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Repentance (Taubah) Of Sinners

Almighty Allah states in the Qur’an: O Believers! Turn towards Allah’s Presence in perfect and most sincere repentance. Your Lord will certainly remove your sins from you and admit you to the Gardens with streams flowing under them. {Chapter 66: Verse 8}

And that you should seek forgiveness from your Lord, then submit your repentance before Him (with true heart). He will keep you glad and gratified with an excellent provision till an appointed term and will reward for merit everyone enjoying me (i.e. will bestow reward and ranks corresponding to one’s amount of righteous deeds and dedicated services). And if you turn away, then I fear for you the torment of a Mighty Day. {Surah Hud Chapter 11: Verse 3}

What is Repentance?
A Hadith states that regret is repentance.  Sunan Ibn-e-Maja,Hadith 4252,V4 P492 }

Remorse(nadamah) is the turning of the heart, in sorrow and regret, away from something which the servant has committed, and which angers Almighty Allah, such as sins or the neglect of obligatory acts. It may also occur following excessive involvement in permissible pleasures or the neglect of supererogatory devotions. A sincere remorse is one which leads to persevering in earnest And Avoiding neglectfulness. When sound, it includes Nearly All The Conditions Of Repentance-Tawba which is why The Prophet (PBUH) Has Said, May Blessings And Peace Be upon Him: ‘Remorse is repentance’.

Those Who Are Remorseful About their Misbehaviour, But Still persist in it, are only jesting and remorse will not avail them. Seeking forgiveness (istighfar) means asking Almighty Allah to forgive, which in turn means his concealing the misdeed [from the eyes of others.

When Almighty Allah, by his grace, forgives a sin, he neither exposes its doer to shame nor punishes him for it, whether in this world or in the next. The highest kind of forgiveness is for Almighty Allah to place a veil, a barrier, between the servant and sins, Until it is as though he were free of them.

What Are The Conditions Of True Repentance?
Almighty Allah accepts repentance if it is sincere (If the sinner includes regret (nadam)for what was done and resolve (azm) not to do it again. If you commit a sin, then think of it as bad. You should feel ashamed of committing the sin. Convince yourself and be committed that you will not do this sin ever again. Add to this, feeling of remorse and shame together with a firm intention never to repeat the sin. The origin of repentance is turning towards Allah.

It has four conditions:
(1) Acceptance of having sinned,
(2)Regret and
(3) Intention to stop.
(4) If the sin requires compensation, then this is compulsory.

For example, a person who has missed any salah must do Qada. If the sin involves another person, the person who has sinned must fix the wrong that he or she has done to someone. If we have said bad things, slandered someone backbit someone or stolen from or hurt another in any way, we have to ask the person who is wronged for forgiveness if possible, or somehow reverse the harm.

Repentance of Sinner from Bani Israel
Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (Radi Allah Anhu) reported Allah’s Messenger (sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) as saying: “There was a person before you who had killed ninety-nine persons and then made an inquiry about the learned persons of the world (who could show him the way to salvation). He was directed to a monk. He came to him and told him that he had killed ninety-nine persons and asked him whether there was any scope for his repentance to be accepted. He said: No. He killed him also and thus completed one hundred. He then asked about the learned persons of the earth and he was directed to a scholar, and he told him that he had killed one hundred persons and asked him whether there was any scope for his repentance to be accepted. He said: “Yes; what stands between you and the repentance?
You better go to such and such land; there are people devoted to prayer and worship and you also worship along with them and do not come to the land of yours since it was an evil land (for you).” So he went away and he had hardly covered half the distance when death came to him and there was a dispute between the angels of mercy and the angels of punishment. The angels of mercy said: “This man has come as a penitent and remorseful to Allah” and the angels of punishment said: “He has done no good at all. “Then there came another angel in the form of a human being in order to decide between them. He said: You measure the land to which he has drawn near. They measured it and found him nearer to the land where he intended to go (the land of piety), and so the angels of mercy took possession of it.[Sahih Muslim : Book 37, Book Name Kitab Al-Tauba Number 6662]

Dua of Repentance from the Quran
… ‘O our Lord! We have wronged our souls. And if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we shall certainly be among the losers.’ {Surah A’raf Chapter 7: Verse 23}

Mrs. Rubina Yasmeen

The Reality of Sins

Allah has stated in the Holy Qur’an: “Leave (O mankind, all kinds of) sin, open and secret. Verily, those who commit sin will get due recompense for that which they used to commit.” (Holy Qur’an, 6:120)

In the above verse, Allah has ordered that Mankind should abstain from all types of sins. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir). It is further mentioned, that no action should be performed which is against the pleasure of Allah. Nor should there be any doubts regarding the Deen of Allah, otherwise it will be regarded as a sin. (Tafsir Uthmani)

Sins are those actions that are performed against the criteria of the Qur’an and Sunnah. The example of a sin is like that of cancer. When cancer inflicts a body part, that part of the body is singled out and may need to be removed completely from the body. This is done to prevent the fatal spread of the cancer throughout the whole body. Therefore, whenever a sin is committed, the believer should immediately resort to repentance (Taubah). The Prophet said: Refrain from sins which you may consider as minor, as you will be held accountable for them. (Sunan Ibn Majah, Sunan Baihaqi)

The Reasons for Sinning

1. Whenever the individual thinks that he or she is not being watched then Because of this mindset, it becomes very easy for that person to commit a sin. Remember! Allah has highlighted this point in the Holy Qur’an: “Allah, is verily always watching over them.” (Holy Qur’an, 89:14)
2. Whenever the individual thinks that no one is aware of their actions. Remember! Allah has already answered this in the Qur’an. “Allah knows the fraud of the eyes and all that the breasts conceal…” (Holy Qur’an, 40:19)
3. Whenever the individual thinks that no one is beside/near them. When this thought comes to mind then it becomes a means of opening the doors of sin. Remember! Allah has already answered this in the Holy Qur’an: “Allah is with you wherever you may be. And Allah is All-seer of what you do.” (Holy Qur’an, 57:4)
4. Whenever the individual thinks that they can not be held accountable by anyone, a sense of pride, this type of thinking increases the zeal in a person to commit sins. Remember! Allah has already answered this in the Holy Qur’an: “Verily, the seizing of Allah (of the wrongdoers) is very painful and severe.” (Holy Qur’an, 11:102)

What the Scholars of the Ummah say about sins

Hafiz Ibn Qayim stated: My friend! Do not look at sin in the manner of it being minor or major, look at it in the manner of the Majesty of the being whose orders you are disobeying (Allah ).

Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmed Naqshbandi states: When you commit a sin, you take great care of the small children that may be around, yet you have no thought of Allah Most High!? When committing a sin you close all those doors from which people may be able to see you. However, you cannot close that door from which Allah is always watching you.

Ata bin Abi Riba Tabiee stated: Whenever there is a deficiency in sustenance that is provided by Allah to an individual, he complains of this to the people. When that same person’s book of deeds, filled with sins comes before Allah, Allah does not complain of this individual and his actions to the angels. But, Allah waits for the moment that he will repent for his wrongdoings.

Imam Abu Hanifa stated: When somebody praises you, then in reality they are praising Allah. For it is due to the Mercy of Allah that he has kept your sins hidden from the eyes of people. If sins had a stench, then no one would even come near you! What is praise?!

A Tabiee is recorded as saying: I have experienced, that whenever I happen to disobey any order of Allah, I get the recompense of disobedience from my wife, children, servants, and even the animals I own.

When a person happens to sin, Allah prepares 4 witnesses for him

1. The Earth is made a witness on the Day of Qiyamah to the sin perpetrated on its back: “That Day (The Earth) will declare its information (good and bad that happened over it)” (Holy Qur’an 99:4)
2. The body parts of an individual will bear witness against the individual on the day of Qiyamah: “This day (Qiyamah) we shall seal up their mouths, and their hands will speak to us, and their legs will bear witness to what they used to earn.” (Holy Qur’an, 36:65)
3. The Angels will bear witness on the Day of Qiyamah: “Verily, appointed over you are angels to watch over you, honorable and writing down your deeds, they know all that you do.” (Holy Quran, 82:10-12)
4. The Book of Deeds will bear witness to their actions on the day of Qiyamah: “And when the pages of the book of deeds (of every person) shall be laid open.” (Holy Qur’an, 81:10).

One day Sayyidina Umar bin Khattab was reading this verse from the Holy Qur’an and the reality of the verse dawned upon him, he lost consciousness and was bedridden for several days. Many of the pious predecessors, used to read the following verse and cry all night saying “O Allah, what will be our condition be on that day?!” “The Day when all the secrets will be examined (as to their truth).” (Holy Qur’an, 86:9)

The remedy for sins is only in sincere repentance

Allah says: “O you who Believe! Turn to Allah with sincere repentance! It may be that your Lord will expiate from you your sin, and admit you into Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise)-” (Holy Qur’an, 66:8)

Mufti Muhammed Shafi stated: the meaning of sincere repentance, is that an individual should feel guilt, remorse, and embarrassment over their past sins. Together with this, they should make a firm intention not to repeat the same sin. If however, the sins which are being repented over are amongst the ‘Rights of Allah’, it should then be performed/made up as quickly as possible through Qadha (Salat, fasting, Zakat, etc). If the past sin is from amongst the ‘Rights of the Creation’ then forgiveness must be sought from the wronged persons. If money/wealth was wrongfully taken, it should be returned to the rightful owner. (Khutabhaat)

If we perform our repentance in this manner then Allah says: “Except those who repent and believe and do righteous deeds; for those Allah will change their sins into good deeds, And Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Holy Qur’an, 25:70)

May Allah forgive all our sins through his Mercy and include us among his pious servants. Ameen!

by Mufti Muhammad Yusuf bin Yaqoob Danka