Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I committed a sin. What should I do now?

(How to repent? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwkqtKJmrXQ)

Answer: Firstly, you should not tell anyone of your sin. You should hide it and not expose it.

The Messenger of Allah (S) said, "All the sins of my followers will be forgiven except those of the Mujahirin (those who commit a sin openly or disclose their sins to the people). An example of such disclosure is that a person commits a sin at night and though Allah screens it from the public, then he comes in the morning, and says, 'O so-and-so, I did such-and-such (evil) deed yesterday,' though he spent his night screened by his Lord (none knowing about his sin) and in the morning he removes Allah's screen from himself." [Sahih Bukhari]

You should realize the seriousness of the sin and feel ashamed of it and make a firm resolve not to repeat it again.

The Prophet (S) said: “Remorse is repentance.”

(Ahmad, Ibn Maajah, Saheeh al-Jaami’)

In this way, you will have achieved the 3 conditions of repentance:

1 – Giving up the sin immediately.

2 – Regretting what has happened in the past.

3 – Resolving not to go back to it.

If the sin involves violation of the rights of another person, such as harming somebody physically (beating, etc.) or harming his property (stealing, cheating, etc.) or his honor (abusing, backbiting, slandering etc.), then there is a 4th condition of repentance:

4 – Making amends (example: returning their stolen property) to those whom you have wronged, and asking for their forgiveness.

Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “Whoever wronged his brother with regard to his honour or any other matter, should seek his forgiveness today, before there are no longer any dinars, or dirhams; and if he has any righteous deeds, they will be taken from him, in accordance with the wrong he did; and if he has no hasanaat (good deeds), some of the sayi`aat (sins) of his counterpart will be taken and added to his burden.”

[Bukhari]

You must not despair of the mercy of Allaah or think that He is unlikely to forgive your sin.

Allah says: “O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of God, indeed God forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

(Quran 39:53)

Read more about Allah's mighty forgiveness: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=176949095701424

Listen to this lecture about the Power of Repentance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmcaRQyftOM

The Biggest Trick of Shaytan is to make you lose hope in Allah's forgiveness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG4CaV9jyUk

When you say "I am too sinful, there is no point in repenting, Allah cannot forgive me, I am too sinful." - This very claim of yours is a bigger sin than anything else you might have done as a Muslim. O Muslim, no matter how sinful you are, do you think that you alone single handedly have commited so many sins that you can emcompass Allah's mercy, and that Allah's mercy cannot forgive you, and that you can challenge the Rahmaan (the Most-Beneficient) and the Raheem (the Most-Merciful)? WHO ARE YOU? AND WHAT ARE YOUR SINS IN COMPARISON TO THE INFINITE MERCY OF ALLAH?!

That arrogance is a greater crime and greater sin than any other sin you might have done. And that is why the Prophet (s.a.w.s) said that the biggest of all sins is Shirk (polytheism) and to give up hope of Allah's mercy and, that is, to say that Allah cannot forgive me.

After making sincere repentance, you must take strict measures to avoid committing sins in future:

you must give up bad companions who help you to commit sin,

stop visiting immoral places where sinning is widespread,

stop watching and listening to things that Allaah has forbidden, such as, immoral songs, musical instruments and movies,

keep good company, learn religious knowledge and become God-fearing.

Before committing the sin, you may have forgetten that Allaah is always watching, because if you were aware of that then you would not have done it. When you feel the desire to commit a sin, you must remind yourself that Allaah can see you, and that the noble angels can see you and they are recording your actions, and that Allaah may decree that you should die whilst you are committing the sin – so how would you face your Lord when you will be made to stand in front of Him in the Hereafter?

Our Prophet (S) tells us that there are many gates in Paradise which open and close, but there is one gate that never closes: the gate of repentance.

(Reported in Sunan Tirmidhi)

- Allah is always waiting for us to come back to Him:

The Prophet (S) said: "Allah, the Exalted, will continue to stretch out His Hand in the night so that the sinners of the day may repent, and continue to stretch His Hand in the daytime so that the sinners of the night may repent, until the sun rises from the west".

[Muslim]

- Allah loves those who turn to Him in repentance:

"Truly, Allah loves those who turn unto him in repentance."

(Quran: 2:222)

- Almighty Allah becomes extremely happy when His slave repents to Him:

Messenger of Allah (S) said, "Verily, Allah is more delighted with the repentance of His slave than a person who lost his camel in a desert land and then finds it (unexpectedly)".

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

- When you turn to Allah, Allah turns to you

"Allah turns with mercy to him who turns to Him in repentance."

(Bukhari, Muslim)

- Allah will not punish you if you ask His forgiveness:

"...He will not punish them while they seek (Allah's) forgiveness.''

(Qur'an 8:33)

"And whoever does evil or wrongs himself but afterwards seeks Allah's forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.''

(Qur'an 4:110)

- Allah will forgive your sins even if they reach upto the sky:

"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]

If you want to change to become a good muslim, remember Allah is waiting for you to turn to Him.

Read about how much Allah loves to forgive: http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/hadeeth/riyad/00/chap002.htm

No comments:

Post a Comment