Mirza Yawar Baig – Istighfaar and Tawba
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the most
honoured of Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger
of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him
and his family and his companions.
My brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah, the other day
I mentioned to you in the Khatira, I
said, think of, I said to you and
I said to myself that we are all
authors.
We are all authors.
We are the authors of our own books
of deeds.
And on the Day of Judgement, these books
of deeds will be published.
And what is in that book of deeds
is what we put there.
So, therefore, it is very important for us
to ensure that we, before the book is
published, that the book is edited and cleaned
up and proofread, like we do with any
properly authored book.
You don't just write something and send it
to the publisher, and the publisher also doesn't
just publish it without checking, without editing, without
proofreading, right?
Everyone takes time and trouble behind it.
And that's why publishers charge you an arm
and a leg for their fees, because they
make your book worthy of being published.
People have wonderful ideas and they like to
write wonderful things, Alhamdulillah, but when it comes
to publishing, their manuscripts are sometimes nightmares, because
of various reasons, people don't have enough command
of the language, and so on and so
forth, and mistakes.
But if you get a good publisher, this
is where a good publisher is so useful,
a good editor is so useful, because then
they are able to make that book into
something which people would like to read.
And so also our books of deeds, to
make them presentable, meaning to ensure that there
is nothing, no disobedience of Allah in it,
that it is something which is free from
all evil, is our responsibility.
It's our book of deeds, Allah swt opened
and left the door of editing open until
we die, so let us make sure that
we do that editing and clean up our
act.
Now, for that, here is what I suggest
we do.
Think of one, and do this one by
one, think of one thing that you did,
one evil thing, and then ask Allah swt
to forgive us, forgive you for that evil
thing.
You don't have to tell anybody, you should
not tell anybody.
Nawiz Hasan said, don't publicise your sins.
If you did something wrong and Allah swt
hid it, people don't know, leave it like
that.
Don't tell anyone about it.
Don't even do, like there's this tendency in
many of the Dawahs, many of the people
who preach Islam, where they, actually they seem
to take a lot of delight in talking
about how evil and how bad they used
to be.
And you say, you know, I was doing
this and I was doing that, and I
was on drugs and I was on this
and that and what not, and today, see,
I'm much better.
Now, that's a very, very big trap because,
first of all, you are describing all kinds
of stuff that you used to do.
Second thing is that, almost by human nature,
when you describe these things and then you
talk about how you came out of it,
it creates arrogance.
You feel that you've done a great thing,
although it was only the grace of Allah
that Allah swt changed you from where you
were to where you are today.
So, don't say all that.
Just tell people some good stuff about how
to obey Allah, how to deal with that
in today's world, so that it becomes easy
to do that, and so forth.
So, don't talk about evils.
But think about that evil and make istighfar.
That's what I want to say to you,
which is, think of one evil thing that
you did and beg Allah swt to forgive
you for it.
So, one of the best ways is to
say, I
seek the forgiveness of Allah swt jalla jalaluhu,
whom there is none worthy of worship except
Him, the Living, Al-Hayyul Qayyum, the Living
and the Eternal, wa atoo ilayh, and I
repent to Him, I turn towards Him.
So, astaghfarullah wa atoo ilayh.
There is istighfar and tawbah.
These are two words, specific individual words in
the Quran.
Istighfar means to seek forgiveness, it means to
apologise, to say, I'm sorry.
And tawbah means to turn towards Allah, meaning
that we leave whatever that we were doing
and we never do it again.
The condition of istighfar and tawbah, before that,
so istighfar is one word, Allah swt said,
fastaghfiru, thumma tubu ilayh, seek forgiveness.
Alhamdulillah.
Allah said, seek forgiveness, ask Allah to forgive
you, thumma tubu ilayh, and then turn towards
Allah swt.
So, istighfar and tawbah.
Fastaghfiru, thumma tubu ilayh.
So, two different words, but when only one
of them is used, when somebody says, make
istighfar, tawbah, or turning towards Allah, is implied.
Because there is no istighfar without tawbah.
You can't say, I apologise, I repent to
Allah, and then deliberately do the same thing
again.
So, when istighfar is mentioned, tawbah is implied.
When tawbah is mentioned, istighfar is implied, because
if you say, I turn towards Allah, it
means that you repented and you sought forgiveness.
So, when one is said, both are implied,
but if you want to talk about these
two separate things individually, then you would use
both of these words in their context.
So, here we are saying, astaghfirullahil lazee, I
repent to, I seek forgiveness from, al-lazee,
the one, la ilaha illa hu, other than
whom there is no one worthy of worship,
huwal hayyul qayyum, and he is the living
and the established, the eternal, wa'atubu ilayh,
and I turn towards him, and I seek
his forgiveness, I sought his forgiveness, I turn
towards him, meaning I am leaving my disobedience,
and I am turning towards Allah, meaning I
am now henceforth going to be obedient to
Allah.
So, the condition of tawbah is istighfar, is
to genuine regret, seek the forgiveness of Allah,
and then never repeat that sin again.
Now, you might say, well, you know, I
have no intention of repeating it, I never
do it deliberately, but sometimes I forget, or
sometimes whatever happens, right?
So, then what should I do?
Then make istighfar again.
But obviously, don't make a habit of it,
don't say that, you know, deliberately, I made
tawbah, okay, let me do it again, I'll
make tawbah again, no.
That would be playing games with Allah, which
is highly reprehensible, and opens you, and me,
and the person doing it, to real trouble.
Because, remember, when you are seeking forgiveness, Allah
swt promised to forgive, but Allah is not
compelled to forgive.
Right?
Allah is not in your control.
So, if somebody says, I sought forgiveness, okay,
sure, so you did, but you didn't get
it.
You're still going to the fire.
This is possible, Allah swt can do this.
I'm not saying He will, inshallah, He will
not.
And for sincerely repenting, Allah swt promised to
forgive.
So, we expect Allah swt's promise, we look
forward to that promise, but for the sincere
one.
Tawbah, who makes istighfar sincerely, not somebody who's
playing games.
So, we ask Allah to forgive.
So, make this sincere forgiveness, and seek forgiveness
from Allah swt.
Now, the benefit of this is, the Prophet
said in the Hadith in Abu Dawud, if
anyone, the meaning of that, if anyone constantly
seeks pardon from Allah, means he makes this
istighfar, and I would recommend, say astaghfirullahilladhi laa
ilaaha illaah, wa laa kayyuhu wa tuhbili, at
least 100 times every day.
Make this into a routine azkar.
Now, again, when I say 100 times, don't
make it into a mechanical, mindless thing, astaghfirullah,
astaghfirullah, no.
Sincerely repent to Allah swt.
Sincerely ask Allah swt's forgiveness.
And do that 100 times every day.
The Prophet said in this Hadith in Abu
Dawud, the meaning of that, whoever, if anyone
constantly seeks pardon from Allah swt, and this
is sincerely seeking pardon, meaning not going back
to those sins, Allah will appoint for him
a way out of every distress.
Allah will appoint for him a way out
of every distress, and a relief from every
anxiety, and will provide sustenance for him from
where he does not expect.
So, three things.
One, Allah will appoint a way out for
him out of every distress, every difficulty, and
he will provide sustenance, he will provide relief
from every anxiety, and will provide sustenance for
him from where he leasts or does not
expect it.
In the Hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmad, Sahih
Hadith, Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet said,
whoever increases his istighfar, prayers for forgiveness, Allah
will grant him relief from every worry, a
way out from every hardship, and provide for
him in ways he does not expect.
So, this is very important for us to
do.
And of course, we have the ayat of
Surah At-Talaq, which says the same thing.
Allah swt said, وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ
مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقُهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَهْتَسِبْ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ
عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ هَزْبُهُ So, Allah swt is
saying that the one who has taqwa, Allah
swt will extract him from every difficulty, and
He will provide him from sources that he
could not imagine, and the one who has
tawakkul on Allah, who trusts in Allah completely,
Allah swt will become sufficient for him.
I imagine this is the beauty of the
generosity of Allah.
Allah does not even say specifically, I will
give him this or that, Allah says, I
will be sufficient for him.
Whatever he needs, sufficiency of Allah, that Allah
swt is sufficient for us, is sufficiency in
the dunya and akhira.
And sufficiency in the dunya is freedom from
all difficulties.
And sufficiency in the akhira is Jannatul Fardos,
Inshallah.
We ask Allah swt for this.
Please make dua, I make dua for you
and me.
I'm here in Atlanta, Masjid Hamza, and we
are starting the Sirah Solution Workshop in a
few minutes.
We ask Allah swt to put khair and
barakah in this and to fill our hearts
with hubb and love of Allah swt Himself,
and of Rasulullah s.a.w. and make
this a means of khair and barakah and
beauty for all of us, Inshallah.