Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “Allah makes the way to Jannah easy for him who treads the path in search of knowledge”. [Saheeh Muslim]
Imam Sufyaan ath-Thawri (rh) said, “This knowledge has been given superiority over other types of knowledge as it inherits and makes a person have fear of Allah. If it doesn’t make a person fear Allah, then it is just like any other type of knowledge”.
Allah is the Acceptor of your return. “Don’t you know that it is Allah that accepts your return?”
We can ask Allah for forgiveness of minor and major sins. When we think of major sins we think of shirk and zina and so on and so forth, which we don’t do hopefully. However, the three categories mentioned below are also major sins that people DO commit.
- Lack of respect for parents, if we do not return to Allah for this then it’ll be very dangerous for us.
- Laziness on our daily obligation i.e. Salah. “And what do u know about saqr?” door of hell. Return to Allah for the fact that you’ve been heedless with salah.
- Being involved in inappropriate and shameless acts – those that love for shamelessness to spread amongst thebelievers for them is a painful punishment in the dunya and akhirah.
The punishment of the dunya is that you’re already committing the act itself and you are also spreading fahsha. For example if you come across a video on Facebook that has indecent images and you click share, you are sharing it for other people to see and spreading the sin. Fahsha can be in other forms too i.e. backbiting and ill speech and spreading rumours.
However, there is an ayah in the Qur’an from Surat az-Zumar (ayah 53) which reassures us: “Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah . Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” for the minor sins. And the next ayah goes on to say: “And return [in repentance] to your Lord and submit to Him before the punishment comes upon you; then you will not be helped.” This is for the major sins. If you don’t return to Allah then after that there is no hope and punishment will be brought upon you.
There are two categories of people: Yatubun those who repent and Dhalimun those who oppress. If you don’t repent then you are of the Dhalimun as you are oppressing your own soul.
We need to engage in Tawbah daily for everything we’ve done and the sins committed – even the Prophet SAW used to seek forgiveness daily.
A story was narrated from the time of ‘Aamir bin Abd Al-Aziz where they were going to bury an individual in his grave and he asked those present if there was one thing this person could’ve asked for, what would it be? They replied: Tawbah to Allah ‘aza wa jal. To which he pointed out that this man is dead he is unable to do so, but those present were living and still have the chance.
﴿حـم – تَنزِيلُ الْكِتَـبِ مِنَ اللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْعَلِيمِ – غَافِرِ الذَّنبِ وَقَابِلِ التَّوْبِ شَدِيدِ الْعِقَابِ ذِى الطَّوْلِ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ إِلَيْهِ الْمَصِيرُ ﴾
Haa Mim. The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Knower. The Forgiver of sin, the Acceptor of repentance, the Severe in punishment, the Bestower. La ilaha illa Huwa, to Him is the final return. [Surat Ghaafir 1-3]
So let’s all take this chance iA to take time out of our day and ask Allah swt for forgiveness for all we may have fallen into, past and present, and mistakes made.
JazakumAllah Khair
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