This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Ramadan Reflections. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.

Episode 1

[Transcript]

As- salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salatu was salamu ala rasulillah wa ba’ ad. All thanks and praise are due to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be upon his last and final messenger, his family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of times.

Ramadan is an opportunity for us to completely transform and change our lives. an opportunity for self- reformation. One of the goals, one of the objectives of this blessed month to draw nearer to our Lord and Creator. And the first step on our journey to Allah ﷻ is tawbah, sincere, genuine repentance. As human beings, we are imperfect beings. We have several imperfections. And as a result of these imperfections, we fall into sin, we fall into error. We engage in acts of disobedience.

Each and every single one of us has done something that we’re not proud of. We’ve done something that we are ashamed of. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all made poor choices and poor decisions. That’s part of human nature. Part of human nature is to sin. We don’t believe in this idea, this concept of original sin. That is not an Islamic belief. But we do acknowledge, we do recognize that human beings have been created weak. وَخُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ ضَعِيفًا And one aspect of that weakness is sometimes we fall victim. We fall prey to the whispers of Sometimes we fall victim to our nafs, to our own ego, our own carnal desires. As a matter of fact, we sin and we sin a lot. The Prophet ﷺ said, كُلُّ بَنِ آدَمَ خَطَّى وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّائِينَ أَتَّوَابُونَ Every son of Adam is a profuse wrongdoer.

And the best of those who commit a lot of sins are those who repent frequently. In the Arabic language, the word خطّ it’s on a word pattern that conveys the exaggerated meaning of the word. One who sins is خاطئ. They make a mistake, they sin. خطّ is someone who makes sins and they do it frequently, they do it a lot. The Prophet ﷺ is speaking to a human reality that as human beings, we sin and we sin a lot. We sin publicly, we sin privately. We sin knowingly and unknowingly. وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّائِينَ But the best of those who sin a أَتَّوَابُونَ are those who repent a lot, are those who repent frequently, those who repent often. أَتَّوَابُ is also on this word pattern of مُبَلَقَ, of exaggeration.

أَتَّائِبُ is someone who أَتَّوَابُ is someone who repents often. أَتَّوَبَ, repentance. Linguistically, it means to return. It means to come back. Because when we we are coming back to the mercy of We are coming back to our Lord, our Creator, أَرْحَمُ الرَّحِيمِينَ The Most Merciful of those who show mercy. We are coming back to the obedience of Allah after having disobeyed Him. And the most beautiful thing is that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى is أَتَّوَابُ Allah is the one who constantly accepts repentance. Every time I turn to Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى with genuine sincere repentance, He accepts it. That’s from the infinite and limitless mercy of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. All of us again commit sins. And our sins should not become something that blocks us and prevents us from getting close to Allah.

When we sin, we should feel regret. We should feel a sense of remorse. We should feel that weight. But that regret, that that weight on our shoulders should not pull us down. It should not be an anchor that keeps us where we are. It shouldn’t become a that prevents us coming back to Allah. If that happens, that’s a trick. Because we have confidence and we know without a doubt that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى forgives all sins. There is no sin that is greater than the infinite mercy of Allah. And this is the message that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى delivers to us through the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur’ an. Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى says, قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَتُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ قُلْ Allah is speaking to the Prophet ﷺ that O Prophet ﷺ, say the following.

Tell this to your companions by extension to all of us on my behalf. يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ That O my servants, O my who have acted recklessly against themselves, who have done Israaq against themselves, by engaging in sin, by engaging in minor sins and major sins, لَا تَقْنَتُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ Do not despair from the mercy of Allah. Don’t lose hope in the mercy of Allah. Whatever we have done, no matter how bad, no matter how ugly, no matter how terrible, no matter how humiliating, no matter how depressing, no matter how much we’ve sinned, لَا تَقْنَتُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ Do not despair from the mercy of Allah. Don’t lose hope in His mercy. Why? إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًۭا Truly Allah forgives all sins. Allah is stating a fact.

He is stating an absolute truth. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًۭا Truly indeed, surely Allah forgives all sins. Why? إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ Because truly He is Al- Ghafoor. Allah is Al- Ghafoor. He is the one who constantly and continuously forgives. Anytime I make a mistake and go back, Allah forgives. He is Al- Raheem. He is the infinitely most merciful. Ramadan is an opportunity. It is a time for us to turn back. All of us know that the Day of Judgment is reality. All of us know that there is accountability and we are going to be held accountable for everything we’ve said and everything we’ve done. We know that there is a life in the grave and one of the possibilities of that life in the grave is being punished because of our acts of disobedience, because of our neglect, because of our heedlessness.

Ramadan is an opportunity for us to save ourselves and protect ourselves from all of that by engaging in genuine sincere repentance. And sincere repentance has three primary components. The first has to do with the heart. That we actually feel regret. We actually feel remorse because of what we have done. We feel that sense of sorrow, sadness, regret, and then that feeling, it becomes the catalyst behind us turning back to Allah with humility. Humbling ourselves before Allah and then asking for forgiveness. And that’s the second component. After I feel that guilt, after I feel that remorse, I actually ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ ala to forgive me. And then the third component is making a firm resolution not to go back to that sin. It’s making a firm resolution not to do it again.

Those are the three most important components of sincere repentance. If the wrong we did involved wronging someone else, then we have to try our best to rectify that in any way that we can. And once we engage in this sincere repentance, we should have confidence that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ ala accepts it. And if I fall into that sin again, that does not mean that my repentance was insincere. It just means that I’m imperfect. So then I’m going to repent again. If I fall into the sin, I repent again. But that resolution, it should be a firm resolution. We don’t want to make a joke of it. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ ala knows us better than we know ourselves. Allah knows if we’re being sincere. Allah knows if we’re being genuine.

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ ala very powerfully and beautifully tells us, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ تَوْبَةً نَسُوحًا O you who believe, O people of Iman, O you who believe in Allah, His Messenger in the last day, تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ تَوْبَةً نَسُوحًا Come back to Allah. Return to Allah with genuine sincere repentance. عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُكَثِّرَ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ So your Lord can absolve you of your sins. If we engage in sincere repentance, Allah will absolve our وَيُدِخِلَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارِ And He will admit us into gardens beneath which rivers flow. The Prophet ﷺ told us, أَتَّائِبُ مِنَ الذَّنْبِ كَمَنَّا ذَنْبَنَا a person who repents from a sin is like one who has no sin at all. So during this blessed month of one of the ways that we can take advantage of this month and ensure that it’s beneficial and meaningful is by engaging in genuine sincere tawba. May Allah give all of us the tawfiq, the ability to do so. May Allah forgive all of our sins. May Allah ﷻ make us among the tawwabun. وَصَلِّ اللَّهُمَّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا وَنَبِيِّنَا وَمَوْلَانَ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَنِّمْ جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُمُ.

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