. And that “Seek the forgiveness of your Lord,
and then turn to Him in repentance, that He may grant you good substance, for a
term appointed; and bestow His Grace to every owner of grace. But if you turn
away, then I fear for you the torment of a Great Day.
To Allah is your return, and
He is able to do all things. (Hud 11:
3-4)
In this ayat, peoples
have been advised to seek Allah’s forgiveness, to repent and revert back to
Him. If they repent, they have been given glad tidings of likeable substance in
this world. They have been warned of punishment on the Day of Judgment, if they
do not repent and seek Allah’s forgiveness. Let us therefore find out in some
details the importance and method of repentance and seeking forgiveness. We
shall study this under three different topics: 1, the concept and importance of
repentance; 2, the effects of repentance; and 3, the requirements of
repentance.
1. The Concept and
Importance of Repentance:
Allah SWT asks the believers to repent their sins and seek His forgiveness. When a person commits a sin, he has gone astray. As soon as he realizes of his going astray, he should return back to his Lord. This is defined as repentance. Thus the repentance means reverting back to the right path i.e. the right path of Allah. The process of repentance consists of three steps: 1, feeling shame on the wrongdoing; 2, giving up further wrongdoing; 3, and making a firm determination of not doing the wrong deed again. This is how one should make a sincere repentance (Taubat-un-Nasuha). This is what is required by Allah SWT from a believer to erase his wrongdoings from his record:
O you who believe! Turn to
Allah with sincere repentance. It maybe that your Lord will expiate from you
your sins, and admit you into gardens (At-Tahreem 66:8).
When a believer
commits a sin, his image and righteous deeds get tarnished. Then, by sincere
repentance, he can mend his image and deeds. Moreover, for a sincere
repentance, one more point should be clearly understood. Suppose a believer
does some thing wrong to some other person, such as backbiting, tormenting,
stealing, or defaming him. Then, in all such cases, the wrongdoer must
apologize to the wronged person, and seek his forgiveness in order to make his
repentance sincere and complete. The repentance requires the wrongdoer not to
do the wrong deed again; and seeking the forgiveness requires him to pray and
beg his Lord to forgive him on his wrongdoing.
Allah SWT forgives a
sinner only when he repents his sin. Thus, in order to seek His forgiveness, a
sinner must repent. One should note that the punishment given to a criminal by
the society on his crime does not absolve him from the punishment of Allah. To
understand this point, let us recall that Allah SWT has ordered an Islamic
society to enforce His punishment on a person who commits a grave crime of
theft. However, Allah is Forgiver and Merciful to him or her who repents his or
her sin, and mends his or her way. He says:
But whoever repents after
his crime and does righteous deeds, then, verily, Allah will pardon him (Al-Maedah
This explains the fact that the worldly punishment does not replace
repentance. Only Allah knows about the future deeds of a person. Also, if
worldly punishment is to be given only to those who do not repent, then who
would not repent to save oneself from such punishment? The worldly punishment
does not purify the soul of a sinner. In order to get his soul purified a
sinner must repent to Allah SWT.
Here, a believer
should easily understand the importance of repentance, and seeking forgiveness.
By establishing the system of repentance and seeking forgiveness, Allah SWT has
provided a shelter and refuge to millions of peoples in a corrupt and evil
society. This has given hope of salvation to those who somehow fall prey to sin
and evil. A sinful and evil society could have never been reformed, if there
was no process of repentance available to it. A hadith also emphasizes the
importance of repentance. The Prophet SAW is reported to have said, “By the One
Who has my soul in His Hand! If you do not commit sin then Allah will raise
another nation, which would commit sin. It would then seek His forgiveness, and
Allah would forgive it” (Abu Ayub Ansari RA, Muslim). This hadith, however,
does not imply that one should commit a sin. What it says is that a believer must
repent and seek the forgiveness of Allah, if he commits a sin. Almost every
person commits a wrong, but only a few repent and seek forgiveness. This notion
is described in a hadith. The Prophet SAW is reported to have said, “Every man
is a sinner, the best among them are those who repent” (Anas RA, Tirmidhi).
This hadith implies that not only the common man but the prophets and the
messengers too used to seek His forgiveness. Allah tells us that when two
persons presented their case of dispute to the Prophet David AS to do justice
(to draw his attention to what he had done):
And David guessed that We have tried him
and he sought forgiveness of his Lord (Saad 38: 24).
2. The Effects of Repentance and Prayer:
From the verse quoted in the
beginning, we see that Allah SWT says that He will give a good reward in this
world to those who repent. This reward will continue till the death of the
repentant. Allah will give good reward to everyone who repents. A hadith also
tells us about Allah’s Grace. The Prophet SAW is reported to have said, “O
people! Do not think that you would enter into the
In a story given in a hadith, the
believers are informed that Allah SWT shows His happiness when a believer
repents his sin. The story runs like this. A man with all his belongings on the
back of his camel was passing through a desert. In order to have some rest, he
slept at a place. When he woke up, he found his camel, with all his belongings,
missing. He frantically searched his camel all around but did not find it.
Disparate, tired and fearing the inevitable death, he lay himself down on the
ground, and fell asleep. When he woke up again, he found his camel, with all
his belongings intact, standing nearby him. He got extremely overjoyed. And in
this condition of extreme delight and excitement, he thanked his Lord with
these words, “O Allah! I am your Lord and Thou art my servant.” The man was so
overjoyed that he could not utter his words properly. This hadith then teaches
us that Allah SWT becomes much happier than the traveller, when one of His servants
repents his sin (Anas RA, Muslim).
By repenting and seeking the
forgiveness, the believers win Allah’s favour not only for the life after
death, but for this word as well. In this world, they are bestowed with rain,
substance, and offspring. Such are the good rewards that Allah SWT has promised
in these verses. Prophet Noah AS had advised his nation to repent its sin and
seek Allah’s forgiveness. Indeed He is Forgiver. And He would bestow all such
good favour:
I said, “Seek forgiveness from your
Lord. Verily, He is oft forgiving. He will send rain to you in abundance. And
give you increase in wealth and off-springs, and bestow on you gardens, and
bestow on you rivers” (Noah
71:10-12).
There are also some more ahadith,
which tell the believers about the effects of repentance. In a hadith the
Prophet SAW is reported to have said, “A man is not (regarded) a repeater of
sin, even if he commits it seventy times, provided he seeks forgiveness of
Allah” (Abu Bakr RA, Tirmidhi). In another hadith, The Prophet SAW is reported
to have said, “A repentant of a sin is like the one who has committed no sin”
(Abdullah bin Mas'ud RA, Ibn Maja).
At one place, Allah tells that
seeking His forgiveness helps the believers in attaining patience and endurance
against the infidels; He also rewards them in this world as well as in the
Hereafter because of their repentance. These believers pray to Allah,
Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and our
transgressions, establish our feet firmly, and give us victory over the
disbelieving folk (Ale- Imran
3: 147).
A believer should never give up
hope of Allah’s Mercy because of his sins. Allah showers His mercy upon a
believer who repents sincerely:
Say, “O my servants! Who have
transgressed against themselves, despair not of the Mercy of Allah, verily,
Allah forgives all sins
(Az-Zumar 39: 53).
A hadith also tells the believers the
same thing. The Lady ‘Aisha RA has narrated that the Prophet SAW had said,
“Whenever a believer confesses and repents his sin, Allah SWT forgives him”
(Agreed Upon).
A hadith gives us a beautiful
story of a sincere repentance, and its acceptance by Allah SWT. We shall
briefly narrate it here. Long time ago, a man had committed ninety-nine
murders. He then felt sorry of his crimes. He went to a monk and asked him the
way he could win the forgiveness. The monk told him that there was no way left
for him to win it. The man then killed that monk as well. He again felt sorry. Next,
he went to a scholar and asked him the way he could be forgiven. The scholar
advised him to leave his village and go to live in a village of good people.
While he was on his way to the village of good people, he met his death. Both,
the angels of punishment and the angels of mercy, came to collect his soul. The
angels of punishment wanted to capture his soul because he had murdered a
hundred people. The angels of mercy wanted to collect his soul because of his
repentance. Both the groups started arguing with each other. An angel, in the
form of a man, came to the scene. Both the group made him an arbitrator. He
advised them to measure the distances from the old village and the new village
to which he was headed. His body was found to be nearer to the village of the
good people. He then allowed the angels of mercy to collect the soul of the
dead man (Abu Sa’eed Khudri RA, Agreed Upon). This hadith has two lessons:
whatever be the sin, a man should sincerely repent, and repent quickly in order
to seek Allah’s forgiveness. In another hadith, the Prophet SAW is reported to
have congratulated a believer who would have a lot of repentance in his book of
deeds (Abdullah bin Basar RA, Ibn Maja). Allah SWT also gives glad tidings to
those who follow their desires and somewhat lose their obligatory salats, but
then repent their wrong deeds, reaffirm their Faith and act upon the righteous
deeds:
Except those who repent and believe, and
work righteousness, such will enter
The repentance and seeking the
forgiveness not only help the believers themselves in this world and the
Hereafter, they help them for others as well. We shall here study a few ahadith
in support of this contention.
1.The Prophet SAW is reported to
have said that a believer who seeks forgiveness for a male or a female believer
will have a good deed credited to his account for each one of them (Ubadah bin
Samit RA, Tabarani). This shows that a believer, whenever he prays for others,
gets benefits for himself as well.
2. The Prophet SAW is reported to
have said that the gifts for the dead people from the alive people are to seek
forgiveness for the dead (Abdullah bin Abbas RA, Baihaqi).
3. The Prophet SAW is reported to
have said, “Peoples in the
3. The Requirements of Seeking Forgiveness:
We shall now study how to repent
and seek the forgiveness of Allah in order to achieve His pleasure. Allah
says:
Allah accepts only the repentance of
those who do evil in ignorance and foolishness and repent soon afterwards; it
is they whom Allah will forgive and Allah is ever All- Knowing All-Wise (An-Nisa 4: 17).
In other words if a man foolishly
or unknowingly commits a sin and then repents quickly, Allah forgives him. Two
points are important to note here. Firstly, the sin should have been committed
because of the lack of knowledge or foolishness, and not because of
disobedience and rebellion. Secondly, the sinner should not delay his
repentance. Allah SWT repeats this point at many places in the Qur’an, such as
Your Lord has written Mercy for himself,
so that if any one of you does evil in ignorance, and thereafter repents and
does righteous deeds, then surely He is oft-Forgiver Most Merciful (Al-An'aam 6: 54).
Now, how soon a sinner should
repent? The following hadith answers to this question. The Prophet SAW is reported
to have said, “Allah grants forgiveness to His servant till he starts bubbling
to his death” (Abdullah Ibn Umar RA, Tirmidhi).
In fact when a sinner realizes
that it is time of his death, the time of doing good deeds and seeking the forgiveness
is over for him. This also brings the time of his repentance to an end as well.
This is what Allah SWT points out:
And of no effect is the repentance of
those who continue to do evil deeds until death faces one of them and he says,
“Now I repent”; nor for those who die while they are unbelievers (An-Nisa 4: 18).
A believer should then repent
before the time of his death. Who can predict his time of death with
certainty? Hence, a believer should
first of all avoid committing sin but repent as soon as he does commit a sin.
It is always better to continuously seek forgiveness of Allah. We have already
studied that the Prophet SAW himself used to seek forgiveness seventy times a
day.
Now how should one seek Allah’s
forgiveness? The Qur’an and the Sunnah have taught us some prayers in this
regard. The Prophet Abraham AS had prayed:
Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents, and
the believers on the Day when the reckoning will be established (Ibrahim
Allah SWT had advised the Prophet
SAW to pray for forgiveness as:
And say, “My Lord! Forgive and have
mercy for You are the best of those who show mercy” (Al-Muminun 23: 118).
The Prophet SAW himself has
advised the believers to seek Allah’s forgiveness by saying, “I seek
forgiveness of Allah- except whom there is no other God- the Ever-Alive and
Eternal, and I repent to Him (Bilal bin Yasaar RA, Tirmidhi).
The Prophet SAW has also taught
the believers how to seek Allah’s forgiveness during the month of Ramadan. He
said, “O Allah! Thou art indeed Forgiveness. Thou loves forgiveness, so forgive
us” (‘Aisha RA, Tirmidhi). The best prayer to seek forgiveness taught by the
Prophet SAW runs as “O my Allah! Thou art my Lord. There is no God except Thee.
Thou have created me. And I stand by my promise, according to my ability, of
obedience and worship to Thee. I seek Thy refuge from my sins. I am grateful
for Thy bounties to me, and I admit my sins. So forgive me. None can forgive me
except Thee” (Shaddad bin Aous RA, Bukhari). This prayer is known as
Sayed-ul-Istighfar (Chief of Seeking Forgiveness).
Besides the prayers studied
earlier, there is another way of seeking the forgiveness of Allah. This is the
way of giving charity i.e. spending in the cause of Allah. Allah pardons His servants,
and accepts their charity:
Do not you know that Allah accepts
repentance from His servants and takes the charity, and that Allah Alone is the
One Who forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful? (At-Taubah 9: 104).
, Allah wants people to return to
Him. He is capable of doing any thing to them when all of them will be brought
to His Presence. There is none to stop Him from His actions. If the people
repent, He is the best of forgivers and the Compassionate. If the people do not
give up the rebellious attitude, Allah has the power to punish them severely on
the Day of Judgment. Whatever He wants He does it. He is not afraid of the
consequences of His actions (Ash-Shams 91: 14-15).
We should try our best to save
ourselves from His punishment. For this, we should repent our sins and seek His
forgiveness. This way we can get His pleasure and rewards not only in the
Hereafter, but in this world as well.
O our Lord! Forgive our sins, have
mercy on us, and Thou art the best forgiver. Amen!
(Extracted
from the author’s book “Islamic Beliefs and Worships,” available at ICNA
Bookstore,