Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Remedial Tasawwuf Repentance 10142017
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
The class, like we said, is,
like, the soul of 98. It's a remedial
class in order for a person to get
to the point where they can actually,
start their spiritual journey.
And
the prerequisite even to that prerequisite class is
this first chapter,
which is the chapter regarding Tawba.
So we start with
a a technical definition given by Imam
who is an imam of this tradition. He
is a Muhaqqiq of the Shafi'i Madhab, and
he's a great Muhadith.
His
Minhaj,
on the
as a common sorry. Not the Minhaj Afan.
I forget
the name of the the commentary. But his
commentary on Sahih Muslim is
a canonical commentary, and it's an abridgment of
the previous commentaries
on Sahih Muslim. His,
mastery in the craft of
of hadith
is to the point that his commentary on
Sahih Muslim
is used in the Madaris,
of the world
as a companion to the study of Sahih
Muslim.
And,
it's, it's it's almost a universal textbook.
Nawi
was
a a genius. He died before the age
of 40,
and, he never married. He never owned a
house. He never did anything. All he did
was he used to sleep in the masjid
and he just wrote.
By day night he just studied, taught, wrote,
studied, taught, wrote. Allah
have mercy on him. His,
his and the it's
going to become like a complete like, distraction
from the if we talk about it. But
I I I recommend people look into it
because it's a very
amazing,
individual even for,
for the standards of the Islam.
So he writes that tawba is an obligation
from every sin that a person commits,
and if the sin is between the slave
and between Allah
and doesn't have to do with the right
of another human being,
there are three conditions to that tawba.
The first is that the person stopped doing
the the sin that they were doing. The
second is that the person should feel bad
about having committed the sin. And the third
is that the person,
they they they resolve never to return to
that sin again.
And,
Nawi
says if one of these,
one of these conditions is missing,
then that person's Tawba is fake.
That person's Tawba is not it's not proper.
Imam,
One of the Imams of the tradition, Fudayl
bin Iyab,
who was essentially a brigand. He used
to be a highway robber.
Basically, him and his band would,
by force,
steal from people.
And then he made Toba,
and
he
went back to his people that he used
to steal from
and beg their forgiveness
or,
returned
what he stole from them to them over
the over a matter of decades
over a matter of decades.
And he will become actually an imam in
a number of different things, not just but
in hadith as well. His hadith are narrated
in the,
in Sahih Bukhari, which is amazing because Imam
Bukhari was such a
he was such a hard person to get
to narrate
your hadith. He met Imam Ahmed bin Hamble,
but he never narrated from him,
because every hadith Imam Ahmed had, Bukhari had
with a with a with a a shorter
chain.
So the fact that you even make it
to Bukhari is, like, somewhat of a somewhat
of an achievement even if your hadith is
Sahih.
So,
Fudal bin Ayad is is a is a
is a very remarkable person. He's a companion
of Imam
as well. So he said this that the
person who
the the person who,
stops the sin and then repents from it
while having secretly hidden the intention of the
in their heart to return to that sin,
that person their Tova is known as a
like a liar's Tova.
This is this is a Tawba of a
liar,
meaning it's not accepted by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And,
there's some
there's some detail that should be
added to this. And the first thing is
that, Nawi
being a
he mentioned 3
attributes of the Tawba, but they shouldn't be
taken as steps that you do this, this,
and that, and then your Tawba is done.
Rather, they're attributes that describe a state in
the heart. Remember we talked about this just
a minute ago that the subject of tesauf
is the way the deen manifests itself in
the heart.
And
so one of my teachers, may
Allah
keep him in his protection.
Mullana Muhammad Hassan,
he we read the back half of
the back half of Tirmidi from him
and the front half of the Mishkat Al
Mas'abi and several volumes of the Hidayah and
the sunun of
Abu Dawood,
Shamayel, a number of books from him. He's
a he's a villager. He's not a he's
not, like, a super sophisticated person.
So, and there's a difference between sophistication and
intelligence. He was a very intelligent person, but
he wasn't a super sophisticated person. He said,
think about this picture. A man goes hunting
and then he has the prey within the
sights of his rifle, and then he pulls
the trigger,
And then afterward, he blinks and opens his
eyes and
realizes instead of shooting the prey, he shoots
his only child.
The grief that comes from the heart and
the ah
that comes from the heart and the burning
feeling that a person had
that they wished
they could give anything in the world to
just take that moment back.
That's what the reality of toba is inside
of the heart.
And,
if a person has
that, then they'll obviously stop doing what they're
doing,
and they'll obviously
not wanna do it again,
and they'll obviously,
you know, regret what happened, all of these
things, and even more. There's even more adjectives
that can describe that state,
but that's what these three things are, and
that's what they
describe. Now that being said,
many many sins that people commit are things
that are
that are, connected to, like, addiction or
to things that are not so simple that
a person
can want to leave them and never come
back. This country is full full of alcoholics,
and I'll go one step further and say
the Muslim world is filled with alcoholics, and
it's not a new thing. The Muslim world
was filled with alcoholics from
time of the Sahaba There are there are
people who Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in his
own madinah Munawara,
people that their iman,
a person, you know, from from our day
and age,
the most saintly of our people, their iman
wouldn't
compare with theirs,
but they were addicted to drinking,
you know. And there are people who are
punished for for drinking by Rasool Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam in the time
of the Salaf as well. And so, you
know, people like that shouldn't hear,
this description of Tawba and
despair.
Why? Because my experience is that alcoholics are
the ones who hate alcohol the most,
because they've experienced what damage it does. They've
already lost their job
because of it. They've already lost all of
their loved ones. Their wives have left them.
Their children have left them. They made fools
of themselves. They've gone to jail. They've gone
through all of this difficulty.
And so they're the ones who hate it
the most.
And so a person might say, well, why
should I make toba right now? And Sheikh
just said that if you're gonna go back
to the sin, then your toba is a
toba of a liar.
Then, you know, like, what's the point? Because
every time I wanted to stop, I've always
gone back. And the fact of the matter
is is that certain sins,
the Tawba is like a work in progress.
And and remember we said Apri, the the
seed of Apri sorry. The seed of, of
Tazoa is in the heart. It's not in
the mind. If you, in that moment, hate
that sin so much that you never wanna
do it again,
Your mind will tell you, well, you're probably
gonna end up doing it again tomorrow.
That's the mind is not where where the
seed of the the Tawba we're talking about
is. It's in the heart.
So if a person makes toba,
in that moment, it's sincere.
And if your mind is like, well, you're
probably gonna end up doing this thing again
tomorrow,
that doesn't interfere with your Tawba.
What it should do is cause you to
make dua to Allah
for what?
That, you Allah, help me to make it
not happen again tomorrow.
And your mind will come up with several
schemes in order to
help you,
practically implement what your heart wants, which is
to give up sin.
And so
that's a separate process,
and that's again part of the practicality of
of of of what actually what the So'af
actually is,
is trying to figure out how to do
those things.
But the Tawba, the seed of the Tawba
is not in your mind and your scheming.
You may never be able to give up
to sin. You may take a long time.
It may take a great amount of sacrifice,
A number of outcomes may leave you easily.
It may do you know, a number of
outcomes are possible.
Those things are more about other stuff. The
the is what is that you should feel
the sincerity in that Tawba in the moment,
and don't deny your heart the sincerity of
that Tawba.
Rather inculcate it, let it have a seed
in your heart,
hold on to that feeling as much as
you can. It becomes like a habit, just
like a person who goes to the gym
the first time is not gonna
bench press £300.
Many people can't even
lift the bar the first time they go
to the gym.
But, you know, your toba will also become
stronger and stronger.
So as a very practical matter,
certain sins a person can just, you know,
spiritually do the equivalent. Just just shoot it
and it's done. You'll never do it again.
Right?
Certain sins are are like, you have to
strangle it. It'll take, like, 30 seconds, a
couple of minutes for it to for it
to die. It takes a little bit of
effort.
Right? Certain sins, if you try to get
rid of them right away, your nafs will
come after you in in such a with
like so much vengeance, it will put you
in an even worse spiritual situation.
Like, for example,
anyone here, like, a social worker or something?
Alright. If you if you
that's right. Everyone's a doctor. I guess if
you're a doctor you should or wanna go
to med school, you should know this too.
Right? If a person's addicted to heroin and
they just quit cold turkey, what's gonna happen?
You will die. You will probably die. Why?
Because that's such a sin. If you try
to give it up cold turkey, your nuffs
will come after you hard.
It will literally kill you. Your nuffs will
kill you. Your body is like, what did
you do? Where is that? Give it give
it back. Otherwise, I'm gonna punish you for
this. Right?
Okay. So then don't give it up cold
turkey.
Right? Then shoot up half as much tomorrow
as you did today or I don't know
however you know, however it is. That's These
are all plots and schemes for the mind.
Don't let that interfere with the state inside
of the heart because the mind will be
like, oh, you're not gonna actually give this
thing up, you know, right away so your
toba is not real so why make toba
in the first place? Why let this feeling
enter into the heart? Because it hurts. It
hurts to have that feeling of regret inside
of your heart. It's not it's not like
something that you know is enjoyable that a
person is like, yeah, oh yeah I wanna
I wanna do that. It hurts it hurts
a person to have that that that feeling
inside of the heart. But, inside of that
pain, there's some chera as well
because
it it it cleans a lot of,
a lot of
stuff from the heart that shouldn't have been
there in the first place
and, it becomes a very powerful impetus for
a person to write, what did we say?
This chapter is like a prerequisite for the
rest of what's inside of the course. It
becomes an impetus for a person to power
themselves forward. So instead of instead of embracing
a culture which is more more and more
touted as days go on,
A culture of self esteem and not,
you know, like don't blame yourself for anything
and feel good and anyone who reminds you
or makes you feel ashamed of yourself or
anything that makes you feel ashamed of yourself,
push it away and push it aside.
No. There are certain things we should accept
blame for, that we should accept,
shame for, we should feel bad about. Not
everything. Right? If you're if you're if you're
white, you shouldn't feel bad for being white.
If you're black, you shouldn't feel bad for
being black. If you're brown, you shouldn't feel
bad for being brown. If you're born with,
like you know, you're you're born with some
sort of
natural impediment or handicap, you shouldn't feel bad
about it. People shouldn't make you feel ashamed
about it. That's the type of
of shame and blame a person should push
away from their life. But there's if you
actually did something wrong, then you should feel
bad about it. The ability to feel bad
about your sins is itself a sign of
righteousness.
Nobody is a nebi that they're born Mas'un,
that they're born like infallible.
And so the righteous people also have sins.
The sign of the righteous is not righteousness
is not that they don't make mistakes or
do sins. The sign of the righteousness is
what? Is that they feel bad about it.
They they're they're they're not shameless people.
So continuing,
continuing with the description of Nahu alhamdulillah,
he says,
that that if the sin has to do
with the right of another human being, then
there's a 4th condition as well, which is
that that right also has to be either
fulfilled or forgiven.
So if you borrowed money from someone, you
have to pay them back.
If you,
if you took something from someone, you have
to repay them.
If you,
you know,
talked bad about a person,
You have to make it right because that's
a hap as well in the deen. Right?
The and the deen are not only monetary.
A person's honor is just as sacrosanct as
their property.
Obviously, the first amendment doesn't cover that,
but there's nobody, including the the founding fathers
of this country, that said that the constitution
is
an all encompassing document that that that
covers every aspect and facet of life. It
was just a a document that's there to
govern how,
how the state
and the the populace
deal with one another, and it came from
a set of people who recognize that
government authority is something that needs to be
curtailed because when it's unchecked it it takes
over things. So it's a very minimalist document
in that sense even.
And so the first amendment and it being
a free country and whatever, it doesn't extend
to the,
and it doesn't extend to the deen. And
just because you have the legal right in
America to say whatever you want to say,
even though that's not really technically true,
even if it were true, just because you
have the legal right to say it doesn't
mean that in the dean you have the
right to say it. There are many things
that a person doesn't have the right to
say. You know, you cannot you cannot get
up and say, well, you know, I disagree
with people, but, like, you know, they have
the right to say whatever they want to
about Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So, no, they don't have
the right to say it. If they say
it's a sin, it's a it's a crime
against Allah
and against the Rasulullah
alaihi wa sallam. You don't have the right
to talk bad about your your friends and
your your relatives or other people. You don't
have the right to talk bad about them.
There's obviously exceptions
to this rule. The Ullamas say that
a a person who openly commits a a
major sin,
and doesn't try to hide it,
that person the sin is there's no longer
any sin in in saying that thing about
that person. So if a person is a
drunkard publicly or whatever,
then there's no longer any sin in saying
so and so is a drunkard. But, again,
there's no in saying those things. Anyway, coming
back to the issue,
all of these different rights that a human
being has,
the toba includes those three things that we
mentioned previously and the 4th condition, which is
that you have to have that person either
you have to repay them for what you
took or what you destroyed of their haqq
or you have to have them forgive you.
And inevitably the question comes up, well, you
know, like I back by I back
by bit somebody
and if I ask them for forgiveness they're
gonna be like, what did you say? And
if I tell them it's gonna cause more
fitna and more facade. And
the answer the first answer to that question
is, well, you have a problem then don't
you?
And so it's a hadith of Rasool Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The
happy one is the one who takes a
lesson from other people's misfortunes.
So it's a good lesson for us to
just
bite down on our tongue and not,
talk bad about people
because you will your tongue will put you
in certain situations
like that
that you then will be in a conundrum.
You cannot retrieve yourself from it.
And,
you know, obviously, there are things that a
person can do.
If you feel like you can just ask
them for general forgiveness and they'll forgive you,
then go ahead and do it. You know,
if it's gonna cause more fitna, then by
no means should you cause more fitna.
Maybe you can give
in that person's name or or or do
something else to try to make it up
up to them, but you put yourself in
a difficult position. And this is one of
the things that people say. I I kind
of it irks
me because they say it in the wrong
way even though there may be some
portion of it that's that's that's correct.
They say that the Huququl Ibad are greater
than the Huququl Allah that the the rights
of other people are more important or greater
than the rights of Allah That's
why you shouldn't you should be careful of
not violating other people's rights.
From Akhida perspective, I think this is a
completely wrong way of saying it
because Allah created the heavens and the earth
from nothing.
There's no one in the creation whose rights
come anywhere near what what what the rights
of Allah Ta'ala are. In fact, the only
reason that we
recognize the rights of one another
is because of the right of Allah ta'ala.
It's because of the right of Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Otherwise, theoretically, if a person could
rob another person and get away with it,
what's why why not do so? You know,
if a person could take advantage of another
person and get away with it, why not
do so?
And, you know, we live in America.
You guys are in the south. A good
portion of of this part of the country
is literally built on slave labor that was
never compensated,
and ostensibly it seems like basically the people
who did that are gonna get away with
it in this world.
Nobody gets away with anything in the hereafter.
That's why that's the most easy way of
understanding, describing why,
why a person can't abuse the rights of
another person. The reason other people's rights are
have priority
practically speaking, not not not in a conceptual
sense, but practically speaking is because
Allah ta'ala
took the
prerogative of forgiveness on himself
for those sins that don't involve the creation.
Those sins that do involve the creation,
he gave the prerogative of forgiveness to the
creation
and Allah ta'ala's ar Rahman al Rahim,
he describes himself
with the attributes of forgiveness,
whereas the creation is not described with those
attributes necessarily.
And, that's why that's why those sins are,
are are are
very perilous because you put yourself in a
situation where you're gonna have a great deal
of trouble to extricate yourself from them. If
a person after, you know,
speaking with one of the olema finds that
there's no way that they can seek forgiveness
from the person. Oftentimes what happens people backbite
somebody and that person dies
or they'll steal from someone, that person's gone.
With money, even then you can at least
give the money to their heirs.
With backbiting, it's very difficult for a person
to,
retrieve that hap after after that after the
the the victim of their of their sin
has passed from this world. At that point,
all you can do maybe give salakah in
their name
or or or or,
something like that and keep doing so with
the hope that your mopayama, when they see
what you did for them and your sincerity
toward them, they will feel inclined
they'll feel inclined to forgive you.
But there are certain sins, for example,
murder.
Murder is such a sin that, obviously, is
different than backbiting, but we're talking about Toba
right now. Right? Murder is such a sin
that that person, if they don't forgive you,
you will definitely go to the hellfire for
it.
You will definitely go to the hellfire for
that if they don't forgive you. And it's
difficult. You know? It's difficult to imagine, like,
if you killed somebody that
they'll be like, okay. Yeah. Whatever. Especially if
if that person
themselves, you killed them in such a state
that they weren't able to make toba from
their other sins,
then they're gonna go to the hellfire, then
they're gonna see very little,
incentive in you,
you know,
in you getting off scot free even though
you drag them into the fire. In fact,
Yom Qiyam, it's a hadith of the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when people are crossing
the siroth, there's some people that their account
will go just fine, but because of the
small things they did that sent other people's
lives into a tailspin, those people as they're
plunging into the fire they'll grab you by
the ankle and pull you in with them.
That's why it's very important. Don't don't mess
with other people like this.
And if a person is, you know, habitual
of that, then you should
stop.
And if you're already deep into this issue,
then,
you know, do your best to extricate yourself
from it while you're here.
And
there's always a balance between
being heedless of your
responsibility toward Allah and toward others
and giving up hope in your your repentance,
especially when it has to do with other
people.
But there's
a amount of fear, a small amount of
fear that a person should have with these
things.
And hopefully that fear itself will push the
Tawba in the direction of sincerity, And the
more sincere tawba is, the more Allah to
Allah
is going to make the means for you
to,
be pulled out of that sin, the more
those means exist And the more kind of
lukewarm
your Tawba is,
then the less, the less force there is
driving your your your Tawba toward acceptance.
And
Allah knows best.
He mentions an a
a difference of opinion between the the the
olema,
what do you say about a person who
is committing sins? And they made sincere tawba
from some of them, but not all of
them.
And so there were from the Alema those
who said that if a person doesn't make
tovah for all of their sins,
then it's as if they made tovah for
none of them because the original
the the I don't wanna use the word
original sin because that means something else in
in in this culture, but the the the
the the foundational sin which is irrigating the
right of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is still there because the belief in Allah
Ta'ala is only valid if you believe in
everything.
That,
oh, messenger
may reach
the the messages of your Lord. And if
you're not if you don't do so, then
it says if you haven't conveyed the message.
And in a in a different
it says if you haven't conveyed the messages.
And the olamase,
both of them mean the same thing. Why?
Because the person who hides part of the
message is like the one who hid the
entire message.
Allah
if you give him or you stint him
part of his right, it says if you
stinted the entire right of him because the
idea is Allah Ta'ala is the one that
you submit to completely and wholly.
And so he mentions that there are some
of the that say that that is not
valid unless it's from all all of a
person's sins. So if a person is, for
example,
dealing drugs and drinking alcohol and missing their
prayer and, like,
whatever,
you know,
these three sins at the same time. Say,
hey, I make tovah from my from my
dealing drugs and from my drinking alcohol
but I don't have to pray, Right? Or
or or, like, I I missed my prayers.
So what? It's not a big deal. It's
not like I'm still a drug dealer or
I'm still a drunkard.
That's problematic, but no says that
that
the the the majority of the oleman, the
more correct opinion is that the person who
makes Tawba from some sins, their Tawba for
those sins is is correct,
and they then have to focus on what's
left.
They still they have to focus on what's
left, but the
sins that you made Tawba from, you won't
be asked about and you won't be punished
for
rather than rather than,
that Tawba being completely,
completely useless,
and Allah Ta'ala
knows best.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said and these are
very few ayat rather the mention of Tawbah
is so so
plentiful in the book of Allah Ta'ala.
Allah Ta'ala says all of you repent to
Allah Ta'ala,
altogether
or you believe,
perchance that that you may be of the
successful,
that you may be the people of success.
Tabayatubu
in the Arabic language means to turn.
So it's a metaphor. Repentance
the metaphor for repentance is that you're like
facing away from Allah Ta'ala
and then Allah Ta'ala
then you turn around and face him again.
Right? That you're not paying attention to him,
and then you turn around and your attention
goes toward Allah ta'ala again.
Obviously, in Aqidah, this is a very problematic
way of stating things, but we're we're talking
about what the literal meaning of Tabayitubu means
to turn around essentially.
And,
the idea is that Allah ta'ala, one of
his names is at Tawab,
the one who is constantly making Tawba. A
person might ask, what does that mean?
What does that mean constantly making Tawba? Allata
is one that's constantly making Tawba.
It means he's constantly turning to the creation,
and the idea with Tova is this is
that you won't repent to him until he
his his his mercy
engages you, and from his mercy you then
have in your heart the courage to repent
to him.
So your Tawba to Allah ta'ala is a
consequence of his Tawba to you,
not in the meaning of repentance but in
the meaning of turning. Again, it doesn't imply
a spatial relationship,
but it's
a relationship of the focus
from him to you of your of his
mercy and from you to him of your
of your regret.
And so a person who is avid for
the love of Allah Ta'ala will constantly
turn toward Allah Ta'ala again and again in
his every moment in every state in every
time of the day and night.
Why? Because they're able to receive that mercy
and that love from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allah most high says, seek forgiveness from your
lord then turn to him in repentance.
And Allah ta'ala says, oh, you believe
repent to Allah Ta'ala with a sincere repentance.
Has
has the same
root
as nasihah.
Nasihah means what? Nasihah means brother I didn't
like your chutba so I'm gonna give you
nasihah now. No? It's sincere sincere advice.
Sincere advice. And one of the meanings of
nasiha is Ikhlas as well.
It means it in itself also means sincerity.
So you turn to Allah Ta'ala in a
sincere repentance.
As for the Hadith of Rasool Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam,
we read,
and when we read the hadith of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
we read them with an unbroken chain of
narration.
So the adab is what? When the hadith
is being read in Arabic language,
that you stop fidgeting around and doing what
else you're doing and talking to your neighbor
and whatever,
and listen as if you hear it from
Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam himself.
And this is a ritual obligation.
Then if you wanna check your phone and
text messages and whatever, then when the translation
or the discussion is happening, it's
maybe not good adab, but it's less of
a breach of protocol.
When the hadith is read from somebody who
carries the sunnah of the hadith, when it's
read in the Arabic language, you should listen
as if Rasulullah SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA
SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA
SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA SAWHAWA
So part of the had adverb of hearing
the hadith of the messenger of Allah and
the benefit is
to say the salat in Islam after his
name is mentioned, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
And by sitting in that majlis then that
way the the majlis in which teaching is
going on also becomes a majlis of dhikr.
And many of the
the the Muhaddiheen,
they used to see Rassoula
Salaam in their dreams,
so many times and they ascribe that maqam
to what?
To having said salat and salam on his
name so many times in the day while
just going about the business of being a
hadith, of learning and reciting and teaching the
Hadith of Rasool Allah SAW Allahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So we narrate from Sayna Abu Hurair
who said I heard the Messenger of Allah
SAW Allahu Alaihi Wasallam say
I swear by Allah ta'ala that I ask
Allah for his forgiveness,
and I turn to him in repentance in
the in a day more than a more
than 70 times.
And we'll see in the next hadith.
Muslim
that, Aghar bin Yasar al Muzani
narrates that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said, oh people,
turn in repentance toward Allah and seek his
forgiveness
because
I turn in repentance to Allah ta'ala more
than a 100 times in a
day.
So there's a couple of things to take
from this. I mean from the Aqida point
of view a person might say well what
does it mean for Rasulullah
to make us too far to seek forgiveness
from Allah to alif Allah to already forgive
him,
for for everything, and that's on top. That
doesn't even make sense if you think about
the idea that Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
is is is Masoon,
that he's protected by Allah Ta'ala from committing
sins, he doesn't commit sins. And so the
ulema say that they still far of the
Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
was a a a show of his slavehood
to Allah Ta'ala,
and it was teaching the Ummah for to
do what they needed to do.
And the occasion that he used to make
is still far for is if he felt
that he did something that Allah deserved more
from
him or that he felt that he did
something and then thought later on maybe I
could have done even more,
or I wish that I convey the wish
that he could have done even more.
That's what his Istilfar was. There's no sin
or
in that sense or wrong that he did
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Now that's a lesson for us as well,
which is what? Often times we try to
practice the deen in terms of bare minimums,
in terms of well do I have to
and this and that and the fact of
the matter is Allah Ta'ala who created
who created everyone from nothing
and his right over everybody is
complete and without any exception.
He's the ones,
if you wish to he could throw the
creation into the hellfire
and it wouldn't be a wound from him.
Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam said that everybody
who enters Jannah will enter Jannah through Allah's
mercy. And they said, even you, you Rasulullah.
He said, even me. Now if some of
us were to say that it would have
been bad adab.
You don't talk about the messenger of Allah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam like that.
But he said it himself and the reason
he said it is what? It's conveying some
sort of meaning that's mandated by revelation that
should be conveyed,
which is what Allah tells right over everybody's
absolute. He doesn't owe anyone anything.
You can't say he wasn't being fair. You
can't say stuff like that.
That's as a point of aqidah we believe
that Allah ta'ala,
we say it's impossible for him to be
unjust in the sense that because he created
everyone from nothing,
you know,
he has such complete ownership. It's the same
thing if, you know, if I if I
were to take this,
you know bottle of Fiji water and throw
it in the garbage can or pour it
out into the grass. You You know, you're
not gonna call the judge and say, like,
oh, look, he he didn't, you know, use
the water correctly or whatever. The judge will
say, well, did he steal it from somebody?
No. He paid for it. So what's your
problem? Do whatever he wants with his it's
his. Right? So if you realize that Allah
Ta'ala's
hack over his creation is like that
then
you think about silly things that you did.
If Allah Ta'ala Yom Kiyama asks you, you
live such a long life
you almost never prayed the sunnah before and
after Zuhr.
It's not only embarrassing
but Yomotl Yama there will be a fear
on that day
that people will have
that
if you wish to he could punish me
because I have no good answer to give
him,
and you realize that that he I owed
it to him to do this and I
didn't do it,
and on this day if he punishes me
for this
there's nobody who can stop that from happening.
Not physically
nor
mentally, like it makes sense, it's completely rational
on this day that that was his right
and I didn't give it to him.
And so there are things that we don't
even think of as as sins on that
day they're gonna look and feel really bad,
and this is another thing Rasool Allah SWA
wasalam was constantly aware of the Haqq of
Allah Ta'ala
like that.
That that the Sharia is a mercy in
the sense that Allah Ta'ala who has the
right to demand everything from us demands so
little,
And so the toba of a person
legally speaking has to be from those parts
of the Sharia that a person
didn't fulfill.
But for a person who is whose heart
is attuned
to the rights of Allah Ta'ala
and the the the gravity of his sacred
presence
That person may make Tawba from certain things
that are that are not legally
technically a sin, but they just feel embarrassed
in front of him that they did that.
And there are a lot of things that
a person should feel like that from from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this is the meaning. And if Rasool
Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam was divinely protected
from sin is making Tawbah,
70 times and a 100 times in a
day, then what lesson does it have for
us that are
unfortunately
quite unprotected from sins?
Uh-uh, that we we we have so much
more need for that
and so much more,
reason that we should also
adopt,
adopt that that that that mode of being
that we constantly
repent to Allah ta'ala for things again and
again,
for things again and again to Allah Ta'ala.
So this is a very beautiful
hadith,
that you have no no
blessing except for it's from Allah ta'ala.
One of the greatest
wava'if and jobs of the MBIA alayhi mus
salam
was to convey,
the message of the deen to the people
in such a way that it caused them
to,
increase in their love for
Allah.
And this is one of one of those
beautiful,
examples of Rasoolullah
not only conveying the message but conveying it
in in such a beautiful way that it
causes a person to,
feel love for Allah ta'ala.
Abu Hamza Anas bin Malik, may Allah ta'ala
be pleased with him,
he narrates
that the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam said,
indeed, Allah is more intense in his joy
at the repentance of his slave.
So this is what remember we said Tawba
is a 2 step process.
The first step is that Allah Ta'ala,
his mercy
hits you and then after that you feel
the impetus to repent for your sins.
Without his Tawba toward you, your Tawba toward
him is not possible.
And what is what is the feeling of
Allah ta'ala's,
witness of your having come back to him?
It says that, indeed,
Allah is more pleased with,
pleased with you and more intense in his
joy at the repentance of his slave than
one of you would be if he was
traveling in a desolate land,
riding,
and his riding beast escaped from him, taking
with it his food and drink. So a
person is traveling in the desert,
and so,
you know, often, you know, the desert isn't
a forest. You're not gonna find trees to
tie a camel to. A camel is a
very powerful animal. It'll pull a bush right
out of the ground. So what they used
to do is they used to hobble the
hobble the camels. They would tie the legs
together
so so close that the camel
could like only like just move very slowly
like just hop like a couple of inches
at a time. So how far is it
gonna go? Right?
But imagine a person is traveling in a
desolate land and they you know stop and
take a nap
and then the the camel becomes un hobbled
and just takes off
And it has its the food and drink
and all of the supplies that that person
needs,
and
they can't travel they can't travel to the
next place of watering before
before they're gonna die of thirst.
So if a person is in such a
situation obviously they're it's it's not a good
situation.
Say if a person as
so like the likeness of a a person
traveling in a desolate land and his riding
beast escaped from him taking with it with
him his food and drink.
And he gives up hope in finding it
and looks for the the camel everywhere,
gives up hope, and then he finds a
tree,
and sits in the shade and lies down
having despaired of any rescue. So I think
this this is it. I'm just gonna I'm
gonna pass out now and I'm gonna die.
That's it. There's no there's no more hope
left.
And then
after that
he wakes up in that state,
and he sees his riding beast standing right
next to him, and he takes the beast
by the reins
and exclaims out of intensity the intensity of
the joy, oh Allah, you are my slave
and I am your lord, only misspeaking out
of the intensity of his joy.
That he imagined such a such an amount
of joy if it came on a human
being,
it would overwhelm them
to the point where they would lose control
of their ability to even say a simple
sentence like that correctly.
That that amount of joy, if it came
over a human being, it would overwhelm them.
That's the amount of joy that that Allah
feels when he
witnesses his slave
making Tawba.
Abu Musa Al Ashaari radiAllahu Anhu narrates that
the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
indeed Allah most
high spreads his hand out. Meaning what? Meaning
that he accepts
the the the tawbah at night time for
the person who sinned in the day.
And he,
spreads his hand out in the daytime for
the for to accept the toba of the
person who sinned in the
night. And it will keep being this way
until the sun rises from the west.
Meaning what? As long as this world is
here, the sun rising from the west is
the sign that Tiyama has started already.
As long as the the world is is
is
going, that person,
that person has this offer on the table.
And so the the mention of
accepting the toba of the sinner of the
day in the night time and vice versa
it has in it a,
an idea that there are certain circumstances that
certain people are prone to committing sin in.
And so if you remove yourself from those
circumstances,
your chances of repentance are higher. Obviously, people
are not going to be committing the same
amount of sin when they're sitting in like
whatever dars of the hadith of Rasool Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as they are
at work or at school or when nobody
else is around or, you know,
when they're out of town or when they're,
you know, in a number of different circumstances.
So the idea is and this is one
of the very practical parts of the soul.
Right? This has nothing to do with selling
amulets and it has nothing to do with
like seeing dreams and none of that stuff.
It's very practical. It's like, okay, well,
if I commit a lot of sins when
I'm at such and such place maybe I
should just stop going to that place as
often. You know, if you need to then
maybe if I need to go there like
it's work I have to go to work
then maybe I should like you know not
spend as much time there except for as
much as I need to.
Or maybe I should
you know make basically there's all these practical
things a person can do in order to
curtail the the opportunity for that sin to
happen in the first place,
and when you curtail those opportunities
then you have more courage to suck it
up and resist them,
when those things happen the few and far
between times.
Whereas, if you have to be in resistance
mode a 100% of the time nobody can
live like that. Everybody will get worn out
and tired of it at some point or
another.
So this is this is a a a
a
this is, you know, part of the the
meaning of this this hadith is if you're,
like, prone to sin in a certain place,
then once you get out of that place
it's easier for you to make tawba, make
it at that time.
In fact, that's the natural thing to do.
That's what's accepted of you, expected of you,
Afwan.
That that that if a person finds themselves
prone to sin in a certain situation or
time and place,
then,
it will obviously be easier for them to
make toba when they're not in that time,
place, or circumstance.
So
that's not a sign of your hypocrisy to
make Tawba when you're out of that circumstance.
Rather, that's the natural that's like the logical
common sense thing to do.
That's why you pray 5 times a day.
So you have 5 times to make toba
when you're probably you know while you're praying
you're obviously not gonna be able to rob
a liquor store or commit Zinnah or whatever,
right?
So that's a very natural and very logical
time to make toba for sins.
You know, when you're if you're doing etikaf
for 10 days in the year, right not
the like Atikaf socially Atikaf we have in
this
country where you must all make friends and
have the bonds of a lifetime and whatever
but you actually spend the time, like, praying
and and reading Quran and things like that
and doing zikr, which is what the atikaf
is supposed to be. That's a natural time
to make toba from stuff that you're doing
when you're not in the Masjid reading Quran
all the time.
That's again, it's not a sign of hypocrisy
rather those institutions exist in the deen
largely so that you have a time to
make Tawba
for for your stuff,
that you're doing.
And and, you know, again that doesn't mean
that, okay,
while I'm in the Masjid I'm good and
when I'm outside I have a license to
be some other way,
but it means that a, you have to
make Tawba whether or not you
stop sinning or
or or or or become a better person.
A person has to have some place that
they can make toba and the idea is
that if your toba is sincere it becomes
stronger and stronger with time just like a
person, you know, becomes stronger and stronger the
more they lift weights or run or do
any of these things. And so the hope
is that you keep doing it again and
again. One day your toba is strong enough
that it it it overwhelms you, from committing
the sin. InshaAllah we'll read,
let's see. We'll read 2 more hadiths and
then we'll take a break inshaAllah. They're relatively
short. And
So Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam said in
Hadith of Abu Hurair
the one who
repents
before the sun rises from the west that
person Allah accepts their repentance.
Meaning what? This is also a trick of
shaitan
which is what? Oh, you're so horrible Allah
will never accept your repentance.
Why Allah will never accept your repentance?
Is there anyone whose horribleness will overwhelm Allah
ta'ala?
What are you gonna do? How much sin
are you gonna commit?
Imagine if everybody in the world, like all
the countries nuked the crap out of each
other. Right? They're saying that
that
the orange headed one wants to increase the
stockpile of the nuclear weapons in this country
by 10 fold or whatever. We already have
an insane amount of nuclear weapons in this
country. You know like they can annihilate
like all life on earth other than cockroaches
like in less than an hour.
Alright,
but even that that's like a horrible sin.
Imagine a person like an idol worshipper and
they kill everybody in the world including themselves
Right? The world is like gonna be fine.
After a 100000 years the earth will probably
be better off than it is right now
without us.
No one's sins are going to If you
can't even destroy the earth how are you
gonna destroy the universe?
Right. If you can destroy the universe
you're still much weaker than the one who
created it.
So
this is itself a sin that's actually It's
worse than the sins that we actually commit,
which is the idea like, oh, I'm so
horrible. Allah will never forgive me. You're you're
so impressed with your own self
and you're so impressed with your own sins
that you think it it phases Allah Ta'ala
that he's going to,
like, be so hurt that you did something
that he's not gonna forgive you. You're like
a like a,
a, you know, you and me we're like
we're like bacteria
or, you know, we're even less than bacteria
in front of Allah, Ta'ala.
You know, your little sins that you committed
they're not really that big of a deal
to him.
He's
that's why he's happy with your tobas. Look,
you know, this this person may be, like,
less than a bacteria,
but he has so much love for me
that he feels bad that, like, he committed
a sin. Allah will forgive all of these
things,
and this is something we should remind ourselves,
remind one another. We should remind one another
about this as well.
There are people from this ummah. Allah ta'ala,
have mercy on all of us. They they
literally get so so much despair. They kill
themselves,
and there's no need there's no need for
that. I mean, one thing is a person
is mentally they have imbalances. They're ill. They
need medicine and things like that.
But there are others that just shaitan gets
up in their head and just tells them,
oh, Allah will never forgive me. Why Allah
will never forgive you? Allah Ta'al forgave people
who are much worse than you.
And there's nobody who's there's a hadith of
Rasulullah,
son of Adam.
Even if your sins
fill the horizons as far as the eye
can see, you can literally the eyes can
see like other galaxies.
Even if your sins fill the horizons as
far as the eye can see,
if you ask me for forgiveness, I would
forgive you, wallahubali, and I don't it doesn't
even it doesn't even faze me. It doesn't
even bother me.
So, you know, that's what the point of
this is that you make toba and don't
don't don't don't think about your sins, rather
think about the forgiveness of the one who's
forgiving you,
and this itself is a sin. If you
were to actually think your sins are such
a big deal that that that Allah is
not gonna forgive you, this is a type
of takabur or this is a type of
of arrogance. It's worse than the sin that
you committed in the 1st place. I guarantee
you it's worse than the sin you committed
in the 1st place,
And and really there's no there's no benefit.
There's no profit in going down that line.
Said that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
indeed Allah ta'ala, mighty and majestic as he,
accepts the Tawba of the slave
as long as he doesn't hasn't yet let
out the death gasp.
Meaning as long as you're alive you can
still make tawba.
So the Yom Kiyama is the death of
the world.
It's a universal death
in creation
and the,
the death gasp is the individual death of
every individual.
As long as you have life in you
you can still make tawba. You can always
still make tawba. You can be, oh, look,
you sinned your whole life and now you're
old person. Allah's not gonna accept your tawba
or, you know Okay. Obviously, it's better to
make tawba when you're younger. But the thing
is that Or look, you're now poor and
you didn't make toba what and you're making
toba now when you're poor before you were
rich. You know, that was the time to
do it. Or, you know, this shaitan puts
all kind of dumb things in a person's
mind,
and
Nabi is categorically categorically negating those things. As
long as Piyama hasn't started yet and as
long as you're still alive,
the Tawba,
is acceptable.
And
Allah give all of us
to turn to him in repentance.
Inshallah, we'll take a 10 minute break.