Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
The point is that Allah can't we could not imagine a situation in which Allah tells us you can only go to Jannah if you don't sin But rather Allah told us what? You will sin you avoid whatever you can you stay within the limits as much as you can and when you sin you recognize that that's how you are and You quickly rush to ask Allah's forgiveness Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen wassalatu wassalamu ala abdullahi wa rasooli nabiyyina muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in amma ba'd So first of all my sincerest apologies for being away for such a long time We did announce to the brothers in the class that there would be a break SubhanAllah it was quite a long break now we my brothers and sisters we are on a journey and this journey is an introduction to the purification of the soul tazkiyatun nafs and we started with an introduction to the topic and then we spoke about muhasebatun nafs taking your soul to account and that was our topic the last time that we sat together on this journey then you guys know a little bit about the topic now you know what it's about and we said that it's built upon two fundamental pillars right it's built upon at taqheer wa nama' it's built upon purifying the heart and building up the heart so last time we spoke about taking yourself to account because you need to know what situation your heart is in before you start doing something to it you can't really purify it, you can't really think about it you can't really develop it, you can't build it until you know what it is, you look at it and you say ok what do I have after that what is the next logical process or the next logical step in this journey or on this journey it is at tawbat wal istighfar asking Allah's forgiveness and repenting to Allah and this is absolutely critical because before we build we have to clean before we develop something and we build something we have to first of all clean the place that we are building upon and in reality it's not the case that we ever stop cleaning it because it's not the case that it ever stops getting dirty it's constantly getting dirty and it's constantly in a state of where it needs to be cleaned however before we even speak about building on the heart and developing the heart and raising the iman we need to first of all clean what is there and so the next thing that I want to speak to you about after muhasabatun nafs taking yourself to account is at tawbat wal istighfar asking Allah's forgiveness and repentance now this is a very big topic I think all of you know when you read the Quran that this topic is mentioned in the Quran I don't think there is a page that goes by and Allah knows best except that Allah mentions in connection to this topic so there is no doubt that in this short time that we have together perhaps 40 minutes or so we are not going to cover every single evidence or every ayah or every hadith but I have tried to separate the discussion into parts and once again we are going to be primarily basing our explanation upon the works of Imam Ibn Qayyim we are going to start with a heading which is I have entitled it knowing your Lord because in reality the beginning of asking for forgiveness is knowing Allah and until you know Allah your seeking forgiveness will never be upon the way that Allah wants it from you to ask Allah's forgiveness you must first know who you are asking forgiveness from and there are many evidences for this from them is the statement of Allah Azzawajal Say O My servants who have transgressed against themselves Allah forgives all sins He is the Forgiving, the Merciful Surah Az-Zumar Say O My servants who have transgressed against themselves which of us didn't transgress against themselves all of us all of us and that's why reality is that our sins hurt us they don't hurt Allah when you disobey Allah you didn't harm Allah anything but you harmed yourself and so you transgressed against yourself don't despair of the mercy of Allah look at how the first thing Allah tells you is to know Him to know that Allah forgives all sins to know that you cannot reach a place where you are prevented from Allah's mercy if you ask for it so nobody, this is from the greatest calamities that shaitan can whisper to a person is to whisper to that person that they cannot be forgiven or that Allah will not forgive them don't despair from Allah's mercy Allah forgives all sins and this is an evidence that there is no sin not even shirk there is no sin that Allah cannot forgive if a person brings the conditions of that forgiveness in the case of shirk they repent in this life as for if they die with it Allah promised He will not forgive it inna Allaha la yaghfiru an yushraka bih wa yaghfiru maduna dhalika li man yashaa but in this life there is nothing whatever you imagine you have done there is nothing that you cannot be forgiven for if you just know how to ask for that forgiveness and to know how to ask is based on knowing the one that you are asking so the first thing we've understood is we've understood that there is no one who is outside of the mercy of Allah azzawajal no matter how much you transgress against yourself and there is no sin that Allah will not forgive if a person asks Allah's forgiveness and we can summarize all of this with what innahu huwa alghafurur rahim Allah is alghafur the one who is always forgiving ar-rahim, the one who is always merciful and Allah azzawajal said wal ladheena idha fa'alu fahishatan aw dhalamu anfusahum dhakaru Allaha fastaghfaru li dhunubihim wa man yaghfiru dhunuba illa Allah walam yusirru ala ma fa'alu wahum ya'lamoon this ayah is clear in the meaning we're trying to convey to you, knowing Allah those people when they do a fahisha and a fahisha is something which is terribly wrong it's actually normally used for immorality like zina and the likes of it but something which is really horrifically wrong it's way over the boundaries aw dhalamu anfusahum or they oppress themselves because we said that sins hurt you it doesn't hurt Allah dhakaru Allah, they remember Allah they remember Allah and that's why we say to anyone and you know yourself better the situation you're in, the sins that you're doing what you've done the first step, don't forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala remember Allah and look at what Allah said dhakaru Allah, fa here the fa is important fa, here is a letter you feed to taqeeb it means immediately they ask forgiveness for their sins why? because they know who their Lord is they know who their Lord is and if you wish, recite the statement of Allah azza wa jal wa amma man khaafa maqama rabbihi wa nahan nafsa anil hawa fa inna aljannata hiya alma'wa there are two opinions in this tafsir of the word maqam but one of them is that the maqam here is Allah's honour and status if you fear Allah's names and attributes you will stop yourself from sin and you will be from the people of Jannah because of your fear of Allah's names and attributes and what those names and attributes contain and the other is that the word maqam means al qiyam and he fears standing in front of Allah, yawm al qiyam and both of them are true so a person remembers Allah when they remember Allah what automatically happens fastaghfaru li dhunubihim they ask Allah to forgive them because they know who Allah is if they don't know who Allah is then they will not automatically ask Allah to forgive them they will fall into one of two extremes either they're going to say Allah will not forgive me because they don't know who Allah is or they're going to say Allah will certainly forgive me and I'm guaranteed Jannah because they don't know who Allah is but those who know who Allah is they are scared of Allah and it was said from the early generations ma'ubidallahu bimithlal khawf nobody ever worshipped Allah with better than fear and being scared of the fact that Allah is saree'ul hisab, shadeedul iqab Allah is severe in punishment shadeedul adab severe in retribution dhuntiqam he takes retribution from those people he knows everything you do alimun khabeer, samee'un baseer this makes you scared of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but you don't go to the other side either where you despair because the people who despair of Allah in reality these are the disbelievers the people who despair of Allah like Iblis, Iblis truly despairs of Allah's rahmah and he deserves to despair of it ya'ni Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't give him any hope so don't be from the people like that but until you know Allah you won't automatically ask for Allah's forgiveness and then Allah emphasizes there is no one can forgive your sin except Allah wallahi I, every time I speak to someone who for example from among the Christians not every Christian group does this but it's common that they have what do they call it, confession they have confession, the Catholics have that where wallahi I don't know something more just such a terrible state to be in that you go to another person and you say forgive me father for I have sinned and this person you're asking he's more of a mujrim than you are and you go to him he's a criminal and a mujrim and a liar and a sinner and you go to him and say forgive me for I have sinned and when I tell this sometimes subhanallah a person might even accept Islam based on that alone nobody forgives your sins except Allah you don't go to anyone and say forgive me for I have sinned forgive me for what I did to you, yes forgive me I lied, forgive me I took your things forgive me I did backbiting but you don't go to someone and say forgive me for what is between me and Allah nobody forgives the sins except Allah وَلَمْ يُسِرُّوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ and they don't keep on doing the same thing again وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ be careful here this is all the ayah I wanted it for this statement here وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ while they know Allah they don't keep going in their sin because they know Allah they don't keep falling into this haram because they know Allah so if you see yourself keep falling into that sin that means there's something wrong in what you know about Allah you don't know enough about Allah you're not remembering Allah enough because if you remembered Allah enough and you knew who it was that you were sinning against then you would be like these people وَلَمْ يُسِرُّوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا they won't continue and that shows that my dear brothers and sisters we fall into sins but there are certain things worse than others and one of them that is worse than others is continuously doing the same thing without caring about it and that's why even the صَغِيرَ the baby sin if you keep doing it again and again and you stop caring about it it becomes a كَبِيرَ a major sin in the sight of Allah عَجِيب something small right something that normally you'd be forgiven just for wudu would you be forgiven for it just for praying you'd be forgiven for it just for you gave some charity you just gave a little bit of money you put 5 dirhams in the box you'd be forgiven for it but because you take it so easy and you don't think it's a big deal Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala puts it to the level of الكَبِيرَ the major sins like ar-riba and zina and killing people without right Allah puts it right up there because you don't think it's a big deal that you do that sin again and again and again whereas it's a sin that if you thought it was bad and you didn't do it but you know you sometimes fell into it by accident Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would forgive you for it just by the good deeds that you did and the hadith of Anas ibn Malik he said سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ قَالَ اللَّهِ he said I heard the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم say that Allah said now this statement Allah said it means this is hadithun qudusi that's how it should be with a dhamma on the daal and not qudsi because al-quds is a city, Jerusalem and it should be qudusi hadithun qudusi that Allah azzawajal said يَبْنَا آدَمْ and the hadith qudusi just as a fa'ida the correct opinion is that it is from the speech of Allah azzawajal and it's not from the speech of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم but the prophet narrates it from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala يَبْنَا آدَمْ O son of Adam إِنَّكَ مَا دَعُوْتَنِي وَرَجَوْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ عَلَى مَا كَانَ فِيكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي O son of Adam as long as you make dua to me and you have hope in me I will forgive you whatever you have done and I don't mind this statement that Allah says وَلَا أُبَالِي and it's nothing to me to forgive every sin you have done it's nothing it's nothing for us sometimes to get over something someone did to you it's so hard you're like this person did this to me and I can't forgive them and I can't get over it Allah says لَا أُبَالِي I don't care I forgive you everything you did as long as you make dua to me as long as you have hope in me I will forgive you everything you did and it doesn't matter anything to me يَبْنَ آدَمْ لَوْ بَلَغَتْ ذُنُوبُكَ عَنَانَ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ اغْفَرْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي O son of Adam if your sins reached up to the clouds the roof of the sky I would and then you ask my forgiveness I would forgive you and I don't mind it doesn't matter anything to me what did Allah ask you? الدعاء make dua to him الرجاء have hope in him عن الاستغفار ask to forgive him ask him to forgive you يَبْنَ آدَمْ إِنَّكَ لَوْ أَتَيْتَنِي بِقُرَابِ الْأَرْضِ خَطَايًا ثُمَّ لَقِيْتَنِي لَا تُشْرِكُ بِي شَيْئًا لَأَتَيْتُكَ بِقُرَابِهَا مَغْفِرًا O son of Adam if you came to me with the size of the earth in sins and you met me and you didn't make any partner with me I would bring you the same size of the earth in forgiveness Allah doesn't ask anything from you except that you would make dua to him you don't make any partner with him you have hope in him you ask him to forgive you but I wanted from this hadith for you to think about how you have to know Allah if you didn't know that about Allah you might never ask Allah to forgive you if you didn't know about Allah that Allah would forgive you with just these small things you might never ask Allah to forgive you or you might despair or you might say Allah will not forgive me or you might feel heavy in your heart but when you know these things about Allah you say okay I did something really bad but let me just go back over the points I'm going to make dua to Allah I'm going to ask Allah to forgive me I'm going to have hope in Allah I'm going to make sure that I don't make a partner with Allah in anything and it's easy for a person to come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the hadith of Abi Huraira r.a about the Prophet ﷺ in what he says about his Lord another hadith that Allah Azzawajal said a servant of Allah has committed a sin he said oh Allah forgive my sin Allah Azzawajal said Allah says blessed and exalted I have a servant this servant of mine did a sin and he knows what's the only thing he brought he knows that he has a Lord who forgives and punishes he knows he has a Lord who forgives sins and punishes for sins then he did it again he did the same sin again he said my Lord forgive me my sin so far the only thing he has done he hasn't even stopped it all he has done is he has asked Allah to forgive him knowing that Allah can forgive and knowing that Allah can punish and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says he said my servant did a sin and he knows that he has a Lord who forgives and punishes then he did it again and he said my Lord forgive me my sin and Allah said my servant committed a sin he knows he has a Lord that's the only thing that Allah mentions that he did that is good he knows that Allah can punish him he knows that Allah can forgive him until Allah says to him do whatever you want I forgive you Allah said do whatever you want not meaning that it's ok for you to do haram meaning that whatever it is that you do from today you're going to be forgiven just because you knew that your Lord forgives and punishes and you asked him to forgive you he's going to forgive you whatever you did the hadith narrated in Bukhari and Muslim some of the narrations they say I don't know whether he did it three times or four times here there's an important point though to note that doesn't mean that that doesn't mean that he intended to do the sin each time you know for example that he said ask for forgiveness and then while asking for forgiveness he was intending but it means that he you know Allah forgive me I'm going to stop but then again he did it again if this is the case of the one who did the same sin over and over again three four times what do you think about the one who only did it once or only did it twice is he not more deserving of being forgiven it is right so we should not feel that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ever closed the door to but what we need to do is we need to realize who Allah is and then ask Allah's forgiveness and in the hadith of Shaddad Ibn Aws رضي الله عنه the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said سيد الاستغفار أن يقول اللهم أنت ربي لا إله إلا أنت خلقتني وأنا عبدك وأنا على عهدك ووعدك ما استطعت أعوذ بك من شر ما صنعت أبوء لك بنعمتك علي وأبوء لك بذنبي فاغفر لي فإنه لا يغفر الذنوب إلا أنت he said the greatest دعاء of استغفار سيد الاستغفار the greatest the best يعني the king of asking for forgiveness is to say Oh Allah you are my lord there is no god worthy of worship except you you created me and I am your servant and I am following your promise and your covenant as much as I can I seek refuge with you from the evil that I did I confess to you my blessings the blessings you gave me I confess those blessings came from you and I confess to my sins so forgive me because nobody forgives sins except you and this really if we wanted to make a new heading for it we could put it under the heading of الاعتراف confessing that you really did a sin and you could the other hadith also because I put these two together really knowing Allah and confessing to your sin but we can put another heading just to make it clear we can say confessing this is the next step that is admitting that you did something wrong because how will you ask Allah now you know that Allah forgives and punishes and you know Allah's mercy and you have hope in Allah and fear of Allah but the next step is you must first confess that you did it wrong and that's why here the person says أبوء لك بنعمتك علي وأبوء لك بذنبي Oh Allah I confess to you the blessings you gave me I admit all of them are from you and I admit that I have committed sins and I think this is something where a lot of us we do fall short sometimes the reason we fall short is that we don't really appreciate how much we sin and in some of the ahadith they mention that we sin بالليل والنهار all night and all day but when we speak to people especially practicing people a lot of us we feel like we don't sin that much because we look at the people around us right وما أبرئ نفسي I don't declare myself to be innocent we look at some people around us and we say look that brother doesn't pray and I pray and that brother drinks alcohol but I don't drink alcohol and that person is in a bad relationship and I'm not in a bad relationship so the shaitan starts to tell you see you're in a good place you don't make you don't commit sins and this is so so dangerous the shaitan wants to take you from one problem and throw you into another one which is as bad and it might even be worse than the situation of the people you're looking at and that is to believe that you don't sin there are so many types of sins there are the sins of leaving the fara'im there are the sins of doing the muharramat separate between them for example the sins of leaving something Allah told you to do like Allah told you to be good to your parents leaving it or the sin of doing something haram and many times we forget about the tongue the person says oh I didn't do anything that bad I didn't commit zina and I don't have riba but there are hadith that indicate that when you accuse your brother and you speak about his honor behind his back it is worse than zina and it's narrated that it's worse than riba so before you start to declare yourself to be innocent and say Alhamdulillah
Allah saved me from those things maybe you fell into with your tongue something that is greater than what the person you're looking at fell into and what about al ghafla leaving the things like just not being aware of what Allah gave you to do and Allah gave you a bigger responsibility because Allah gave you this ni'mah of practicing Islam and Allah taught you it and Allah gave you a chance to learn many times we just didn't give thanks to Allah for that blessing that he gave us and you can carry on and talk about the sins people don't know about and the things people should have done and all that the gratitude you're supposed to show the patience you're supposed to show all the times that your heart just switched off from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all the times when you threw back that blessing that Allah azawajal gave you there are too many sins and if you really see somebody any who that's why they used to say that the alim sees their sins like a mountain that's about to crush them and the jahil sees their sins like a fly you know just keeps swatting it away they don't see it to be a big thing so confessing to your sins al imam ibn al qayyim he said explaining this hadith the hadith sayyid al istighfar he said he said this istighfar the first thing that it contains is it contains that the servant admits to Allah's lordship and Allah's deserving to be worshipped and the oneness of Allah this is important knowing Allah right we said how istighfar is connected to knowing Allah you're confessing nobody can forgive me except Allah that is ar-rububiyah right Allah's lordship that Allah is the one that holds your forgiveness not the priest and the pastor and the rabbi and whoever else Allah holds your forgiveness not the imam either Allah is the one that holds your forgiveness not those people and that's Allah's rububiyah right that's something it's only for Allah from the things that only Allah does and as for Allah's ilahiyah Allah's deserving to be worshipped you don't ask that forgiveness from anyone except Allah you don't go to the grave of someone and say oh so-and-so ask Allah to forgive me but you ask Allah directly between you and Allah alone and the oneness of Allah Allahumma anta rabbi la ilaha illa ant the oneness of Allah so it contains the rububiyah of Allah and the uluhiyah of Allah and the asmaa wa as-sifat Allahumma anta rabbi rabbi is from the names of Allah la ilaha illa ant so it contains all the types of the oneness of Allah this dua contains Allah's lordship and worship and Allah's names and attributes Ibn Qayyim he said wal-i'tiraf bi-anna khaliqahu al-'alimu bihi he said and the person admits that their creator knows them they confess that their creator is the one that knows them Allah knows what I've done and there Allah id-an sha'ahu nash'atan tastalzimu ajzuhu an ada'i haqqihi wa taqseerihi fihi or wa taqseeruhu fihi both like that is better wa taqseeruhu fihi he said Allah azza wa jal has created you in such a way that you will not be able to fulfill Allah's right perfectly and you will fall short in it this is amazing if you think about it Allah didn't create you malaikah Allah didn't create you as angels right Allah didn't make you angels la ya'asunallaha ma amarahum wa yafa'aluna ma yu'maroon Allah made the angels they don't disobey him as for you and me Allah made us in a way that we have to sin we're not saying that our sins are the fault of Allah never, our sins are our fault but Allah made you in such a way the nature he placed within you is a nature where you will sin and that's why it's narrated that if you didn't sin Allah would replace you with a people who would sin so they would ask his forgiveness and Allah would forgive them so the question is what's the hikmah then why did Allah make you in a way that you sin we said it's our fault right but why make us like that he made you like that so that you recognize his lordship and his deserving of worship and so you ask his forgiveness would you imagine how could it be if Allah said to us you can only go to Jannah if you don't sin you only go to Jannah on the condition that you don't sin some of the sahaba thought that was true right there's a couple of ayat came in the Quran where the sahaba they thought it was true one is the ayat in surah al-an'am الذين آمنوا ولم يلبسوا إيمانهم بظلم أولئك لهم الأمن وهم مهتدون the sahaba heard this ayat they took it that if you sin you're going to go to Jahannam you're going to be punished because they understood that because there's three types of zulm right oppression oppression comes meaning a shirk and oppression comes meaning hurting other people and oppression comes meaning sin they took it as meaning sin so they understood the only way you can be safe from Allah's punishment is don't sin at all and they said O messenger of Allah وَأَيُّنَا لَا يَظْلِمُوا نَفْسَهُ which of us doesn't sin and all of us sin we cannot be saved then and he said to him it's not like you think you misunderstood the ayat rather the ayat is like Luqman said to his son يَا بُنَيَّ لَا تُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُنْمٌ عَظِيمٌ my son don't make a partner with Allah making a partner with Allah is the greatest kind of oppression the point here is the sahaba when they heard the ayah the initial feeling they had was that the ayah is saying you must never sin if you want to be from the people of Jannah whereas what the ayah is saying is you must never make a partner with Allah if you want to be safe and from the people of Jannah so that's one thing and the ayah in surah al-baqarah لِلَّهِ مَا فِى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِى الْأَرْضِ وَإِن تُبَدُوا مَا فِى أَنفُسِكُمْ أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ يُحَاسِبَكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهِ when this ayah was revealed it was hard upon them this ayah effectively says every sin you think of in your mind you're going to be punished for that's what the ayah says whether you do it or whether even you think about it even just thinking about doing the sin in your mind Allah is going to يُحَاسِبَكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهِ Allah is going to take you to account for it Allah is going to punish you for it and it was hard upon them until Allah revealed the last two ayahs in which Allah Azzawajal said رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَسِيْنَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا and Allah Azzawajal said قَدْ فَعَلْتُ
O Allah don't take us to account if we forget don't take us to account when we make a mistake and Allah said I have given this to you whatever you do I will not take you to account for your mistakes I will not take you to account for when you slip I will not take you to account for when you forget the point is that Allah can't we could not imagine a situation in which Allah tells us you can only go to Jannah if you don't sin but rather Allah told us what you will sin you avoid whatever you can you stay within the limits as much as you can and when you sin you recognize that that's how you are and you quickly rush to ask Allah's forgiveness وَالْإِعْتِرَافُ بِأَنَّهُ عَبْدُهُ and you confess that Allah is your master and you are a slave الَّذِي نَاصِيَتُهُ بِيَدِهِ وَفِي خَبْضَتِهِ you realize that your head your naasiyah and your forelock is in Allah's hands and if Allah wants to put you into Jahannam He can put you into Jahannam and He wouldn't oppress you in anything there is no way لَمَا هَرَبَ لَهُ مِنْ there is no way for you to escape Allah وَلَا وَلِيَّ لَهُ سِوَاهُ and there is no one who is going to protect you except Allah ثُمَّ الْتِزَامُ الدُّخُولِ تَحْتَ عَهْدِهِ and then saying to Allah that I am going to try my best to stick to what you have told me to do I am not just going to now there is another extreme the person says ok well if Allah created me like that may as well take advantage of my life before the inevitable happens but the Muslim is not like that he says I confess to all those things and I am going to do my best الَّذِي أَهِدَهُ إِلَيْهِ عَلَى لِيسَانِ رَسُولِهِ the one the Messenger ﷺ brought to us وَأَنَّ ذَلِكَ بِحَسَبِ اِسْتِطَاعَتِ and that is as much as I can do the best what I can do لَا بِحَسَبِ اَدَاءِ حَقِّك he says oh Allah I am not even saying to you that I am going to fulfill your right because I am not going to fulfill your right I am just saying to you that I will try whatever I can to do as much of it as I can knowing that I am never going to be able to give you what you deserve and that is a reality because if you think about it I will just explain one way in which you can never give Allah what He deserves let's just say that you pray a prayer that prayer that you pray is a gift from Allah and a blessing from Him so you have to thank Allah for that blessing okay you thank Allah for that blessing that thanks that Allah gave you the ability to do is a gift from Allah that you have to thank Him for in other words whatever you do you will never be able to fulfill Allah's right that's presuming you never did a sin ever then add to that the sins you did and the blessings Allah gave you you cannot do it justice but you can only do the best you can and that doesn't mean you fall short and say I am going to do this and that I am going to try whatever I can to stay away from it and when I fall into it and then Ibn Qayyim he said after all of that he said فَإِنَّهُ غَيْرُ مَقْدُورٌ لِلْبَشَرُ no human being can fulfill Allah's right فَلِهَذَا كَانَ هَذَا الدُّعَى سَيِّدُ الْإِسْتِغْفَارُ وَهُوَ مُتَضَمِّنٌ لِمَعْنَ الْعُبُودِيَّةِ وَهُوَ مُتَضَمِّنٌ لِمَعْنَ الْعُبُودِيَّةِ he said this is the reason why this dua is called the greatest dua of istighfar because it encompasses the real meaning of being a slave to Allah all of that dua is confessing that Allah is your Lord and you are His slave and if He wants to punish you He can punish you and that you are not going to be able to do everything that He has and He deserves but you just try your best to do as much as you can and you ask Allah to forgive you and you realize that Allah عز و جل is your Lord so all of that came under the first topic of asking forgiveness and I'm only going to mention one more small topic now and then we're going to stop we'll continue the topic of asking forgiveness and tawbah next week and that is what is the meaning of al-istighfar if we look at the language the original meaning of the ghayn and the fa and the ra it comes with the meaning of covering and concealing it comes with the meaning of covering up something and concealing it and that's why amighfar amighfar is that helmet you wear on your head that stops you getting shot in the head with an arrow that it covers your head that's the original meaning but Ibn al-Qayyim is clear here that that's not the real that's not the core of the meaning here there's another meaning that comes along with it and that other meaning that comes along with it is protection protection because just for Allah to cover your sin is not enough because Allah might cover the sin of even the disbeliever and they might have done a sin, Allah never expose them in front of everybody for doing it that in itself is not enough but to cover and protect and that's why Ibn al-Qayyim he says they are wrong when they say the meaning is covering the meaning is covering and protecting and that's why the helmet on your head or the shield the mail, the chain mail that you wear the armor you wear it doesn't just cover you it covers you and it protects you he said al-istighfar al-mufrad kattauba what does he mean by al-istighfar al-mufrad he means when istighfar comes by itself in the Quran without the word tauba mentioned, he said it's the same as tauba, bal huwa tauba bi'ayniha, rather it is really what tauba is, it's exactly the same thing ma'atadammunihi talabul maghfirati minallah wa huwa mahwul dhanb wa izalatu atharihi wa wiqayatu sharrihi, la kama zannahu ba'dun nas annaha al-sitr he said he said the real meaning when you have istighfar is asking Allah for maghfirah and it means asking Allah to wipe out the sin to take away the consequences of it because your sins have consequences, right they're going to affect you in your life, bad things are going to happen to you tomorrow, bad things are going to happen to you yawm al-qiyamah, so you're asking Allah, wipe it out you're asking Allah take away the consequences and you're asking Allah protect you from the evil not like some people think just to cover up Allah conceals things from people he forgives and those he doesn't forgive the reality is protecting yourself and that's why when you want to protect your head when you want to protect your head you don't wear an imamah you don't wear a turban it's a very very subtle point that Ibn al-Qayyim said when you see people wearing these hats if I want to protect my head and people are shooting at me I don't wear a hat like this what's his point the point is this hat covers my head it covers my head, right? this hat I'm wearing, it covers my head but it's not going to protect me if someone's shooting at my head likewise just covering your sin is not going to protect you yawm al-qiyamah just that nobody knew about it rather what you need is for it to be covered and protected and that's why he said a turban is not called a migfar rather a migfar is something that covers your head and protects it and that's why al-istighfar is that which covers your sin and protects you from the consequences of it and he quoted the ayah وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنتَ فِيهِمْ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ مُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ Allah will not punish these people while you o Muhammad S.A.W. live among them and Allah will not punish them as long as they ask forgiveness and that's why it's famously said about this ayah Allah promised you that he will not punish you based on two things one of them has gone and only one of them is left, he promised he will not punish you as long as the Prophet S.A.W is alive among you and he's not alive among us anymore and he promised you that he will not punish you as long as you ask forgiveness فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُعَذِّبُ مُسْتَغْفِرَهُ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُعَذِّبُ مُسْتَغْفِرَهُ Allah will not punish the person who is in the habit of asking for his forgiveness, this is in madarij السَّالِكِين and that's a good place for us to stop InshaAllah Ta'ala we have a lot of discussion after that a lot of points InshaAllah Ta'ala about seeking forgiveness and tawbah and what does it mean we should be able to finish that topic next week InshaAllah Ta'ala but that was a long introduction to it, we understood what it means, it means to cover and protect so we're asking O Allah cover it up and protect me that I don't suffer the consequences of the sin that I did Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions it as being the same as tawbah in reality tawbah we're going to talk about has its own conditions so you can see that in some ways istighfar is lighter than tawbah in the sense that tawbah has its own conditions we talk about next week InshaAllah and to a certain extent istighfar and you might still not have brought the conditions of tawbah all of them but at least you're asking O Allah cover it up and don't make for me any negative consequences لا في الدنيا ولا في الآخرة don't make me consequences in this world and don't make me suffer for this sin in the akhira and we realize why it's built upon knowing Allah and that's why if you see this meaning of tazkiyatun nafs we finish with this we said it goes between two meanings right al-tadheer cleaning and al-namaa wa al-ziyada building have you noticed how the two can't be separated you build knowledge of Allah it cleans your heart you clean your heart you get knowledge it doesn't the two of them cannot be separated you cannot say I can only clean my heart but I will not put anything there I will not build anything there rather you build knowledge of Allah it cleans your heart and you clean your heart and it allows you to build we mentioned cleaning first because that's the nature right that we want to try to clean our hearts but in reality you can't even clean your heart without building the knowledge of Allah within it and so that's why tazkiyatun nafs the word zakat comes around these two meanings and they don't really separate from each other we're constantly in this process of adding things to our heart and building and developing what is within our heart by knowing Allah and his names and attributes and actions and likewise that leads us to cleanse our heart and clean it and to clean our soul of the things that we fall into we can take maybe 5 minutes 10 minutes we take a few questions inshallah ta'ala I don't want to be too late tonight inshallah and I'm conscious also about the masjid but I've been away for quite some time so we should at least give them some chance for questions, what I will try to do next time if I can be reminded by the AMAU team maybe Mahir can remind me is to make an option for the sisters there is like a good website you can make it that they can log on they can ask questions because we're kind of giving the brothers all the advantages here you had a question does istighfar wipe away the major sins we're going to come to that next week in detail does istighfar wipe away the major sins yes it does to a certain extent so what we need to understand is Ibn Al Qayyim he takes the position that istighfar is tawbah and tawbah is istighfar and they're only separate when they're mentioned together in other words you can either do istighfar and tawbah or you do istighfar which means tawbah so he actually brings the two of them together, in that sense it wipes out the major sins, but if a person and he doesn't really regret what they've done but still they ask Allah to forgive them sins can be wiped out what cannot be wiped out by the major sins is just doing good deeds like the hadith Ibn Al Qayyim he has some about it, he says that the word normally is used for the minor sins only and so that's why Allah the Prophet said وَأَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُهَا if you do a good deed after a bad one it will wipe it out, the word it means that's what Ibn Al Qayyim he says the minor sins, and the major ones required tawbah, but in the first place istighfar is either containing it or it's leading to it the best way of saying it or summarizing it is to say istighfar is either something which leads you to tawbah and it's the first step to tawbah or it includes tawbah in which case it wipes out the major sins that Allah Azzawajal knows best Yes sir السلام عليكم نبي باقى صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم it's like worse than zina but the brother here means to a Muslim but in case if you backbite about a non-Muslim what is the ruling? so what's the ruling on backbiting a non-Muslim so it doesn't come under the title of ghibah itself, because ghibah, the Prophet ﷺ defined it as mentioning about your brother what he doesn't like يعني mentioning about your brother ما يكره what he doesn't like, but that doesn't mean it's okay to do and that is because of two things there are two reasons why ghibah of the non-Muslims is not allowed the first reason is it's something which is going to lead you to the habit of ghibah, يعني when you do it it's going to become خلق, a mannerism that you have that you keep on doing it that's the first thing so سَدَّنْ لِذَّرِيْعَة that's the first thing, and the second thing is that it stops people from entering Islam, it gives a bad impression of Islam, and it stops people from entering Islam because when they see people who treat them badly and so on for these two reasons, it's not allowed for a person to backbite a non-Muslim however, it doesn't come under the ruling of ghibah itself because ghibah, the Prophet ﷺ limited it to that which is between the Muslims, however it's not something we should be doing because of those two reasons it's bad manners which leads a person to do it all the time and likewise, it's something which causes a bad impression of Islam but it's also important to note that all types of ghibah there are exceptions to ghibah in general, and Nawawi رحمه الله تعالى spoke about it and others, that whenever there is a need to mention something to the extent of that need and Islam allows for that need for example, let's say you go to court and the judge in court asks you did you witness that brother do that haram? can't mention about my brother what he doesn't like, right? but in this case, the need of it overrides it, for example in marriage somebody comes to you in a marriage situation and says, what do you think about this brother?
I'm thinking of him for my sister you can't say, I can't say something about him because he wouldn't like it whenever there's a need, the shariah takes that need, but don't go beyond the need like it's what some people do they say, no there was a need, you know, it was like burning inside my heart to say something that's not a need instead, just take the same good about people Wallahi, I don't recall like, I don't recall exactly that some of the scholars mentioned it does it come under a kabir if you do it to a non-Muslim? Wallahi, I don't recall the answer from the top of my head, maybe if I can research it for next week, I will try to bring you a quote from it inshallah that is a question the scholars differed about, it's a very good question, if Allah wipes out your sins will he ask you about them or not? and the answer is that whether he will ask or not, there will be nothing bad will happen to you as a result of it some of the scholars, they said the wiping of the sin, wipes it from the record, as in you will not find it in your book you will not find that sin in your book at all others said that al ma'hu, it means the wiping of the effects of the sin but it doesn't mean, you will still find that sin written in your book but what they all agreed upon is, there will be no negatives for you and it will not make you sad it will not cause any punishment, it will not make any trouble for you, whether it is written or whether it is not written and Allah Azzawajal knows best the scholars, they differed, they spoke a lot about it will you find that sin written in the, not in the lawhul muhfud, in your record in your personal record when you receive it, and they differed a lot about it Sheikh, how do you make istighfar about all the sins you've done in the past but you don't recall like one by one so this is also something we're going to talk about next week in detail but I'll just mention one small point how do you make istighfar for things you don't remember one of them is to say اللهم اغفر لي ما قدمت وما اخرت وما اسررت وما اعلنت وما اسرفت وما انت اعلم به مني انت المقدم وانت المؤخر لا اله الا انت this dua, O Allah forgive me what I have done and what I'm yet to do I haven't done it yet اخرته, I haven't done it yet forgive me what I've done and forgive me what I'm about to do and forgive me what I did in secret and what I did in public and forgive me when I crossed all the boundaries and forgive me for what you know better than me many things that person doesn't remember even the issue of shirk in the dua اللهم اني اعوذ بك واشرك بك وانا اعلم واستغفرك O Allah I seek refuge with you that I would make a partner with you while I know and ask your forgiveness for what I did when I didn't know but we're going to talk inshallah next week properly about the issue of the sins that we don't remember that we did and one of the great blessings of Allah by the way, it's a great ni'mah from Allah is that Allah makes you aware of your sins like we said a lot of people become unaware of it it's a great blessing if Allah makes you aware of it and I feel that the real answer is that if you start making istighfar for your sins Allah will give you the tawfiq to remember more of them to make istighfar that is based on the statement of Allah وَيَزِيدُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ اهْتَدَوْا هُدًى Allah will give more guidance to the people who are guided so when you do something good and then you ask Allah to forgive you because you remember the sin, you ask Allah to forgive you Allah will remind you of another sin and you ask forgiveness and another one and you won't be in a state of being unaware and Allah knows best because you went through that urgency so it's an excellent question when we see this the need for urgency in istighfar and Allah says فَاسْتَغْفَرُ immediately, there's a sense of urgency we see sins all the time is it exaggerating to make that istighfar all the time no, this is the sunnah of the Prophet S.A.W. in general because the Prophet S.A.W. said وَإِنِّي لَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ فِي الْيَوْمِ مِئَةَ مَرَّةً in some of the ahadith he mentions سَبَعِينَ مَرَّةً I ask Allah's forgiveness in a day a hundred times however a person yes, anything can reach a level of of wiswas where a person is just like they feel like they can't speak or they can't say any words without istighfar but the idea of just being someone who is making istighfar regularly, if they saw something wrong استغفر الله and then again they saw something else, استغفر الله this is a beautiful thing as long as the person didn't reach a level where they cannot function, they are not in a level of wiswas where they cannot function but they are just making istighfar the whole day for the things they see and it seems to me that this is closer to what the sunnah tells us to do, so we should try to be like that, people who when the sin comes to us we make istighfar right away, not we make istighfar tonight or when I pray something like that inshallah we have one more or two more questions I will take from the brothers in the back and then we'll draw a line so everyone can get up now, salam to all for sure it's amazing so the issue of confessing to Allah is not an issue where you are telling Allah what you've done, Allah knows what you've done it's confessing that you admitted that it's a sin it's not from Allah's side so you're not saying oh Allah you didn't know that I did this but I'm telling you I did it, it's a confession as in oh Allah I recognize, admit to you that this thing that I did is a sin and I admit to you that I should not have done it, I admit to you that you don't, it's not you deserve far greater than that now it's not words you say but that's the feeling right, that's the the sense by which you make dua when you say astaghfirullah you are saying that oh Allah I confess that what I have done, that thing that I have done, I admit that it is a sin and that it involves two things, admitting it's a sin and admitting that no one forgives it except Allah and that is or even three you can say admitting the blessings of Allah and admitting that it's a sin and admitting that no one forgives it except Allah and that level of of admission or acceptance or confession that's what is intended by the hadith and Allah azawajal knows best, it doesn't have to be something you say, it doesn't have to be oh Allah I did this sin and but it has to be a feeling that you feel while you ask Allah's forgiveness and you can say, for example a person some sins they mention and a person would mention it there are examples coming inshallah ta'ala in the dua where a person might mention even in the Musa in the ayat which mention Musa when Musa says, وَقَتَلْتُ نَفْسًا يعني the ayat where Musa mentions that he killed the person وَلَهُمْ عَلَيَّ ذَنْبٌ فَأَخَافُ أَن يَقْتُرُونَ وَأَخَافُ أَن يَقْتُرُونَ they have a sin upon me and I feel they're going to kill me, and there are like examples like that, but it doesn't have to be the case that a person mentions every sin that they did and describes what they did, but just that when they are asking Allah's forgiveness they feel in their heart that what they did was wrong last one from the brother here the ayah which you mentioned وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنتَ فِيهِمْ if we look at this ayah even if sometimes an ayah might be revealed about a particular group of people, there's a principle in تفسير العبرة بعموم اللفظ لا بخصوص السبب that what we look at is the generality of the wording rather than a specific group, so no doubt the first people the ayah came in the سياق of the ayah, the context of the ayah came in the view of talking about the مشركين, but if you look at how the scholars of تفسير and the صحابة took it after that, they took it generally, so they would say that Allah promised you two means of being saved, he promised you to be saved while the prophet is alive among you صلى الله عليه وسلم and as long as you make istighfar, so Allah took one away and he left one for you, so they would take it like that, they didn't take it that it was only for the مشركين, rather they took it that the مشركين and anyone else who deserves عذاب the people who deserve عذاب, then the question is if the مشرك asks Allah's forgiveness does that mean that Allah will lessen the عذاب for them I think the first thing to say is that the مشرك's استغفار in the first place is not accepted by Allah سبحانه وتعالى because they didn't bring the condition of استغفار which is التوحيد the oneness of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and Islam, and that's why if they didn't bring Islam, their استغفار doesn't count in the first place, but there is an evidence that their استغفار can lessen the punishment or delay the punishment for them, there is an evidence for that the last ayah in سورة الفرقان قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّ لَوْ لَا دُعَاءُكُمْ if it wasn't for the dua that you made Allah, and He would have destroyed you by now, if it wasn't for the fact that you people still from time to time make dua, so it is possible that even the مشرك, their عذاب could be delayed or like they could have more of a chance because of the fact that they keep coming back to Allah عز و جل from time to time, meaning Allah might give them more of a chance, otherwise their استغفار is not accepted by Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى, but I think here the key thing is that the ayah, the generations that came after from the sahaba and those who followed them, they applied the ayah to the Muslims as much as they applied it to the مشركين, even though the context of the ayah came in the discussion of the مشركين and Allah عز و جل knows best, I think inshallah ta'ala we'll stop it there and جزاكم الله خيرا for all of you, your time and your attention, inshallah ta'ala we will be continuing every week until Ramadan, next week we have the same topic but we have some more points to make and that's what Allah made easy for me to mention Allah knows best, والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
