By : Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah
The
state of repentance, tawbah, is at the beginning, the middle and the
end of all states of submission to the will of Allah. The servant who
seeks the pleasure of Allah never abandons tawbah. He remains in the
state of tawbah until his death. Whatever his state of belief, the
servant makes tawbah his constant companion. Thus, tawbah is at the
beginning and at the end of his servitude to his Creator. His need for
tawbah at the end, just as at the beginning, overrides, and supersedes
all other needs.
Allah says: "And turn to Allah altogether (make tawbah), O you who believe so that you may succeed," (24:31)
The
verse above is contained within a Madinan Surah (revealed after the
migration to Madinah), in which Allah addresses the people of emaan, who
are the best of His creation. He calls upon them to make tawbah "turn
in repentance" to Him after they had already believed, gone through
hardships, trials of faith, executed patience, migrated and performed
jihad. Allah then made success conditional on perfecting such tawbah, as
the effect is often conditional on the cause. No one can hope for
success, except: those who make tawbah.
Allah says: "And those who do not make tawbah are indeed the dhaalimoon (wrongdoers)." (49:11)
Allah
divides His servants into two categories only: the repentant and the
wrongdoers. There is no third category. Allah calls those who do not
make tawbah, "dhaalimoon" (wrongdoers and transgressors) and no one is
more of a wrongdoer and a transgressor than a person who does not repent
for his evil actions. This state is a result of a person's ignorance of
his Lord and the rights due to Him, as well as, his own defects and the
evil of his deeds. The Prophet, sallallahu alayeh wa sallam, is
reported to have said:
"O people, make tawbah to Allah. By Allah, I make tawbah to Him more than seventy times each day." (Bukhari)
His companions used to count for him in each congregation his saying one hundred times:
"My Lord, forgive me and accept my repentance, for You are At-Tawwab
(the One who accept repentance), Al-Ghafoor (The Oft Forgiving)."
The
Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, is also reported to have said:
"No
one will be rescued (on the Day of Judgment) by his deeds. They (his
companions) asked even you Messenger of Allah? He said, even me, unless
Allah would grant me His mercy and Grace."
May
Allah's blessings and peace be upon His Messenger, the most
knowledgeable among His creation of Him, His Rights, His Greatness and
what servitude He deserves. He is the most knowledgeable of servitude
and its requirements and the most committed in servitude to Allah.
The Starter (Fatihah) of Tawbah
Tawbah
is the return of the servant to Allah. It is also his turning away from
the path of those with whom Allah is angry and those who are astray.
This returning cannot be done except by Allah's guidance to the Straight
Path. The servant will not attain guidance except through Allah's help
and the servant's submithrough tawheed. Suratul-Fatihah explains this
concept in the most complete and eloquent manner.
Whoever
appreciates Surat-ul-Fatihah and gives it is right estimate, through
knowledge, contemplation upon its facts and by living its directives,
will realise that one cannot recite it, with the true recitation of a
servant, unless one makes sincere tawbah. The perfect guidance to the
Straight Path cannot be attained with the indifference to sins or the
persistence on sins. Indifference to sins negates the knowledge of
guidance. Persistent sinning negates the intention and the will of the
servant. Thus, tawbah will not be valid except after one recognises the
sins, admits to them and seeks to rid oneself of their evil
consequences.
Seeking Refuge from Sin
The
first aspect of tawbah, then, is to see how one was taken away from
seeking the pleasure of Allah, by committing sins. Next, one has to
recognize that Allah didn't safeguard him from sin. One should also
ponder how happy one was while sinning and being persistent on the sin,
while knowing with surety that Allah ever watches over whatever is done
in the heavens or on the earth. If the servant had sought refuge in
Allah, he would not have gone away from the guidance of obedience,
"And whoever holds firmly to Allah, then he is indeed guided to a Right Path." (3:101)
If one's holding onto Allah is firm, one would never be forsaken by Allah,
"And
hold firmly to Allah, He is your Mawlaa (Protector) and what an
excellent Mawlaa and what an excellent Naseer (Helper)." (22:78)
In
other words, whenever we hold firm to Him, Allah will become our Protector
and He will support us against our nafs (inclinations) and the Shaytan.
These two enemies, the nafs and Satan, are the ones that do not leave
the servant for even a moment. Their enmity is more harmful to the
servant than the enemies from without. Attaining victory over such
enemies is more difficult, and the servant's need for such a victory is
far more important. The degree of help rendered to defeat these enemies
is dependent upon the degree of our dependence and holding onto Allah.
If we do not hold firmly to Allah, we will go away from Allah's
protection. This is indeed the true loss. Allah could have aided us in
staying away from sins, however, because we deserted Him, we were
allowed to listen to any obey our nafs. If He wished to protect us, the
sin would not have found a way to get to us.
When
the servant becomes heedless of the consequences of sin, he finds
pleasure when he satisfies unlawful desires. This pleasure in
disobedience is evidence of his ignorance of the Greatness of the One of
disobeys, and his ignorance of the evil consequences of sins and evil
actions. His pleasure with sin has concealed all of this from his sight.
In fact, his pleasure with sin is more harmful to him than perpetrating
the sin itself. The believer can never have any pleasure from sin. He
cannot have complete satisfaction with it. On the contrary, he would not
even pursue it, except with grief in his heart. But the intoxication of
the desires obscures one from feeling this remorse. When the heart
becomes empty from such grief and one is happy with sin, then one should
question his faith and weep for the death of his heart. If one were
alive, he would be sad for the perpetration of any sin, big or small.
The evil effects of sin, more times than not, go unnoticed in us and in
our brothers and sisters in Islam. Diligence in constant
self-evaluation is necessary in leading us away from sin and its
destructive ends. One can do this by focusing on the following.
1. The fear of dying before making tawbah.
2. Remorse about the good that was missed because of the disobedience of Allah.
3. Working seriously on regaining what has been missed.
If
one becomes completely heedless then one becomes persistent, which
means constant disobedience with the intention to perform the sin again
and again. This by itself is another sin that could be far greater than
the first. Part of the punishment for sin is that it leads to a greater
sin, then another, and so on until it completely and certainly destroys
the person if he does not repent.
Persistence
on sin is another sin. Not attempting to rectify the sin means
persistence on it and satisfaction with it. This is the sign of ruin.
Worse than all of that, is the commission of sin in public when we are
sure that Allah watches and sees everything from above His Throne. If we
believe that Allah watches us, yet we proceed to commit sins publicly,
this is a great contradiction. But if we don't believe that He watches
us, then we are completely out of the realm of Islam.
There
are two considerations for a sinner: lack of embarrassment from Allah
knowing that Allah's sight watches over all, and lack of fear to go out
of the deen. Therefore, one of the conditions of the acceptance of
tawbah is that a person should firmly believe that Allah was watching
and that He will always watch over him. He sees everything during the
perpetration of sins.
The
reality of tawbah is to return to Allah is not sound or complete
without the knowledge of the Lord's names and attributes and their
manifestations within Himself and in the world. The repenting servant
should know that he was running away from his Lord, captured in the grip
of his enemy. He didn't fall into the claws of his enemy except as a
result of his ignorance of his Lord and his daring to go against Him. He
should know how and when he became ignorant, and how and when he was
captured. He should believe that tawbah requires great determination and
complete awareness to rescue himself from the enemy and be able to
return and run back, to his Lord Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. He should realise
that returning to his Lord is actually turning away from the road of
destruction, where his enemy had taken him. He should know the number of
steps taken away from his Lord and the efforts and obstacles that he
must strongly work on to get back to the Straight Path.
