Suhaib Webb – Lesson Five Repentance

Congratulations.

We are now at the beginning of our

journey.

We are now about to embark Alhamdulillah,

what I call Usur Usu,

the foundations

of the path. And when scholars use the

word usul, it means something that comes from

the Quran

or the sunnah of the prophet

or from one of the evidences

of sharia. Whenever you hear the word usool

in the classical context it means a diliel

al adillah.

Right? So it saves people the trouble

of asking, you know, where's the diliel, where's

the diliel, where's the diliel?

Diliyah. We started by talking about the importance

of saying La, Ilaha,

Illallah

abundantly because that's

to bring about

a lot of things that are going to

suddenly just kind of

amplify our awareness.

And then buttressing this with fear and hope

so that we get into a state of

balance, and now we're ready to embark on

the journey. Alhamdulillah.

The sheikh,

he starts with what some people say is

the beginning, middle, and end quality.

Throughout the journey this will always be there.

We find it early on

in the Quran's

address to the prophet peace be upon him.

We find it towards the end,

actually at the very ending

of the Qur'an's address to him salallahu alayhi

wasalam. What do you think that quality is?

Like

the first

step on the journey,

from the Usur Ulsul

is repentance.

SubhanAllah. Why? Because if I repent, tawbatan nasuhha,

like if I repent sincerely,

then

you know I'm starting with a clean slate.

And there is a difference of opinion amongst

theologians but the predominant opinion amongst theologians is

for somebody who repents

all their sins are forgiven.

Because Allah

says,

Allah forgives all the sins,

SubhanAllah.

So there's a beautiful accent that says,

That whoever truly repents to Allah is like

a new Muslim.

And that's why you find

some scholars used to say, I become new

Muslim every day.

Right? I repent to Allah.

Right? That that person, you know revives and

renews the relationship with Allah.

So Ashaq Ahmad Dardir he says,

Allahu Akbar.

That you should constantly

on this path

renew

your repentance.

Lalahuzar

because of the wizr,

because of your sins.

The word tawba is from a word which

means to turn away, itibtu, I turn from

something.

So tawba, if you think about we define

mujahada

and the sayer to Allah, working and striving

for Allah and traversing to Allah.

You can see how tawba is central to

this because tawba means to repent

for the times where I disobeyed Allah.

Right? To repent for the times where I

inverted what should be done. What should be

done is I should disobey my nafs and

I obey Allah, but I repent because I've

obeyed my nafs

and disobeyed Allah.

And all of this is found in Surat

of Fatiha.

I'm repenting because I'm Magdoo bi alayhim.

I'm repenting because I have not acted on

what I should act on even though I

know it, and I'm repenting on being dal,

astray because I've acted out of arrogance,

right, or out of ignorance.

And I'm repenting from those 2 to be

al adhinah and amalallahu alaihihim.

Those who Allah

has favored, Allahu Akbar.

That's why I like to tell my students

the last third of Shulta Fatiha

is really site mapping for us the process

of repentance.

SubhanAllah.

SubhanAllah.

So the shaykh, he says,

That you should constantly

be in the state of remembrance. The prophets

of repentance.

The prophet said,

by the one who has my life,

I seek Allah's forgiveness

and I return to him at least a

100 times a day, meaning

Now every act of worship has some major

foundations that have to be there. We're gonna

talk about some of the foundations of repentance

now. The first one is anadam.

That the person

is repenting

for obeying their nafs, obeying evil,

and failing to

shepherd and responsibly look after their relationship with

Allah.

So there's this sense of regret.

Regret,

and nadam.

The prophet

said, atawbatunadam,

that repentance

is regret.

Right. So I have to generally feel

that I've made some mistake here.

I have to generally feel a sense of

pen sense of penance.

The second,

The second is that I also have a

sense of determination

that I will not return to the evil

again. Now if I do,

that doesn't mean that I haven't been forgiven

as mentioned by the majority of theologians.

And if I do, I have to keep

seeking forgiveness. I shouldn't give up.

There's a beautiful narration that the prophet in

Sahih al Bukhari said that there's a person

who sins and repents and sins and repents

and sins and repents and sins and every

time Allah says, I forgive, I forgive them,

I forgive them, I forgive them, I forgive

them, I

they keep saying it, they say because

we're not stopping because the mercy of Allah

doesn't stop. So like to remind you, you

know,

that Allah's

forgiveness, masha'Allah.

Rahmatiwasiadqulashay,

as the Qur'an says.

Means to abandon.

That if I truly feel these things then

I should stop sinning immediately.

So there's a sense of immediacy.

I'm not just like, yeah later, you know.

No, no.

So the 3 foundational components of tawba, number

1 is the person, mashallah,

feels a sense of regret.

Number 2, that the person has determination not

to return back to it. And number 3,

as we said is immediacy,

to leave it. And the 4th we'll talk

about it insha Allah, is that if I've

done something wrong to someone, like I've stolen

from them or I've backbited them or I've

hurt them,

abuse falls into this,

then I need to seek their forgiveness.

However, some ulama said that if, like for

example, backbiting or something of that nature, telling

the person is going to create a greater

harm than is better

not to Then the sheikh, he says something

very nice. He says,

And what he's talking about here is and

there's a sentence before that a person can

repent microly like there's certain sins in their

life they want work on so they repent

for those, they repent for those, they repent

for those.

As they build up the capacity to seek

forgiveness.

And the repentance of a disbeliever who embraces

Islam is

accepted without a doubt.

And he says,

Right. And the believer who repents, there are

2 opinions. 1 is

that they don't know, maybe, maybe you're not.

The other opinion which is the opinion of

Abu Hasan al Ashari, which is the strong

opinion

in my understanding,

is that they will be forgiven based on

the verses

of the Quran.

Then he says something really nice,

Do not despair

of Allah's forgiveness.

Meaning Allah will hide

your sins and forgive you.

Because Allah's mercy

permeates all things even the great sins.

And the righteous person

I love this statement. That the righteous person

is the one who whenever they make mistakes

they repent to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah

loves those who repent. So they have the

love of Allah,

but they're repenting because they made sin. See,

there's something really beautiful there, Masha'Allah.

As he said earlier, those people that Allah

loves are those who when they sinned, they

they repent.

And of course when Allah loves somebody that

means they're close to him and he have

a relationship with him. So what he's saying

is don't let your sins destroy you, repent

because Allah loves those who repent.

Walayasashayunashaddaara

shaytanimintashdeedi

mumminli toba. I love this demon. He says

nothing is more difficult

on shaitan

than

when a believer

revives their repentance.

It comes back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

So Alhamdulillah, this is now the first step

on the journey,

is repent. Everyday take a few moments, make

istighfar,

make du'a, turn to Allah, ask Allah to

forgive you, ask Allah to forgive