Why should I give a lecture on this topic?
A man took 99 lives. Because of him, the lives of 99 individuals with families and friends, fears and hopes, were destroyed.
He sought help to see if God could ever forgive him. And in the midst of his moral confusion and despair, he took a hundredth life.
But still, he was taught to hope for God’s forgiveness. He determined that he needed to surround himself with righteous souls and on his journey to find a city filled with such people, he passed away. This man, the Prophet tells us, was accepted into paradise.
Our own sins are almost certainly smaller. There is every reason for us to hope that we too will be forgiven. But the most important part of this story is not the enormity of the man’s crimes, but the sincerity of his journey away from them.
This talk explores the concept of repentance, or tawba, as a means of inspiring the pursuit of forgiveness in our daily lives and reaping the countless benefits as a result.