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Repentance

Benefits of Repentance​

  • Repentance cleanses the heart of sin, allowing Allah's light to fill it, like soap that removes dirt from clothes.
  • Allah loves those who repent and are more pleased with the repentance of His servant than a person who finds a lost item that was essential to their journey.
  • Repentance is a path to salvation and happiness in the hereafter.

Repentance is a Duty for Everyone​

Every person has a nature with various traits: animalistic, predatory, devilish, and lordly. Each trait can lead to specific faults:

  • Animalistic traits lead to desires, evil, and indulgence.
  • Predatory traits produce anger, envy, and hostility.
  • Devilish traits involve deceit and manipulation.
  • Lordly traits bring pride, vanity, and a love of power.

Repentance is Necessary in Every State​

Repentance varies according to the individual's level:

  • For most, it addresses outward sins.
  • For the righteous, it involves correcting inner faults.
  • For the devout, it is for moments of doubt.
  • For those who love Allah, it addresses times of neglect.
  • For gnostics, it is about needing to progress at the speed they should have. And as closeness to Allah has no end, this level has no end.

Common times for repentance include:

  • During daily supplications.
  • During times of affliction, as hardship may result from sin.
  • In the last ten days of Ramadan, blessings and acceptance are increased. Make sure to use the special dua: "اَللّٰهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّيْ" (You can set an automatic notification for this)

Conditions for True Repentance​

Real repentance has three key aspects: knowledge, regret, and determination.

  • Knowledge: Understanding that sin harms the soul and distances one from Allah. Disobedience should be recognized as evil and should be left immediately.
  • Regret: Feeling sorrow for past sins often manifesting as grief and tears. Contemplating Hellfire's severity deepens this regret, as it is a consequence of disobedience.
  • Determination: Firmly resolve not to repeat the sin and avoid anything that could lead to it.

Overcoming the Habit of Sin​

Repentance requires giving up persistent sin. Five common barriers to this include:

  • Delayed Punishment: Since punishment is not immediate, people ignore it. Reflecting on the nearness of death and the hereafter can combat this.
  • Attachment to Pleasures: Desires can overpower resolve. Consider how readily one would quit a pleasure if a doctor warned it could lead to death.
  • Procrastination: Delaying repentance. Reflect on how eternity's rewards and punishments depend on actions.
  • False Hope of Pardon: Some assume they will be forgiven without change, which is a deception from Satan disguised as faith.
  • Doubt in the Afterlife: This weakens one's commitment to repentance.

The Nature of Minor Sins​

Minor sins can accumulate for various reasons, requiring constant awareness and repentance driven by fear, which stems from wisdom and insight.

  • Belittling minor sins can cause disregard.
  • Feeling joy or pride in minor sins, thinking they are a blessing.
  • Thinking Allah's concealment is due to personal virtue.
  • Sinning openly or discussing it with others.
  • When minor sins are committed by a scholar, whom others view as a model.

The Source of Temptation​

For protection and prevention, here are the sources that you need to be aware of:

  • Internal: The ego and lower self, often leading to habitual sins.
  • External: The temptations of the world.
  • Satan: Which leads to opportunistic sins. He attacks in stages, starting with:
    • Shirk (associating partners with Allah)
    • Bid'ah (religious innovation)
    • Major sins
    • Minor sins
    • Overindulgence in permissible activities (leading to wasted time)
    • Lowering one's efforts in good deeds