The Elementary Pause of Repentance
Written By: Sheikh Hany Hilmy
Indeed all praise belongs to Allah, we praise Him, seek His aid and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our souls and evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides there is none to misguide and whomsoever Allah misguides there is none to guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah without any partners and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.
O Allah send Your Mercy on Muhammad and his posterity as You sent Your mercy on Abraham and his posterity. You are the Most Praised, The Most Glorious. O Allah, send Your Blessings on Muhammad and his posterity as You have blessed Abraham and his posterity. You are the Most praised, The Most Glorious.
To Proceed,
Now as we approach the closure of this year .. at the end you must have a pause ..a pause of amendment .. a pause of accountability.. to learn what is your position in relation to Allah!!
Are you advancing or stumbling behind? .. Is your balance increasing or decreasing? What is your position in regard to Allah, servant of Allah?
A believer should have pauses of accountabilities blaming himself ..
Pauses to admonish himself.. And keep it accountable and under close watch..
If it went astray, you sentence a punishment.
Normally when there is a race, as soon as horses reach the end.. they work to their full capacity ..
This is the basic tool to manage our deeds ..
What matters is the closure..so monitor how your year will end!
You must know that the renewed job of a lifetime.. is the job of repentance. Allah all Mighty ordered us to repent: {And all of you beg Allâh to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful} An-Noor:31
The prophet peace and blessings be upon him used to repent and ask for Allah's forgiveness a hundred times a day. Here we have a pause, Repentance is one thing and asking for Forgiveness is another thing: {Seek the forgiveness of your Lord, and turn to Him in repentance} Hud:3
This shows that there is a difference between repentance and asking for Allah's forgiveness.
The servant of Allah needs quality time asking for Allah's forgiveness so that Allah will cover his fault. That is the truth about asking for Forgiveness.. It is the procedure of asking Allah to cover faults..
The Second phase, after the phase of repentance, is
seeking the erasing of sins. Sins would disappear without any trace or smudge in the heart. The prophet peace and blessings be upon him used to ask Allah for forgiveness as well as repent not only by mass numbers of supplications "I ask Allah for forgiveness". On the Contrary, he used to watch his heart and feel each supplication move his soul. He used to renew Repentance a hundred times a day.
Consequently the job of a life time we are all asked to perform, that is regarded as the elementary step on the way to Repentance is Confession.
You may feel like justifying yourself:
" I admit my sins, I am in debt to Allah, I am a sinner."
But you find in your heart some excuses to your position. Your excuses may include:
"O what can I do? The world makes us forget . .What do we do, should we forget about our children and wives? Should we forget about our work? Should our life be confined to living in Mosques until Allah is pleased? This is not our religion, so what should I do. All the previous reasons make me forget. Another, would say I am young and I need to marry in this era that's full of desires.
My eyes always fall on what's abstained thus finding myself dwelling in sins. What should I do? I am a young man and I can't afford marriage expenses. Another would say I don't work a job that keeps me living moderately. So what should I do? Sometimes I sin and another can't find money ... and another and another "...
All these justifications are only hangers we place between us and Allah. As much as these justifications increase, your repentance will never work. You are not admitting real confessions. You are saying: I am a sinner, but what can I do? This sin was out of my control. I didn't want to dwell into sins.
So what made you fall in them? Who was the reason? Was Allah unjust to you? You will reply no never Allah is never unjust ..
But your heart has a mustard seed of hidden disapproval..
You would say in your subconscious why didn't Allah give me money? Why didn't He give me a wife? Why did He make me in such a social standard? Why didn't He make it easier for me to worship Him?
This is where danger lurks ... We are not pleased with our destiny.. that's why the prophet peace and blessings be upon him said: The one who tasted the sweetness of belief.....
Did you taste it?
The one who tastes the sweetness of belief is the one who is pleased with Allah as his God .. and Islam as his religion .. and Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him as his prophet.
This is the Elementary pausing for Confession..
Source:
Pausing for Confession, written by
Sheikh Hany Hilmy
www.manhag.net
To be Continued ...
Pausing for Confession