The Four Conditions of Sincere Repentance in Islam
Tawbah (repentance) is the hallmark of the believer: truly turning with one’s heart to Allah, and humbly apologising to Him.
Allah (ʿazza wa jall) says, “O believers! Turn to Allah in sincere repentance, so your Lord may erase your sins and admit you into Gardens, under which rivers flow…” (66:8).
For tawbah to be sincere, we have to:
1. stop committing the sin;
2. feel a deep sense of regret and remorse over the sin;
3. firmly resolve to never return to that sin;
4. make amends if we have wronged another person (e.g. ask their forgiveness or supplicate for them).
We should reflect on all the sins we have committed throughout our lives.
We should feel very bad at having sinned, and we should reflect on our negligence in worshipping Allah.
We should think over how Kind and Generous Allah is to us, and how we use these very same blessings to disobey Him.
We should think about how Allah al-Sittīr (The Concealer of sins) does not expose us despite the multitude of our sins. This should fill our hearts with a deep sense of shame and remorse.
The scholars have mentioned that a sincere tawbah can make a sin the means for a person to enter Paradise. A person may commit a sin, but subsequently makes tawbah. His tawbah is so sincere that he constantly thinks about the sin.
This causes him to fear it, regret it, weep over it and feel ashamed in front of his Lord due to it. He stands before Allah, broken-hearted with his head lowered in humility.
He constantly begs and cries to Him in duʿā, and he tries to atone for the sin by doing other good deeds — to the extent that Shayṭān says, “I wish I had not made him fall into that sin”.
Thus, this one sin becomes the cause for him entering Paradise.
No comments:
Post a Comment