ZonEMvS

These Traditions show how Merciful and Oft-Forgiving is the Lord. To get emboldened by them and to start indulging freely in sinful activities on the strength of Tauba is not worthy of a Muslim. Such verses and Traditions should, on the contrary, lend greater strength to the love of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa). They should make one feel that it really was the height of meanness to act against the wishes of such a Compassionate and Benevolent Lord. If a master be of a most kind and affectionate nature, would it become his servants to pay back his kindness and affection by violating his wishes and disobeying his commands?

What these verses and Traditions seek to convey is that should a person succumb to the temptations of the Devil or to his own ignoble desires and inclinations and commit a sin he must not despair of the mercy of the Lord and lose all hope of salvation. He should, on the other hand, turn his back immediately on the lapse and try earnestly to remove its stain through Tauba, by begging Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa), in all sincerity, His forgiveness. The Almighty, in His Infinite Mercy, will forgive and instead of being angry with him, He will become even more pleased for regretting sincerely what he had done and turning to Him hopefully for remission.

A Tradition states:

“When a man turns to Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) after sin and repents sincerely for his folly it makes Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) even happier than a rider whose mount may have thrown him down in a vast desert and fled away with all the journey’s provisions laden on its back, and, when the rider may have resigned himself to his fate and sat down under a tree to wait for his death, the animal may return, all of a sudden, with the provisions intact and the rider may catch hold of it and blurt our (stupidly) in sheer joy, ‘O Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa), Thou, indeed, art may slave and me thy Master;.”

If, after knowing these verses and Traditions, someone still fails to seek Divine forgiveness and approbation by offering repentance for his sins through Tauba and resolving not to fall into error again he, emphatically, is most unfortunate.

Many people are inclined to take a most complacent attitude towards Tauba. They say,

“We are healthy and strong, so what’s the hurry? We will do Tauba before dying.”

Brothers, this is an extremely dangerous deception, which the Devil practices on us. Deprived as he has himself of Divine Mercy and Beneficence and earned a permanent adobe in the Hell, he wants us also to go his way. No one knows when death may strike. Thus, we should consider every day to be the last day of our lives and lose no time in begging the forgiveness of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) if and when we have been guilty of an evil. This, alone, is the path of wisdom.

It is stated candidly in the Quran that:

Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and repent soon afterwards; to them will Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) turn in mercy; for Allah (Subhaanahu Wata’aalaa) is full of knowledge and wisdom. Of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil, until death faces one of them, and he says, “Nor of those who die rejecting faith: for them have we prepared a punishment most grievous.