Oftentimes, we don’t realize how Allah (SWT) is on top of forgiving His slaves – this article is an effort to reflect on how Allah forgives sins.
Before we look reflect on how Allah (SWT) forgives – I will take a moment to reflect on Allah (SWT), He (SWT) who created everything, and Alone owns and maintains everything. Allah (SWT) is the most beneficent and merciful – this is the translation of “Bismillah….”. All Muslims recite it, but since we have been provided with this blessing without hardships – we fall trap of Shaitan and lose its essence. Allah (SWT) chooses from his beautiful names “Al-Rehman” & “Al-Raheem” (the most beneficent the most merciful) to reflect on, every step of our way. Here we need to understand, He (SWT) of all the names and traits chooses for us the names that reflect His (SWT) mercy, cause He (SWT) knows we need it the most.
Allah (SWT) has created mankind, He (SWT) knows us more than we know ourselves – sounds just a common statement, right? Let’s take a look here. Allah (SWT) knows our strengths and weaknesses – He (SWT) knows what is in our hearts and what is beneath the surface that is why He (SWT) will reward us based on the intentions (ones that no other being can judge us on). But Allah (SWT) knows what goes inside our deepest thoughts. The beautiful parts extending this are;
- Bad thoughts: Allah (SWT) doesn’t hold us accountable for our bad/sinful thoughts – until we speak or act upon them (we should neglect bad thoughts and take refuge in Allah from the Shaitan’s whispers).
- Good thoughts: Allah (SWT) instructed angels to write good thoughts as good deeds – even if we are not able to execute them (What a blessing!)
- Bad Deeds: Allah’s (SWT)’s holds angels for a period of time in the watch for repentance – if we repent, the bad deed is not even without being registered.
Allah knows everything, He holds the entirety of Knowledge & Wisdom (“Ilm” & “Hikmah”), He has seen the past, is observing the present (“Shahid”) and knows what lies in the future. He has created us and has been providing for us (“Raab”) with every breath, right from the very beginning of our journey, we have been blessed and He continues to do so until we die. He will put us to death, He is the one who will raise us once again, and He is the master & majesty to judge us. He owns everything we know about and what is hidden from us – all of it.
Allah (SWT), didn’t leave us on our own, He (SWT), out of his mercy, appointed Messengers and sent revelations (the divine words that are to guide mankind – one of which is the Quran, the last of all) – let’s take a pause and think, why? Why did He (SWT) do all of this? It is to guide, assist, purify, secure, and enlighten us – because He (SWT) wants us to succeed (that is an oversimplification of the love Allah has shed on us, His beings).
Take a moment and process it within yourself, if we own a team, a business, if we are an authority in this world – what do we choose to reflect about ourselves? Even when we know the authority is temporary – Allah with all his authority and might, choose these names for us too – what a blessing and pure love that He shows for all of us!
We are human beings, we are not perfect – that doesn’t just apply to our religious affairs but also in our wordly matters. Understanding by example, there are rules set by the governments, and authorities – as basic as the speed limits, we go overboard, and we make mistakes. Looping in the guidance Allah (SWT) has put forward and His (SWT) commands – we can’t reach 100% and we all know that. We do sins, sins that are minor and major – often times, we don’t even realize the categories of the minor sins – Allah choose to forgive us for minor sins if we kept some of things through our day (I am not going into details of the things to do here) out of His pure mercy.
When we are at wrong, doing wrong, for sins that are major – what happens? We walk pass it, time and time again, and what Allah does is be patient with us. He doesn’t pick it us with us, right away, for any sins we do – He keeps the door of repentance open for us – for as long as we are alive.
Now the ground is set – live dive in to the forgiveness side of things, little deep. If and when we do wrong, Allah expects us to repent – but this is not the best part, the best part is Allah reflecting on to what happens next. Allah, on many occasions in Quran, reflects on how he doesn’t just forgive but replaces your sins with good deeds (again, out of his pure love for us). How does that happen, that’s the question, right? He has put it forward, in very simple steps – if His slave accepts fault or sin, repents, and is prepared to quit it right away, that’s it – that when He forgives, literally! He didn’t just reflect this flow in Quranic verses – but He also reinforced his names and traits that He all-forgiving – that’s when he is telling us, as we repent, we should reinforce in our head about Him, being who forgives turning bad deeds into a blank leaf which had nothing written on it.
Here, we need to understand – realization & quitting come first, as we repent and seek forgiveness. Now, I will tell you what struck my head away – with all being said, at times when we seek forgiveness with all the checks in place – we still can’t resolve to a point where we know for sure if we were forgiven. Now the interesting part comes into play, while I was boggling in my own head, as if my head wasn’t letting me forget things and keeping me drained full of guilt. I came across the best part – Allah, in Quran, reflected on what He is to his servants as they expect (ghuman). Took me a bit of time, but then eventually – this was such a relief, that Allah after you ask for forgiveness, is now eventually asking (reinforcing) to expect his forgiveness because He responds in ways we expect him to be. If we put both the concepts together – what a beautiful message it is. When shaitan wants us to stay in guilt and grief of faults even after we seek forgiveness and Allah accepted – these concepts come in play to put us in refugee and bring us to light! Alhamdulillah
Now, let’s look more in that direction. The point in time we repent and are forgiven by Allah, that’s not the end of us – going back to us never being able to put our 100%, we at times end us doing the same sin we repented for. Now that’s tricky right? Actually no, put Allah knowing us more than us in your conscious – Allah keeps the door open for repentance again, same flow, same checklist, same result. As we spoke about shaitan at play, here we have to understand the biggest issue that we fall trap of – alot of times shaitan when he fails to keep us from repenting, pulls in the habit of a loop where we are in our headspace, at the time of repeat repentance, keep at the back of headspace, I may end up doing it but let’s repent. And that’s where our effort to forgiveness starts to fail – know that Allah knows the tiniest of thoughts in our head too – and while the forgiveness checklist is simple, it is super important to quit (to know we quit, to decide we quit, to block ways for repeat, to do everything in our power to quit and to have the head clear that we won’t do it again).
Lastly, we should also note, Allah puts us in tough situations because oftentimes, that’s the only time we would return to Allah to seek forgiveness. Out of His mercy, Allah sets us to tough times, only to forgive us for the love He has for us.