"REPENTANCE"

"REPENTANCE"

The concept of tawbah is amazingly beautiful and unique in Islam. We don’t confess to any intermediary; we turn to our Creator directly.

Allah al-Ghaffaar opened the gate of repentance to Himself and commanded us to turn to Him. This is an amazing combination! The fact that we can repent at any time and the fact that Allah gave us the knowledge of how to repent is a great rahmah (mercy).  Tawbah is an opportunity!

The Wisdom Behind Repentance

Do you recognize this pattern? You commit a sin and then you feel bad afterwards, so bad that your guilt makes you feel down and so low that you feel you can’t be forgiven— so why repent?

If you’ve done something so wrong, you must be a terrible person, right? Wrong! There’s a major difference between being a bad person and doing something bad. Allah (swt) gave you the chance to repent and insha’Allaah your sin will even be transformed into a good deed! Isn’t that amazing?

Quran 25:70- Allah says “Except him who repents and believes and does righteous work; as for such, Allah will change their evil deeds to good deeds. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful."

Recognizing your mistakes and sins, feeling ashamed of violating Allah’s trust, and making the promise to Allah never to do it again are the three conditions of your repentance being accepted. The most important thing about tawbah is that it doesn’t mean you sit down feeling sad and guilty, dwelling on your sin. It means that whenever you sin, you grab the chance to get back up and do better!

What Repentance Brings to YOU

Let’s look at some rewards sincere tawbah brings to you.

Repentance brings success.

If you go on a path forbidden by Allah (swt), you choose to miss out on Allah’s mercy, rewards, help, and protection. But at the moment that you sincerely repent, you can be assured of His help in your life.

Allah tells us …And beg Allah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful. [Surah An-Noor, 31]
Examples of success are: wealth, children, and increased productivity and blessings, as Allah says in Surah Hud, ayah 52:  And O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord and then repent to Him, He will send you (from the sky) abundant rain, and add strength to your strength, so do not turn away as Mujrimoon (criminals, evil doers, etc).

Repentance keeps you away hardship.

The more we sin, the more we can be deprived of Allah’s blessings and the more trials we might have to endure. Tawbah can give us a way out of our troubles in life, as Allah says:  See they not that they are put in trial once or twice every year (with different kinds of calamities, disease, famine)? Yet, they turn not in repentance, nor do they learn a lesson (from it). [Quran, 9:126]

Repentance earns you Allah’s love.

Do you know that repentance is one of the most beloved acts of worship to Him? Allah says: … Truly, Allah loves those who turn unto Him in repentance and loves those who purify themselves. [Quran, 2:222]

Repentance makes you feel happy.
Tawbah cleans your heart. It makes you feel lighter, just as the burden of sin makes you feel heavy. Just say to yourself: who is there to stop me from turning back to Allah?

Repentance leads to forgiveness!

Isn’t this what you wanted? Can you imagine Allah forgiving all your sins? Do you think this is an unreachable goal? The rewards of repentance are: purity of heart, erasing of sins, and increasing of hasanaat (good deeds). Both the Quran and the ahadeeth are clear that those who repent sincerely to Allah, acknowledging their sins, and commit to not return again to those sins will have their sins forgiven.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying, "Allah, the Exalted, has said: 'O son of Adam! I shall go on forgiving you so long as you pray to Me and aspire for My forgiveness whatever may be your sins. O son of Adam! I do not care even if your sins should pile up to the sky and should you beg pardon of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam! If you come to Me with an earthful of sins and meet Me, not associating anything with Me in worship, I will certainly grant you as much pardon as will fill the earth."'

[At-Tirmidhi].
Reference  : Book 20, Hadith 10
Arabic/English book reference  : Book 20, Hadith 1878.

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