Semester A 17/18, 10 November 2017
- From the traits of the children of Adam is that we always Sin. Some sins we’re addicted to, others we fall into and some are a one-off. After we sin; we are overtaken by a feeling emotionally and we hate that we committed it
- This is a sign of Imaan because we feel as if we disobeyed Allah
- However, it could lead to some of us despairing in the mercy of Allah, thinking that if Allah will forgive us. This is from the Shaytan
- From the names of Allah is Al-Ghaffar the one who constantly forgives even if we go back to the sin over and over again but repent each time
- Another name of Allah is Ghafoor, meaning an occupation that someone has, suggesting that it’s Allah’s job to forgive you
- The Adhaab (punishment), Maghfirah (forgiveness) comes from him, everything comes from him. This is our Allah and we shouldn’t compartmentalize his roles. It is one God and he is the one that forgives you for your sins
“O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you…”
— Hadith Qudsi
- Stop and reflect about this point, imagine all the sins that we commit and for this person it reaches the sky, Allah says, I will forgive you”. Allah will forgive every single individual; it is in his essence to forgive
- There are a lot of doors towards Allah that are open for us, such as praying the nafl, being good to our parents. Perhaps this is a way for us to turn back to Allah
- Everyone is the slave of Allah. On Yawm-ul-Qiyamah we will be raised and have sins in front of us that are sins against Allah and he has the ability to forgive you regardless of the standing you had in life
- The Khateeb mentions a famous incident of Abu Lubaba in the second part of the Khutbah to show that:
- There will be people that will take your rights, there will be people that have done bad things to you such as backbiting. Be an easy going person because the Hell-fire does not touch them and look over it like the Prophet (pbuh) looked over Abu Lubaba revealing secrets about the siege they planned
- Seek repentance and go humbled in front of Allah, the Lord of the heavens of the Earth and ask him to please forgive you, our hearts should tremble in his presence
- Because Abu Lubaba had made an oath to not move from his spot as part of his regret, Allah had revealed a Verse in Surah Tawbah in response
“
And there are others who have confessed their wrongdoing, who have done some righteous deeds and some bad ones: God may well accept their repentance, for God is most forgiving and merciful
— 9:102
- This relates to us on a human level as we might do good and bad deeds but we should repent and Allah will forgive us
- Allah has always been ghafoor and Tawwab before the creation of everything in the heavens and earth and only when He was there, there was Allah, One God. He was Al Ghafoor then and now, He was At-Tawwab then and now
- You don’t need to sin for Allah to forgive you, as he is forgiving
- The Khateeb mentions a Hadith about a man who will be raised on Yawm Ul Qiyamah and has evil sins everywhere, but Allah placed a parchment on his scales and it outweighed all his sins because it was the Shahada
- This man knew Allah because he is One and did not give him any partners. We should recognize ourselves in comparison to Allah. We should not despair in the forgiveness of Allah
“Sometimes the people with the worst of pasts can create the best of futures”
— Umar b. al-Khattab (ra)
“We created man–We know what his soul whispers to him: We are closer to him than his jugular vein”
— 50:16
- Allah created you and knows when you are in that mood and feeling of wanting to sin or want to say something bad about a person. Allah knows the whispers of your heart. He knows the trials or your life, family and the world
- Don’t despair of the mercy of Allah. Similarly, we shouldn’t be deluded and think Allah will forgive us if we carry on sinning, we should make efforts to stop and repent to Allah
- If we return to the sin, we should SINCERELY repent to Allah and never sin with the intention that Allah will just forgive us
May Allah forgive all our sins and be pleased with us. Ameen