Omar Suleiman – Why Me #22 Can I Escape The Consequences Of My Sins
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the negative consequences of past mistakes that can affect relationships and character. They also mention the importance of acknowledging past mistakes and finding God's blessing in one's life. The speaker emphasizes the need to acknowledge and forgive past mistakes to avoid unnecessary promises and negative consequences.
AI: Summary ©
Are your past mistakes coming back to haunt
you?
Did you mess up too many times to
ever hope to escape the consequences of your
deeds in this life?
You
know Allah forgives in the hereafter,
but are you stuck for now with what
you've done here?
Adam, alayhis salam, cried for 200 years after
being expelled from Jannah.
Yunus alayhis salam was almost consumed by the
enzymes inside the belly of the whale in
moments in which a day could have felt
like a 100 years.
The burden of sin can be difficult to
bear and the moment that a sin occurs,
our destiny can take a turn for the
worse in so many different ways.
For 1, we can be deprived of rizq.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, Inna laabda,
layuhramur rizqabidhambe
yuswibu
That verily a man may be deprived of
provision by a sin that he commits.
And it could be a sinful lifestyle from
years ago that you never sincerely repented from
that's now starting to catch up to you.
When Imam bin Sirin Rahimahullah found himself in
debt, he became worried and he said, innila
a'ri fuhadilghammi
bidhambin asabtuhu mundu arba'ina sanah That perhaps these
worries are a result of a sin that
I committed 40 years ago.
Sins can even affect our relationships.
Some of the Salaf used to say, Inni
la'asillah
fa'araadhalika
feehulooqidabati
wamraati.
That I transgress against Allah. And then I
see the consequences of that sin in my
riding animal and even in my spouse.
What does that mean? That means that things
start to not work out at home.
Your car starts breaking down,
your work troubles grow
because the sin is choking those places of
blessing.
Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha wrote to Muawiya when
he was the Khalifa.
Innaalabda ida aami rabi masiyatillah
adhahamidaahumina
nasidhamma
that verily if a person sins
even those who previously used to praise him
will turn against him. And Abu Darda radiAllahu
ta'ala Anhu said, Let a person be careful
not not to cause the hearts of the
believers to curse him without him even realizing
it. Tala'anhu quluubal mumineen manhayfulayashr
And he was asked, who are these people?
And he said, the person who insists on
sin, even the ones just between him and
Allah.
And Allah causes the believers to have hatred
in their hearts towards him.
Now there are times when our sins involve
other people directly
and have to do with some sort of
deficiency in our character.
Sometimes when you're used responding to the hardships
in your life in a certain way, you
get stuck in a cycle of that negative
response.
So for example, you're used to responding to
someone else's emotion with cold silence or to
someone else's disappointment in you with your own
anger and frustration.
And then when you have to deal with
the consequences of your previous actions
you may realize that your mistakes had more
of an effect on the people around you
than you previously thought.
And that creates a divide,
or it puts a barrier between you and
those who are closest to you, or it
sends you spiraling into other sins.
And interestingly, there's something powerful that Uma Darda
radiAllahu ta'ala Anha narrates about Abu Darda radiAllahu
Anhu.
She said, I remember him one time
and he was making one singular du'a and
that was for Allah to beautify his character.
So she said, I watched and I watched
and then I waited until Fajr. And I
asked him why is that the only du'a
that you made? And he said, Oh umudardah.
If a person has good character they naturally
affect so many people in beautiful ways in
a way that they would make du'a for
that person
and he'd enter Jannah as a result.
Whereas if a person has bad character
they would hurt so many people without even
realizing it that they would make du'a against
him and end up leading him to the
hellfire.
But sin,
even when it involves others, is also just
another test.
And there is a path to redemption here
and in the hereafter.
And as far as you might have fallen,
Tawba is the closest door to Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta A'la that the believer can enter
through. Nanal Qayyim Rahimullah explains that the station
of Tawbah as an experience is incomparable to
any other spiritual station.
Why?
He says kasratun
kasa tahsurulul
khal, that there's a special type of brokenness
that happens in the heart of only the
sinner.
And that brokenness is not brought out with
anything else, not with the pain of hunger
or intense spiritual training
or even the love of Allah alone.
Sinning and finding Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta A'la
again creates something special in your heart And
Allah describes himself in response to the act
of repentance in a way that he does
not describe himself with any other act of
worship.
He is even more joyous with the repentance
of his servant when he turns towards him
than one of you would be finding your
lost camel with all of your possessions on
it. Ibn Qayin Rahimahullah said that Shaitan was
pleased at the expulsion of Adam Alaihi Salam
from Jannah,
not realizing that the diver goes to the
bottom of the ocean
only to rise up again with its precious
pearls and gems. And after Yunus Alayhi Salaam
literally sunk to the bottom of the ocean
in the belly of a whale,
Allah said Fajitabahu rabbuhu Fajallahu minasalahiin
That at that point, Allah chose him and
made him from the righteous. Meaning his rank
was even higher than before
the righteous. Meaning his rank was even higher
than before the ordeal.
And while the consequences of our sins are
a necessary part of the treatment,
we don't have to feel trapped by them.
Adam Alayhi Salaam enters Jannah in an even
higher rank than before and he ends up
with all of us as his children.
Yunus Alayhi Salaam goes back to his people
who once rejected him and was shocked to
find them rejoicing at his return, ready to
finally accept him. And in the acceptance of
the righteous is a sign of the acceptance
of Allah. Idha wakaamin kadhamfalaya
kun sababan liasikaminhusoolalistikamatimaarabika.
Fakatiakunu
dhalika akhiradhamdinqudiraalik.
When you commit a sin,
let it not make you despair of attaining
righteousness with your Lord.
For that may be the last sin that
Allah ever destined for you to commit.
Just like you may have hurt someone who
made du'a against you, don't forget that you
also had people making du'a for you,
and they may have been specifically making du'a
for Allah to forgive you.
Part of the repentance to Allah is acknowledging
all the times you forgot him, and with
people all the times you hurt them, even
if unintentionally.
And sometimes out of their love for you,
they were hurt by you when you hurt
yourself.
But Allah and your family are happy when
you turn back.
And when you start to see the many
ways in which your sins have burdened others,
you may also start to realize that it
wasn't just the people closest to you that
waited for you to turn your life around
and become the best version of yourself.
It was also your ummah.