hope.
And Allah is the 1, the only 1
who does not judge a person
on their past sins
when they repent.
People will continue to shame you,
especially if they've got something against you or
they have a security complex
or they have some issues
within their hearts, diseases
to shame you about your past sins. To
denigrate you.
When Allah is the only 1 who does
not judge you based on your past sins
when you return.
Allah tells us in the Quran,
in 1 of the verses which I chose
I really love this verse in particular. There
are so many verses in the Quran which
talk about repentance and the value of that
person.
But this particular 1,
which is in chapter number 40 verse
7 to 9,
I found that
Allah
looks upon the repentant in a special way
and the angels of Allah,
they make dua.
They supplicate to Allah
for the repentant person.
6 different
requests. They say they ask Allah for 6
different things for the person who repents.
And I have not seen in the entire
Quran
any place where the angels
supplicate a prayer to Allah, to God, for
the people on earth,
more than this particular verse
in relation to the repentant.
Allah says in this surah,
The translation of this verse is as follows.
The angels that bear the throne and those
that are around to extol your Lord's glory
with his praise. They believe in
him. And ask forgiveness for the believers saying,
our lord, you encompass everything with your mercy
and knowledge.
So forgive those that repent.
Forgive those that repent
and follow your path and guard them against
the chastisement
of hellfire.
Our Lord, admit them to the everlasting gardens
you have promised them. And those of their
fathers and spouses and progeny that were righteous.
Surely you alone are most mighty, most wise.
And guard them
and guard them against all ills.
He whom you guard against ills on that
day, to him you have surely been most
merciful.
That is the great triumph. 6 different duhas
the angels make to the person who constantly
repents.
My brothers and sisters, a person who constantly
repents, or anytime you repent truly and sincerely,
it wipes away
your past
sin from which you repented from as if
it never existed.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the hadith is
in Sahih Muslim verse, number 121.
The companion Amr Bilas radiallahu anhu
who had
reverted or converted or embraced Islam.
He
when he converted to Islam when he reverted
to Islam, became a Muslim.
He said, I went to the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
to pledge allegiance to him as my messenger.
So I withheld
my hand when I was about to shake
it.
And the prophet said,
Why did you withhold your hand
yamf? He said, I said,
I wanted to make a condition
of my embracing Islam
and pledging allegiance to you.
Sounds rude and disrespectful,
but let's see what he said.
What is with you, your arm, that you
hold at your shaking of the hand of
pledging allegiance and becoming a Muslim?
He said, I want a condition.
He said, condition of what? I
said
that all my sins be forgiven.
Anil Farani,
that I be forgiven.
And the prophet said,
Did you not already know, You Amr?
That becoming a Muslim
destroys
everything that was before.
You are born
as if you were born new,
sinless and fresh.
And this does not only apply for people
who convert or revert, whichever word you want
to use, to Islam.
It also applies for every person
who lived a sinful past
and wants to
change their life
and seek Allah's forgiveness.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does say in
the Quran,
in chapter 8, verse 38, oh prophet,
tell the unbelievers
that if they desist from evil,
their past shall be forgiven.
And if they revert to their past ways,
then it is well known what happened with
the people of the past.
And this verse applies
to all sinners. But in this context it
was talking about the people of Makkah.
Allah telling them, the ones who fought the
prophet the 1 who want to kill him,
the 1 who killed many Muslims
in many battles,
Allah says you still have hope and a
chance.
The messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam also said, and
this is authentic and unanimously agreed by all
our scholars,
that the doors of repentance are open
and you have a chance
to renew your faith
and repent from your past sins, no matter
what they are and how much they are.
So long as 2 things have not happened
yet.
So long as the soul does not reach
the gargling point,
meaning
upon death.
And so long as the sun has not
risen from where it sits,
we all know the last major signs of
the end of the world
is that, according to Islam,
the sun will rise
from the west.
My brothers and sisters,
which brings me to a question before I
define daubah and the conditions of it.
Are we allowed
to remind and shame
people for their sinful past?
Especially,
when we hear stories about people in marriage,
the husband and wife,
when they have a conflict,
a lot of them,
through my experience,
among the things they do is shame
the other person
with what hurts them the most.
And what hurts them the most
is to shame them with their past
sins
and mistakes.
And this is definitely from the shaitan.
And the prophet
did say, beware of Al haadiqa.
Beware of the thing that shaves.
They said, Woman hadaka You Rasool Allah. What
is the thing that shaves? Says the 1
that shaves your good deeds. It shaves all
your
righteous actions that you've done.
It is when
you cause mischief,
disunity
and denigration
to the muslims,
to the community.
Which means that you want
to turn them away
from the guidance by denigrating them, by shaming
them, by causing fights between them and conflict
in order for the shaitan to take hold
of them.
And when
the companion of the prophet sallam entered Naiman
and
he used to drink alcohol and he wanted
to be whipped to for his sin to
be forgiven.
And a companion said,
without thinking that he is
shameful,
How ridiculous of him to always come back.
The prophet told
him
don't assist the shaitaan
against your brother.
And the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said the
hadith is also in Al Bukhari
and Muslim.
The Muslim is the brother and sister of
another Muslim.
He or she does not oppress them nor
do they,
nor do they belittle them.
And does not shame them and denigrate them.
And he make them feel small
and bad
and worthless.
Then he said,
piety is in here, in the heart. Meaning
the reason why people would do that is
because your piety in your heart is diseased.
And he pointed to his to his chest.
It is enough to be said
that a Muslim become an evil person
by denigrating and putting down his brother or
sister
of
Muslims. Everything from Muslim towards another Muslim is
forbidden.
His blood,
his property,
and his dignity and honor.
So shaming 1 another about their past sins
after they had repented,
or even shaming them while they are sinning,
in a denigrating manner,
both of them assist the shaitan against your
brothers and sisters.
And what's worse is to shame someone of
their past sins knowing it after they had
repented when Allah had risen them and given
them a special place.
It is as if that person is playing.
Remember the hadith I told her which is
in Bukhari, aina hadal ladhiyaat manhadal ladhiyaata
Allah Allah says,
where is this person
who is taking over my own judgment?
In other words, trying to play god.
Who told you that I will not forgive
this person? Who told you that I will
punish this person? Who told you a muslim
talks
in general, what Allah says. Allah says, whoever
does this, this will happen. And you can
advise a person who is sinning,
but to expose them and to talk about
them
is forbidden. And to shame somebody
because of their past sins
is even worse.
In fact, some scholars said it's a major
sin.
Of course, a person who is an open
sinner
that harms other people,
you must warn other people from the open
sinner. There is We're not talking about an
open sinner
who does not care about their sins. We
warn other people from sinners
because they can lead them astray. When you
see for example a friend who was hanging
out with someone else or taking them to
a bad place. You warn them and you
say be careful of that person and so
on.
So brothers and sisters, I wanted to highlight
these few points and now
the major point.
We are speaking about tawba, repentance,
and obviously my references from this book by
the imam and Nawawi the great imam.
Based on the works of,
a sheikh doctor Khaled Ashab, who has done
extensive work on this book.
What is
repentance therefore?
How do we get out
of sins and not be punished for them
and accounted for them?
Do we, as Muslims,
are we taught
to go to the imam
or taught
a religious person
the way other religions say go and confess
your sins
to the priest,
so that your sin can be forgiven, for
example?
Do you call upon
saints,
such as prophets and messengers,
or righteous people who you know own their
graves?
Do you call upon them and admit your
sin to them
to have your sin forgiven?
Do you go and tell your mom and
dad or your friends?
Because you feel a burden on yourself so
you have to tell someone or confess
to people.
The answer my brothers and sisters
is no.
In fact, it is forbidden
and in some cases the example that I
gave you confessing it to a dead person
or a person you think is a saint
or to the iman.
Thinking that by confessing your sin will be
forgiven
is also making partners with Allah. Because the
only 1 who forgives sins is who? Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is an action of Allah that cannot
be
associated with anybody.
Allah says,
Inform my slaves,
my servants that it is I
who is the most merciful,
the most
forgiving.
And Allah also says
in the Quran
So Allah says in the Quran,
and those are when they do
an act
of indecency,
sinful behavior, dirty, indecent acts.
Or they oppress themselves by doing sinful acts
from other types of sins.
They remember Allah.
Immediately when they remember Allah,
they seek Allah's forgiveness for their sins.
And who is there other than Allah that
forgives sins?
No 1 other than Allah has the power
and the right to forgive sins.
On 1 condition that they do not insist
on purposefully repeating again and again those sins.
While they know
that they are sinful.
And while they are aware
and not insane
or forced or pressured.
My brothers and sisters,
therefore,
repentance
to Allah is the way out
of all sins.
And repentance literally means
to return back
to Allah after turning away
as a result of 1 or many
disobedience and sins
that Allah had forbidden.
Major sins, minor sins,
all types.
That is tawba,
repentance. And we're going to explain its conditions.
The second
word
is
called
seeking Allah's forgiveness.
These are 2 different
meanings.
He says,
Abu Ghirah Adalai says, I heard the messenger
of Allah saying, by Allah I seek Allah's
forgiveness
and repent to him more than 70 times
a day.
And another hadith more than 100 times a
day. Did
you notice Rasool alaihi wa sallam says, I
seek a lost forgiveness
and repent.
That means they are not exactly the same
thing.
What is the difference between
tawba and istafar?
Repented to Allah and seeking his forgiveness.
Tawba
means to return to Allah
with 4 conditions.
And we're gonna explain this. The first condition,
to stop the sin that you were doing,
Iqlaah,
stop. Turn
away from it.
Number 2,
to regret
the sin that you were doing.
Number 3,
to make an honest and firm determination,
a promise to Allah
that you will not return to it.
Number 4 is a special case
only involving
people's rights.
The first 3 are Allah's rights.
If you wanna add a 4th 1, it's
people's rights.
If you owe people something that you took
away from them, their rights,
then you have to fix it.
So, 3 conditions
which do not involve Allah's rights
and a 4th condition
which involves people's rights. We're going to come
back to explain each 1 of those 4.
Secondly, istighfar,
seeking Allah's forgiveness.
Seeking Allah's forgiveness is not that you necessarily
have repented.
Seeking Allah's forgiveness means, oh, Allah,
cover up my sin, and don't expose me,
and don't punish me for all that.
Both of them come hand in hand together.
You cannot repent without seeking forgiveness, you cannot
seek forgiveness without repentance.
So seeking Allah's forgiveness means, oh Allah, cover
my sin
and don't expose me. Some scholars, other than
Imam and Nawawi, did have the view that
you can ask Allah for forgiveness, meaning to
cover up your sin and not expose you
in this world or the next.
And then repentance can happen later, even if
you haven't done it at the same time.
Why? Because seeking Allah's forgiveness
could be for big sins,
or minor sins,
or everyday
sins that people do without realizing.
And that is the correct opinion insha'Allah. Seeking
forgiveness, oh Allah, cover my sin.
There is a beautiful hadith in Sahih Bukhari.
On the day of judgment,
some of you will be called to Allah
to come closer to him.
Until Allah places
his veil over you.
So there is a veil which Allah created
which covers you in order for others not
to see or hear
the conversation between you and Allah,
on the day of judgment.
And Allah will say,
you did
such and such a sin.
And then the person will say,
yes, I did my lord.
And then Allah will say,
In the former life,
I kept it a secret. I didn't expose
that sin of yours. And today
I will continue to cover it up.
So
Allah
constantly seek Allah's forgiveness.
If Allah were to expose all our sins,
not 1 of us here
will be remotely
loved or liked
or even spoken about in any good way.
But it is Allah who covers us.
So remember when you are praised or complimented,
don't let arrogance get to you or superiority
complex
fool you.
Always say, oh Allah forgive me. Then I'll
hold be accountable for the unworthy praise they
give me.
And forgive me for the secret sins they
don't know about me
and make me better than what they assume
of me.
Number 2,
as a result of what you just learnt,
repentance and asking a lot to cover your
sin,
don't you go
and do the wrong thing foolishly
by exposing yourself.
Some people can't help,
but they have to go foolishly parade
their sins to their friends, their family, and
everybody.
Worse than that are people who are proud
of showing their sins to everyone.
On social media it's rampant.
People love to expose their sins and they're
happy about it.
And they will fight you if you dare
to advise them.
The shaitan gets a hold of some of
these hearts.
Repent to Allah and fear Allah, but for
your own sake.
Allah will not judge me for you, and
he'll not judge you over my sins.
Each by themselves.
Why is it wrong
to parade and expose your sins?
Number 1,
you'll give other people the idea by normalizing
it.
Because people, that's our nature.
We have a statement in Arabic.
Doing wrong things with people, so long as
we're together,
it's a festivity.
People love it when everyone does things. And
that's why when people say, well, everybody does
it. That's a sign that the sin has
been normalized to you.
Number 2.
You start to feel less guilty about it.
And some people use it as a form
of mental health.
Not here.
I spoke about mental health last week
and the week before. Not here buddy.
Mental health is about you have self self
you have to self self actualization, you have
to know yourself.
Don't dig deep your
problems and your mistakes and your sins
and try to fool yourself by saying I'm
still good, so long as I accept it.
There are people who go don't wear clothes
at all and they say I'm happy that
way.
There are people who kill and they say
killing is good. There are people who *
and they say, well, they deserve it. There
are people who abuse,
and bash and steal and they say
and they try to justify it in their
hands. Some people they say, well, at least
I'm not like this. At least others do
that. At least that This is the shaitan
telling you normalize it. So when you expose
it and you parade it, you normalize it.
The prophet, peace be upon him, said, there
will come a time when people will normalize
sexual activity in public
to the point where people will do that
sexual activity
on public roads, and people will be so
normalized that they will say things like, well,
at least you could have gone to the
side of the street and continue your
act.
So very normal.
Don't expose your sins,
accept in 2 ways.
Sins can be exposed in 2 ways.
Scholars said, number 1,
if you're seeking advice
from a scholar, an iman,
or a therapist,
or doesn't have to be a scholar, it
can be someone you trust and respect that
can advise you.
So sometimes you need to expose some of
the sins in order to get advice of
how to get out of it. Number 2,
if your sin is going to harm, there's
a high potential that's going to harm
someone else
if you don't talk about it.
So sometimes in marriage, people when they get
married,
normally you don't talk about your past sins,
if you've repented. But if you know that
something you've done in the past
is likely to come back to harm the
marriage or harm your spouse,
then it is wise
to hint about it.
Some people they say no,
but the answer is you got to also
be practical.
If it has a high highly likely that
it will come back to harm the marriage,
it's better to speak about it before. I'll
give you an example, somebody, let's say, was
addicted to drugs.
And it has it's only been recent.
It's a better idea to say look, I
was
I did have a problem with drugs in
the past. But, alhamdulillah,
save me from it. I'm completely clean.
Why do you say that?
For those who understand how drugs work, especially
heavy drugs,
in times of depression or times of,
when you're low and down, it's possible people
go back to it. And I've seen it
in marriages a lot.
Sometimes people may carry certain diseases,
that can be transmitted
to this partner
or to children.
He can't just say I'm gonna hide that
sin,
so people are gonna be harmed.
Person may have
a crime
that is still
awaiting
a decision and you know you may end
up in prison as a result of it,
it's important to tell the spouse you're gonna
marry.
So these are examples
and hopefully 1 day we'll do a lecture
only about that. Other than that brothers and
sisters,
sin that has been done in the past
and gone, and person has repented from it,
it is harang, forbidden
to open it up and talk about it.
And those who tell you, tell us. You
have a right to say no.
And once it's there,
don't shame the person. We already spoke about
that.
So let's go to repentance.
Atoba.
Repentance
can be from
the following
things.
Number 1,
from disbelief
and shirk
to belief
and tawhid.
A person used to be
a disbeliever
or a polytheist or did acts of shirk
associated with and then they can repent from
that, so long as they're still alive.
Don't confuse
the
ayah in the Quran which says,
Allah forgives all sins except for shirk.
The aya, this verse saying Allah forgives all
sins except for shirk, is not about this
life. It's talking about when you're already dead
and you're in the hereafter on the day
of judgement. That Allah may still forgive all
your sins on the day of judgement if
you want,
except for shirk that does not get forgiven
if you die upon it. But while you're
living, you can repent from it. Number 2,
people can repent from major sins.
It's not just can, it's a must.
Number 3,
you repent from abandoning
obligations
to start doing them again.
A person didn't pray 5 the 5 daily
prayers which is an obligation.
You repent to Allah from abandoning them and
now starting them again.
A sister did not wear a hijab, as
Allah told her to. When I say hijab,
I mean the veil.
Top to bottom. Body and hair.
The way that Allah told her to wear
it. It's an obligation
And then she assumes the hijab in the
right way, the proper dress code, and then
she repents to Allah. A person used to
have drugs, repents to Allah and stuff. Sorry.
A person abandoned fasting, didn't fast, didn't pay
the zakat. So obligations that you did not
do in the past to repent from them.
Number 4. From disobedience to obedience.
Sometimes you may disobey Allah
constantly in a particular 1 or 2 or
3 things, then you repent to obey Allah
again. Or number 6, from minor sins.
Minor sins,
we need to explain it. There are minor
sins which are purposely done. You plan for
it and you do it, but they're minor
sins.
And there are minor sins which you purposely
do and then you keep repeating over and
over.
That's 2.
And then there are minor sins, which Allah
calls in the Quran,
lamam.
Lamam.
Allah says
Those who avoid the major sins of what
we have forbidden, except for
the everyday
unintentional
sins.
You saw something, you went somewhere, something couldn't
avoid, you happened to fall, you forgot, you
do a sin. Allah forgives those by continuing
to do good deeds. You pray your salah
to say in a day, you don't have
to repent from them specific group.
Number 7,
some people repent from
from dislike things. They're not forbidden, but they're
disliked.
For example, a disliked thing to do
is to eat with your left hand.
Some people may be shocked with that. It's
not forbidden tea with your left hand, especially
with people who are used to it. It's
disliked.
A person may repent from sleeping on their
stomach. Sleeping on their stomach is disliked.
Filling up your stomach too much. So they're
not
sinful,
but they're
disliked.
Repenting from them is a higher degree.
Some people repent from not doing recommended acts,
to start doing recommended acts. They are not
obligatory. Let's say the 12 sunnahs
of your salah.
You didn't used to pray them or used
to neglect them. It's not a sin.
It's recommended act. If you do it, you
get rewarded. If you don't do it, you
don't get sin. But you repent and you
say, you Rabb, astaghfirullah,
I'm going to start
doing
my sunnahs. I'm going to start doing recommended
acts. And there is a high degree of
repentance.
So remember, repentance means to return
and to be better. So not just from
sins. Another 1 is
from preferred
acts,
when you have the option between good and
better.
In in sharia this is called
Sometimes the scholars
may tell you, look, this is good, but
this is better.
Sometimes there's a difference of opinion among the
scholars about a particular matter,
but the majority
say,
but just to get out of the dawds
do that.
So for example, something is halal
and you say to yourself,
look, but I'll just avoid it for the
sake of doubt and I'll just do this
1.
Right? Then that is also repentance. Some people
wanna be of that higher degree.
For example,
this this 1, this is very special. Mainly
the highest repenters do this.
But Rasool said,
pray your wither,
wither is 1 rakat after Isha.
But he said,
the best witter is the 1
before you sleep.
So praying the wittir close to after a
shark is good. Praying close to your to
your sleeping time is better.
So you say, oh Allah,
I repent to you from praying it then.
I'm gonna start praying it before I sleep.
Another 1 is night prayer.
To pray night prayer is this or that.
To start praying night prayer
means, and doing in the last 3rd instead
of the beginning of the night.
So brothers and sisters, these are different ranks
of people who repent. Let's now talk about
the 4 conditions. Number 1. You must stop
the past sin.
For example, a person
has been
looking at forbidden
images
for a long time
Or
has not been praying their prayers
consistently.
Or has not been dressing
correctly
outside of their house, or or or all
these are sins.
The first thing you do is stop.
You cannot repent without stopping. You can't say,
oh Allah forgive me, but just give me
about a week.
I'll just have a little bit more.
Then you gotta stop.
You can't say, oh Allah, I promise you
on Monday next week.
That repentance hasn't started yet. So you gotta
stop.
Number 2 is regret.
Now,
some people say, well, what if I can't
feel the regret?
In Islam, there are 2 things about
sharia. Number 1,
you can
you can look at the cause
or the effect.
If you feel the effect of regret, nada,
that's beautiful.
Some people look at the
cause. What is the cause? You say to
yourself,
man,
I don't want to do this sin anymore
because
I don't want to be accountable on the
day of judgement. I don't want to be
punished.
I want to enter paradise.
Allah is watching me. You may not feel
the regret,
but because of that
you consciously stop.
That is another form of regret.
So you don't necessarily have to feel it
because Allah says now you can live for
law and have sin illa bussa'a.
Allah does not burden a person more than
what they is within their capacity.
So don't go into a mental illness
or something like that thinking, I don't feel
regret, something's wrong with me. No. If you
stop it because of
what Allah told you, it's regret. And finally,
determination.
To determine means for the future,
you can't be half forward and half backwards.
You can't do it with hesitation.
You can't do it with a negotiation.
It has to be honest.
I really am not going to do it
again You Arrab.
This is it.
This is it. Right there and then.
That's called determination.
If you're not determined and don't mean it,
it is not repentance. All 3 conditions must
be met for the repentance to be complete.
Now a person may ask, what if I
get back to it next day and I
felt weak? I say to you, that's fine.
Not fine. I say to you, the repentance
yesterday is still valid.
But now
you've broken and you're starting again.
So do it again
and again. So long as you got these
3 conditions perfect,
honest,
because we're weak.
Brothers and sisters,
the 4th condition, the rights of people.
There are 2 rights of people,
physical
and immaterial.
The physical is like examples of theft, blackmail,
ripping someone off, cheating them.
All this involves their property,
things that you can
feel and touch.
The way to repent is after these 3
conditions is to return the possessions of people
that you took.
To fix
the losses
that you gave them.
To compensate them.
Or if you can't do that, you have
to seek their pardon or make it up
to them in some other way.
You might say that's too much.
I say, yeah, exactly. It's not a simple
matter, brothers and sisters.
And that's why the scholars used to say,
why put yourself in that position?
The second type is immaterial rights. For example,
backbiting,
accusing,
defaming,
verbal abuse,
denigration,
all that. Insults.
All these are immaterial
rights that you took from a person.
And what did the scholar say? You need
to seek their pardon.
Ask them for forgiveness.
If you fear that
you if you tell them it is likely
that they are not going to forgive you
and cause a bigger problem,
it's going to cause bigger problems, then the
scholars said, then don't seek their forgiveness.
Don't do it. Because you're not going you
wanna change something to better, not to worse.
Instead,
the majority of the scholars said,
you go back and you mention that let's
say it's backbiting. You go back and you
mention that person you back bit to the
group that you back bit in a good
way.
You start talking well about that person.
You
might say, well what if they're really bad?
Find something good about them.
Or and and you make dua for them.
Oh Allah, forgive them, grant them goodness, guide
them.
And you can give sadaqa
on their behalf.
This is Imam al Nawawi's opinion and others.
Can
I repent
from 1 thing,
even if I have
other sins still ongoing?
Will Allah forgive
my repent my sin
while I continue the other sins? This is
a good question.
Let's say I have 10 ongoing sins
and I repented from the first 1.
Do I have to also repent from the
others in order for the first 1 to
be forgiven?
There's 2 opinions about it, the majority and
the correct 1 is that, yes,
that sin is forgiven.
Then you work on the next 1, then
you work on the next 1. An example,
let's say that you've been,
watching haram as a sin
and you have been neglecting your 5 daily
prayers.
You repented from your neglecting of 5 daily
prayers and you start praying then. But the
sin of looking at haram is still ongoing.
The repentance from the 5 daily prayers is
valid and then you got to work on
the next 1.
Hey, sister
didn't fast but at the same time wasn't
assuming her hijab properly.
She repents from not fasting, starts to fast,
but the issue of the covering is still
a problem for her.
Yes. Her repentance from not fasting is valid,
so long as she follows these conditions and
she has to work on the next 1.
And so on and so forth.
Next question is, what makes repentance
most sincere
in the highest degree? So there are different
levels.
The highest degree
is 3 3 things. How do you know
a repentance is of the highest degree? Number
1,
the sin and everything
attached to it has to be abandoned.
So not only the sin but everything that
leads to it, everything that is associated to
it, everything that led you to it, completely
gone.
Number 2,
firmly without hesitation. And number 3,
sincerely
to Allah without
any hypocrisy.
Brothers and sisters, look at this. Let me
let me give you an example. Some people
might say, how can I repent with hypocrisy?
Like this.
You work for a company or an employee.
They've got a policy, don't look at
inappropriate material.
Don't abuse. Don't do this.
And you've been doing it.
After a long time, you get caught
by
HR. They said come here, we're going to
have to question your character.
Probably lose your job.
And then suddenly you feel guilty bad, you
think, my God, my world is in there,
I'm gonna lose my job.
So then you stop it and you feel
guilty.
That is not for the sake of Allah.
That's for the sake of your job.
That's not true repentance.
It's not haram. You have to stop, and
it's okay and you probably save your job.
But religiously it's not a true repentance,
because it's only based on keeping your job
or not. What is the sign? The sign
is that person goes back when the employers
are not looking.
They go back to it. That's the sign
that it's not true repentance.
But you can change to hit 2 birds
with 1 stone.
You can say man, look what's happened to
me. Had I listened to Allah, I wouldn't
be in this position. Now I give it.
Alhamdulillah, it's come as a slap on my
face. It's time for me to repent. So
you save your job and
you are truly sincere to Allah and you
wake up.
So then you repent and the sign of
that is, whether you have your job or
not, you've repented.
A person may be married
and they do something
and then finally their spouse catches them.
They fall into depression, their marriage is on
the line, so then what? They feel guilty
and they stop.
But not for the sake of Allah, only
to save their marriage
or for the mental health of their spouse.
That's all good,
but it's not a repentance to Allah is
still gonna be questioned.
You can hit 2 birds with 1 sound
and say, subhanAllah.
See as a result of this sin Allah
is punishing and letting me see what's going
on. It's time for me to turn back
to Allah. Then insha'Allah,
it's a good and sincere repentance.
And so on brothers and sisters. Somebody
doesn't pray,
but wants to marry this person who's looking
for someone on deen.
So they go on deen to marry
them. After 6 months,
their deen becomes
in Nabiin,
gone.
They only did it for the marriage.
So
all these
are not real repentance.
And finally, what are the signs
of a true repentance? How do you know
that your repentance
is most likely
accepted by Allah?
What are its signs? There are 3 main
ones.
Number 1.
You will feel that your iman,
your connection with Allah, your faith to Allah
increases.
After
You feel like your heart is closer to
Allah. Your iman, your faith, your spiritual
belief rises.
And Allah says this in surkulanfar.
Number 2,
you suddenly feel motivated
to do more good deeds.
And number 3,
when you remember yourself and that sin, you
hate that person.
You hate going back to that sin. You
are disgusted with yourself.
These are prominent signs of a true repentant
whose repentance has been accepted insha'Allah by Allah.
May Allah accept
our repentance.
Forgive our sins.
Guide us.
And do not allow us to die except
as true believers.
May Allah forgive whatever sins are left over
after our death.
Pardon us and hide our mistakes
and our betrayals
between us and Allah. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala when I say betrayal between us and
Allah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us
and keep us protected.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive our brothers
and sisters, our fathers and mothers, our children,
our spouses
and forgive all the believing men and women,
everyone around the world. You say Amin, you
have an angel that also says Amin for
you.