Zia Sheikh – Do not despair from the mercy of Allah Ramadan Khatira Day 24
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Last night we finished the 25th juz' but
I want to remain in the 24th juz'
for a very powerful and beautiful ayah.
This is the month of Ramadan in which
a lot of people, they do turn to
Allah SWT and it becomes maybe an avenue
for them, a doorway for them to enter
into practicing Islam much more than they were
before Ramadan.
Some people, they will practice in the month
of Ramadan and then basically loosen up and
relax and then there are other people that
really take this as a stepping stone to
improving themselves much more than they were before
the month of Ramadan and they keep on
getting better and improving themselves.
One of the key things, key elements towards
self-improvement is repentance and tawbah to Allah
SWT and one of the most beautiful verses
which talks about that tawbah is the verse
in Surah Az-Zumar, قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ
أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُونَ مِّن رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ
Allah SWT, He says, tell them, O Prophet
of Allah, قُلْ, tell them, inform the people,
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ O My slaves, and this
wording is to show the love that Allah
SWT has for His servants.
When He says My slaves, My servants, it
refers to this إضافة, this possessive pronoun, it
basically refers to the fact that Allah loves
the servants so much that He refers to
them as My servants.
So this is the reason that Allah SWT
says قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ
Those people that have transgressed against themselves, meaning
they have committed sins.
When a person does wrong, he commits sins,
he is only wronging himself.
He is not doing anything to Allah SWT.
He is not belittling the majesty of Allah
SWT.
He is not doing anything to harm Allah
SWT.
He is actually harming himself.
So that's why Allah SWT when He talks
about sins, He refers to, He uses this
wording, إِسْرَافَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ That people are making
israf against themselves, meaning they are only wronging
themselves and harming themselves.
So those people that they harm themselves by
committing sins, those people are addressed with لا
تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَحْمَةِ Do not despair of the
mercy of Allah SWT.
This is a very important wording that Allah
SWT has used.
Do not despair of the mercy of Allah
SWT.
Ibn Abbas RA said about this verse, he
said that if we look throughout the Quran,
Allah SWT has addressed those people that called
Isa AS God and worshipped Isa AS as
God.
And he has called those people that called
Isa AS the son of God, he has
called people who referred to Uzaid being the
son of Allah SWT.
And he has called those people that worshipped
or said that Maryam is also divine and
she also has a part of godliness in
her.
And also in addition to that, those people
that said about Allah SWT, the Jews, they
said that Allah SWT is faqeer, he is
poor and he needs our charity.
And also those people that said يَدُوا اللَّهِ
مَغْلُولًۭا Allah SWT's hands are tied up.
He called all of those people and in
addition to those people, and all of these
verses are referring to mistakes made by Jews
and Christians in the past, he also addressed
that person who did much more than that
and claimed اَنَا رَبُّكُمُ الْاَعْلَى He said I
am your greatest lord and مَا عَلِمْتُ لَكُمْ
مِنْ اِلَهِ الْغَيْرِ I don't recognise any god
other than myself.
He said these words that I am God,
I am the Lord, you worship me.
Allah SWT addressed Firaun and gave him the
opportunity for tawbah and repentance.
So after all of these examples we find
in the Quran where Allah SWT has allowed
for people to make tawbah and then on
top of that a person has despair and
doesn't think that his sins can be forgiven
فَقَدْ جَحَدَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ He has actually denounced
the book of Allah SWT.
He has denied the book of Allah SWT
and he doesn't have a clue about what
Allah SWT and the mercy of Allah SWT
is about.
So it's important to understand that the mercy
of Allah SWT is much more than our
sins and He has said right here Indeed
Allah SWT forgives all sins.
According to a hadith one of the Sahaba
asked the Prophet SAW, وَمَنْ أَشْرَكْ What about
the person who commits shirk?
He commits shirk because in a verse of
the Quran Allah SWT says that إِنَّ اللَّهَ
لَا يَغْفِرُ عَيْنِ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ
ذَلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشْرَكُ Allah SWT doesn't forgive that
the shirk is committed with him but He
forgives anything other than that and people because
of this verse they actually assume that a
person who commits shirk there's no tawbah for
him there's no forgiveness for him and he
is never going to be forgiven by Allah
SWT but according to the hadith the Prophet
SAW in response to the questioning of the
Sahaba he said أَلَا وَمَنْ أَشْرَكْ Be aware
that even the person who commits shirk so
what is it what does that verse mean
that verse means the person who dies in
the state of shirk without committing tawbah Allah
will not forgive him but before his death
a person who makes tawbah repents and he
believes in the tawheed of Allah SWT then
obviously his sin will be forgiven he is
included in this verse إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ
جَمِيعًۭا All of the sins Allah will forgive
إِنَّهُ وَالْغَفُورُ رَحِيمٌ Indeed, He is Forgiving and
Merciful there's a story mentioned in a hadith
of a person who killed 99 people a
person from Bani Israel and there are again
a lot of lessons to learn from that
story itself this person he went and asked
a question and the hadith specifically uses specific
wording and he said that he went to
عَابِدًا مِّنْ عُبَادِ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلٍ A'abidan Min
Ubbadi Bani Israel he went to a person
who worshipped and he was from the people
that were the prominent worshippers from Bani Israel
and he asked him a question he said
I've killed 99 people will Allah SWT forgive
me the person says never Allah will never
Allah will never forgive you because you've committed
such grave atrocities you will never be forgiven
so the person he took out his knife
and killed him too hundred he made complete
century he killed him and then the hadith
says ثُمَّ ذَهَبَ إِلَىٰ عَالِمٍ مِّنْ عُلَمَٓاءِ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلٍ Thumma Zahaba Ila A'alimin Min Ullama
'i Bani Israel then he went to a
scholar from the scholars of Bani Israel and
he asked him the same question and he
gave a different completely different answer so we
understand from the wording that the people who
worship Allah SWT may be religious may be
close to Allah SWT from their own perspective
but they're not equipped to give fatwa they're
not equipped to give religious rulings and just
because a person is religious doesn't mean that
he can give fatwas otherwise he might end
up like this person so stay within the
capacity that Allah SWT has given given you
do not give fatwas if you are not
if you are not equipped to do it
and if you don't have the authority and
the knowledge to do it you should not
give fatwa and that's why specifically the Prophet
SAW mentioned abid and alim there's a difference
between the two and the fatwas that they
give so this alim he told this person
who had killed now a hundred people that
what is the thing that can prevent you
from making tawbah to Allah SWT nothing then
he gave him some advice he told him
that go to such and such a village
and there you will find people who are
closer to Allah SWT and there you seek
their advice and you repent to Allah SWT
and get away from the society in which
you're in so the first thing that that
person told him was get away from your
own society get away from the people that
you're in get away from the company you
keep and isolate yourself from such an environment
which is poisonous for you and it is
making you do the things that you do
so on the way what happened the time
of his death was written and now both
of the angels they came the angels of
punishment they came the angels of maghfirah they
came and they started having an argument with
each other one group said we have to
take him and one group said we have
to take him and then Allah SWT sent
a third angel to to to solve this
dispute and he told the angels to measure
the distance between the land that has been
left and the land that he was going
to if he is closer to the land
that he is he was from then he
would be taken by the angels of punishment
and if he is from closer to the
land in which where he was heading to
to make dawbah then he would be taken
by the angels of maghfirah and it was
measured and the land was closer to the
distance where he was going to and according
to some riwayat Allah SWT actually made the
land shrink so that his sin could be
forgiven so that his dawbah could be accepted
and he would be taken by the angels
of maghfirah and the angels of forgiveness so
we learn from this riwayat that really Allah
SWT's door of dawbah and forgiveness is always
open and we should never lose hope we
should always turn to Allah SWT we should
make sure that we keep a hope in
his mercy and we do not think that
our sins are so much that that they
could not be forgiven when a person has
that type of attitude that relationship with Allah
SWT is severed when a person has those
thoughts then he is too shy to even
make dua to Allah SWT he doesn't want
to make dua to Allah he doesn't feel
like even praying thinking that what is the
point of my prayer if at the same
time I'm committing sins what is the point
of my prayer so it's important to understand
that there's the sin is on one side
but the maghfirah of Allah SWT should never
be underestimated a person should always try to
think of that maghfirah and forgiveness and continue
to turn towards Allah SWT there are so
many hadith that talk about Allah SWT loving
dawbah and loving to forgive and one of
those most prominent hadith is that if the
humans stopped committing sins then Allah SWT would
destroy all of humanity and bring other humans
that would then commit sins and Allah SWT
would forgive them that's how much he loves
to forgive and this is an imaginary scenario
it's never going to happen because we will
always continue to commit sins but the point
of the hadith is that Allah loves to
forgive so much he loves people making tawbah
to him so much that if ever there
was to be a situation when people stopped
committing sins he would create another group of
humans that would commit sins and make tawbah
to him and turn to him in forgiveness
that's how much he loves to forgive so
again many many hadith that talk about this
issue but what is tawbah and what are
the steps that we should take towards tawbah
there are three things that are mentioned in
the selection of verses Allah SWT says the
first thing first of all you turn to
Allah SWT first and foremost turn to Allah
the thing that you think is is a
barrier between you and Allah SWT remove that
barrier first and foremost make dua to Allah
SWT continue to pray even if you're committing
sins continue to pray continue to fulfill the
obligations of Allah SWT the verse in the
Quran it prevents a person from fahsha from
lewdness and evil this this verse a sahabi
asked the prophet that such and such a
person he prays and yet he still commits
sins the prophet said there will come a
time when the salah will become a means
for him to prevent him from committing sins
so a person should continue to pray submit
yourself completely to him submit yourself completely completely
to him before the punishment of Allah SWT
comes then you're not helped so this is
this is the key before the punishment of
Allah SWT comes if the punishment of Allah
SWT comes then obviously it's too late okay
but that doesn't mean that Allah is going
to send the punishment immediately but there's always
a possibility so keeping that possibility in mind
a person should not delay in making the
tawbah to Allah SWT and then on top
of that Allah says the third step continue
to follow the good that has been revealed
to you from your lord continue to follow
steadfastness we talked about that yesterday right steadfastness
that a person turns to Allah repents starts
worshipping Allah SWT and then he continues with
it not that a person gets into ramadan
mode and he's very spiritual and then straight
after ramadan back to his old ways again
continue to follow what was revealed to you
from your lord meaning that continue to follow
the ayat of Allah SWT the the teachings
of Allah SWT the teachings of the prophet
again emphasizing before the punishment of Allah SWT
comes and you don't even realize so the
key is the punishment of Allah SWT and
the punishment can also refer to a person's
death coming a person's death comes and that
can happen at any time we've seen so
many instances so many examples when the death
comes then it's too late for tawbah the
tawbah of the slave is accepted as long
as the ghar gharah doesn't take place what
is ghar gharah that when the ruh is
about to be taken out of the person's
body this is ghar gharah then it's too
late once a person sees the angel of
death then it's too late to make tawbah
so before that happens before that day comes
we have to make sure that we turn
to Allah SWT change our lives change our
lifestyles change the things that we do and
make this relationship with Allah SWT to such
a degree that when we raise our hands
to him we feel comfortable doing it we
we feel comfortable making dua to him we
feel comfortable asking him we feel comfortable conversing
with we feel comfortable standing in front of
him in prayer and not not in a
state of shame and in a state of
despair this is the this is the relationship
that we are supposed to build with Allah
SWT to such a degree that all of
these things come into play and we we
leave our old life behind once I heard
a very beautiful example about what tawbah is
about you know we we we take a
shower on Friday right and when we're taking
a shower what do we do for the
last couple of days we've worn these clothes
we we remove those clothes and we take
out new fresh clothes that have been laundered
ironed and hang them and we're about to
wear them if a person was to tell
you okay you've taken a shower you're about
to pray go for prayer put those same
clothes on that you've taken off a person
doesn't even want to touch those clothes doesn't
feel comfortable even touching those clothes because he's
just removed them they smell of sweat and
body odor for the for the last couple
of days why should a person put those
clothes back on again he wants to wear
those fresh and clean clothes so when a
person he makes tawbah he is like that
person who's removed those old clothes while he
was in the clothes even just one hour
ago he was wearing those same clothes he
was walking around in those same clothes but
now he's taken the shower he doesn't feel
like even wearing those same clothes that he
was wearing an hour ago this is what
happens when a person makes tawbah he realizes
to himself that was the life I was
leading that was how I was wearing that
dirtiness around me and then he realizes no
I need to just wear these new clothes
and keep on wearing these new clothes that
old lifestyle it has to go but that
can only happen when you take those clothes
off in the first place so this is
something inshallah we need to keep in mind
in this month of Ramadan it's a month
of blessings it's a month of rahmah we
ask Allah SWT to give us more and
more rahmah and forgiveness and carry on and
continue with the good that we're doing inshallah
after the month of Ramadan also