Lecture
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17
Social Justice
Islam, A Coherent Social Justice Tradition | Omar Suleiman | 16th MAS-ICNA Convention
22
Jurisprudence (fiqh)
Appreciating Scholarship: Intro to Islamic Law - Tesneem Alkiek | Yaqeen in NY
26
Islamophobia
How Yaqeen Heals Internalized Islamophobia - Dalia Mogahed | Making Principled Progress
29
Education
How Yaqeen is a Resource for Our Community - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Making Principled Progress
34
General Psychology
Spiritual Personality - Zohair Abdul-Rahman | 2018 Yaqeen/MAS Academic Conference
35
Social Justice
Conflict Resolution: The Line Between Justice and Peace - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Lecture
47
Identity
Keeping Masculinity from Trending Toxic - Dr. Jonathan Brown | Reframing the Gender Question
Repentance in Islam, Tawbah A Cornerstone of Faith - Roohi Tahir | 16th MAS-ICNA Convention
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. Peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and companions. Peace and blessings be upon you all. In a hadith of the Prophet, he is reported to have said, Every son of Adam commits sin. And the best of those who commit sin are those who repent. I chose to open my paper with this hadith because I believe this is really, within it, it contains the essence of tawbah. Which is the word used to describe repentance in Islam. And while this hadith, in these few words, is actually very profound, when we first hear these words, it can perhaps come across a little bit counterintuitive at first. And that's to be expected, and not a surprise at all, just given that when I say the words sin and repentance, it's very natural for us, just given the context of our lives, to sometimes jump to a very negative or a dark place within us. And that's just a fusion of religious doctrine, culture, folklore, entertainment. Just stop and think for a moment what these words kind of conjure up within us. And with it can come emotions, strong emotions that actually can drive us in life. Emotions like feelings of guilt, fear, and doubt. And this is something that we're seeing increasingly and that we're dealing with, and particularly one of the things that we talk about a lot here at Yaqeen. But doubt as to whether there's a way back. Doubt as to whether there, what's the basis for religion, for faith, for my purpose in life, and of course doubt in God.
And that makes it all the more a critical topic to really be able to study and understand what is the role of repentance in Islam. And it was part of the motivation with which I wrote this paper. And in fact, if we actually, as we go through this, the goal of the paper, if you look at some of the defining characteristics of Thawbah, one of the most defining characteristics is that it's anything but a dark and dismal picture. A fall from grace that one can't return from. In actuality, Thawbah is the means to attain a more righteous outcome. And to actually, to be in a more noble position in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, to be closer to God. Thawbah plays an essential role in the life of the believer. One that is not only a cornerstone of faith, but one that will help to fortify that faith. And in fact, it is without Thawbah that one is most susceptible to doubt, to despair, and of course to sin. So, having said that, what I really wanted to do in this paper was to bring forward the Islamic discourse, the Islamic perspective on repentance. This word, repentance, you know, this kind of came up for me earlier in the year. I was taking a course in comparative theology, and repentance is a shared term. Obviously, as an English word, it's something that, you know, we do have some commonality with other faith traditions in this regard. This concept exists where it's associated with words, you know, and the concept of remorse, of feeling regret, of wanting to repair one's relationship with God, with our Creator. So these are common elements, but in actuality, what I discovered in that course was that
the perspective that we have in Islam, and what Thawbah specifically has to offer, has many distinct features that are not highlighted, that need to be brought forward, particularly when it can become not only, and when it is, a cornerstone of our faith, but a means of conviction, a means of return, and a means of guiding one through life, and moving forward in a productive fashion. So it is with that that it makes sense that it's ultimately our self-awareness and conviction in Thawbah that will naturally guide us and be a moral compass to live by, making this a crucial study. And if you just take a look at this ayah here, in Surah Taha, where Allah says, But indeed, I am the perpetual forgiver. This is really depicting this concept that Allah is ever ready to forgive us. But indeed, I am the perpetual forgiver for whoever repents, and believes, and does righteousness, and then continues in guidance. Before we can get into the particulars of what Thawbah is, we need a little bit of an understanding of the framework around it, in terms of the landscape of the world as it exists today, and some of the beliefs that exist, that we can contrast and draw, not only comparison, but really pull out those distinct features and aspects of Thawbah that make it so unique. When you try to research this subject, even at a cursory level, what we'll find is that unfortunately, the Islamic perspective is not in the forefront. It's more commonly affiliated with, again, maybe perhaps where we live in the world, but just generally what we see in our surroundings, the Judeo-Christian traditions. And so, these distinctions aren't necessarily in the forefront, and this is part of the objective here, is to bring that forward,
so people have an understanding of what Islam has to offer. So, the afterlife, repentance, and redemption as topics in and of themselves, obviously these are very deep topics, but the idea of what do people believe, the questions that we often have, what is after death, what comes after death, is there accountability, what is the need for repentance, why should I repent? These questions have been asked from the very beginning, and the answers and the response and the belief systems also have evolved over time. And I've just very generally, this is not an exhaustive study on what other religions offer, there are so many belief systems and their offshoots that it wouldn't be doing justice to get into that. So, what I really wanted to do was just give a general framework where the Quran and the Sunnah specifically identify and contrast and also use these particular beliefs that I'm about to share with you to try to define and clarify what Thawbah really is in Islam. And so, the first grouping there on the left is really what we are seeing an increasing and sort of more of a noise about it in this day and age, because it's something that's become prevalent, particularly in our communities here in the Western world, is those who follow this spectrum of social liberal ideologies. They're known as knowns, there was a report last year, a study conducted by the National Geographic, I don't know if anybody here is familiar with that, which actually shows that this is the second largest population in the United States and Europe today of people who do not affiliate, knowns are people who don't affiliate with any particular religious system. And I've kind of put them all into this one category of people who may have some serious questions,
they have doubts about faith, they may outright reject, in many cases, the idea of religion and God. And with that denial, obviously, is also a denial of any motivation, any particular reason to work for an afterlife, if you don't believe in God and you don't believe in anything to come, then it logically would follow that one would not have the motivation to pursue that and to look to reap the rewards for one's life's effort in the next world, in the hereafter. So, essentially, the need for accountability and the need to seek repentance and to make dhobba is also dissolved with that, right? And what's missing here when you contrast that with, again, the Islamic perspective and dhobba is that a very crucial component then automatically gets eliminated. And what is that crucial component? Dhobba is a facilitator of man's moral development. This is not simply I seek forgiveness and it's a ritualistic practice, but that there is actually a process that, regardless of one's good conduct, so many would argue that, well, we care about morality in this category of people, we care about justice, but it has all been given to and put within the hands of man and focused in this world entirely, unlike what we were just hearing from Sheikh Omar about it ultimately coming from our Creator and that that is the most just system that we first address and then practice that in our lives here. So, this was exhibited and beautifully illustrated in a hadith in which Aisha, Aisha radiallahu anha, she asked the Prophet, peace be upon him, about a particular individual who was very philanthropic. He gave money to the poor, he maintained good ties with his family, and she said, she asked the Prophet, peace be upon him,
will this avail him anything in the hereafter, to which he responded that no, it would not. It would not simply because he never stopped to say in his lifetime, oh my Lord, pardon my sins on the day of resurrection. That recognition of one's fallibility is missing for this group entirely. With faith, and as we said, tawbah is innately part of our faith, our aqidah, our belief, when that goes out, so does tawbah, so does this acknowledgement of one's moral choices as being good and evil, and the possibility that one might need to amend for one's actions. And so, this is lost with this group entirely, such that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in surah kahf, in ayah 104, he says, they are those whose effort is lost. They're working hard, but the effort is lost in this worldly life, while they think that they're doing well in work. So, it's an important distinction that tawbah offers that is therefore not present in this group. The second group and the third group both have a firm belief in some sort of divine authority, although it manifests in different ways. I've generally kind of categorized them loosely into Eastern faiths and Abrahamic faiths. The first, when I say Eastern faiths, are religions, and I'm naming some predominant faiths that we've heard the names of, although there are many offshoots of these, as I mentioned. Hinduism, Buddhism, for example, which have related concepts. And just to hone in on the core elements which are relevant to repentance and redemption and tawbah, these faiths tend to focus on really refining the inner self. They're very focused on the self. And they have a concept of karma. Karma means work or deeds. And this is really the essence of the means of salvation, is that you can entirely, it would entirely come from one's deeds.
So the work that you do in this life will result in you facing the accountability for it in the next, because they generally believe in reincarnation. Or the soul of the individual is traveling through life, journeys from one life into the next life, returning in another body, which is representative, and the place and the station in life will be representative of the deeds they did in this world. And you almost might want to wonder, well, okay, well, we have the divine authority, a belief in God in general. Some even say we believe in one, but there's also a fair amount of polytheism, and the concept of just one single God isn't the prevalent thing, but even the belief in God, yet, what is the role of God in salvation? What is the role of God in forgiveness? And I found in the literature that I was studying, and much of it, that the scholars say there's actually, it's not very clear. So at the very minimum, it's limited. It's limited, and perhaps not even existent, and of course, this is in direct contrast to what Islam teaches of ultimately that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is At-Tawwab. He is the one who's going to, and he is Al-Ghafoor, he is the one who's going to forgive, and it is in his hands alone. And so, one of the common elements here, again, with these religions, is the idea that one seeks to seclusion, to kind of separate oneself, shun the world, and realize the spirituality. Why is this important to mention? Well, if everybody were to do that, theoretically, the world would come to a halt. And again, I want to contrast that with what we learn about how to utilize Tawbah in our lives as an essential component of our faith and the path that we walk, in the sense that Islam is prescribing to us a perfect balance. Stay with the people, stay among the people, take from the world, from the benefits, the things that are permissible that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us with,
but at the same time, endure, benefit yourself, benefit others to the best of your ability, but also be willing to face the challenges and endure the harms, the potential harms, as well as the desires and the temptations that will come with that, in just being human and being around people and being part of this life. And what is the main vehicle to be able to navigate that successfully is Tawbah. And again, we see that in this grouping, that is something that can be contrasted. And the Prophet says, in fact, said that the believer who mixes with the people and endures their harm has a far greater reward than the one who does not mix with the people. Moving forward to the last category, the Abrahamic faiths, of course this is Judaism and Christianity and Islam, and here we see that generally all three we understand call upon the same God as the one God. In fact, they're labeled as monotheistic religions in general. And they all have this concept, they share a concept of repentance and sin and redemption and salvation and damnation, yet they all theologically differ a fair amount in the specifics. Again, my purpose was not to develop studies on each of these or to critique them in any way, but rather just to take what is prevalent and a means of influence today in the world, where large populations, of course these are major religions, they do embody the vast population of people in the world still believe in God and adhere to one or more of either these or similar beliefs that have come from either the reform movements, that have come from these or the various denominations, and not all of them strictly adhere to these practices and beliefs, but they do at times, in fact, even disagree within their own faith traditions.
So I will only reference what's necessary when it comes to tawbah that's specific to that as referenced in the text, in the Quran and the Sunnah, inshallah. Okay, so what is tawbah? Linguistically, tawbah means to return. It comes from the verb, which means to return. But from an Islamic point of view, it means to abandon something that is prohibited and therefore deemed sinful in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that which is within accordance with his commands. In essence, tawbah is a return to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's what we're really describing when we talk about tawbah. It's a return with humility, with an admission of one's fallibility, as I mentioned earlier, and submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There is a sense of remorse. Within tawbah is the seeking of forgiveness, istighfar. You hear this comment made, this term used, istighfar, it's a component of tawbah. And an acknowledgement that making that mistake or falling into that evil has, or that sin has distanced one from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's approval and therefore we seek forgiveness, we seek nearness to Allah and to return back to Allah. It is defined very early on in the Quran, in the second chapter, Surah Al-Baqarah. In fact, it's the creation story that describes tawbah. I just want to move to the next slide here. The creation story of Adam, Eve, his wife Hawa, and Satan, or Iblis, as he is referred to in the Quran, and Shaitan in other places. This story is shared among the faith traditions, the Abrahamic faiths, where it is described in the Torah, in the Bible, and in the Quran.
However, in the Quran we find the story reoccurs a number of places throughout. It's almost woven through as a reminder to us of the many, many crucial lessons we can take from it because it is really the framework for our existence. It provides us with the creation of the first man, Adam alayhi salam, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala giving him intellect, giving him knowledge, giving him the capacity to make choice, an amount of free will to make choice between good and evil, and what happened in the garden that ensued where Satan tempted both Adam and Eve and caused them to disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and these are the verses in Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayahs 35-38, from which I'm extracting just the piece that's relevant here to tawbah, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, then Adam received from his Lord some words, and he accepted, meaning Allah accepted his repentance. Indeed it is he who is the accepting of repentance, the merciful. So we see a methodology being given for tawbah, an approach both at a spiritual level, a practical level, as to how it is done. And I should mention that this paper, my focus is really on the belief component, on the more theological or aqidah study of tawbah. There are practical aspects, which you will notice I'm not really focusing on today, and spiritual, an entire spiritual dimension, which is the state of our hearts, the condition of our hearts, which inshallah I plan to write about in the next paper, because this is just a very comprehensive subject. But here we see that methodology being given to us, and man is sent on earth, having been forgiven, both Adam and Eve, to really face those challenges of life's tests, that there will be tests, just like there was a test in the garden, there will be tests between good and evil. And the biggest adversary we have is shaytan, is satan.
And we learn all of that from this one experience, this one event that took place. And tawbah is to be used as the means to return back to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, having sought forgiveness and redemption for every time that we may fall and slip. And in fact, here is probably the most primary aspect of this study that we can take, and a crucial point to make here, which is that human fallibility is actually from the deliberate and perfect divine plan from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is something that is a very powerful point to just stop and reflect on for a moment, in that it's not present necessarily in other faith traditions, in many, many that I was looking into. The idea that we're designed to make mistakes, it goes back to that hadith I opened with, that every son of Adam commits sin. This is a part of life, and it is part of our fallibility is by design from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we are to use tawbah to return to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with humility to become actually better and better with each time that we experience that moral growth and that spiritual growth in coming closer to him through means of tawbah. And the Messenger of Allah, he said, were you not to commit sins, Allah would create people who commit sins, and ask for forgiveness, and he would forgive them. Moving on to another very distinct feature that needs to be emphasized with regard to tawbah is that of soul authority. Having understood where this concept and how it was delivered to us in the Quran in the story of Adam and Iblis,
it makes perfect sense from a logical point of view as well that repentance can only be sought from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that there cannot be any intermediary between us and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And as Allah says here in Surah Sajdah that you have not besides him any protector or any intercessor, so will you not be reminded. What this is is a fundamental difference that in the Islamic perspective and in Islamic doctrine, Islamic belief, that safeguards the believer from any form of label as shirk, calling on any intermediary or attaching any kind of partnership to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is yet again an extremely powerful concept in Islam that quite honestly, I'm not sure that you will find it to this extent anywhere else in any other faith tradition. And it's unfortunate, but the world over today, you know, Islam came to eradicate and to remove this notion of shirk. But as we look around the landscape of the world today, including within the Muslim community, this is something that is widely infused in the practices and the belief systems that exist today. And so generally, what are we talking about here? Of course, the obvious, any kind of calling upon any idols or giving divine qualities to any of the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but also mortals, human beings, taking human beings to the level of whether it be even the noble prophets and messengers of Allah who were all sent with the message of tawheed, of the message of one God, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to worship as the only God worthy of worship. Yet, you know, whether it be Isa, Jesus, peace be upon him, or whether it be Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, the messenger of Allah,
there have been elevated beyond that level. And also pious people of the past whose followers appoint upon them sainthood or revere them at their graves and so forth, which you probably are familiar with, I'm sure, and have heard of many of these practices. Even the concept of confessions, the idea that one has to confess one's sins to another authority on earth in order to be able to atone for one's sins and be forgiven, this idea is, you know, you might immediately sort of, it might conjure up an image of what that means, and in one particular faith. Actually, this is something that exists in many faith traditions as I looked through, even tribal societies have this practice where it really was something that was almost a ritualistic practice. It didn't matter what was going on inside, but as long as somebody confessed, then they were told they would be forgiven. And this is something that is all within the concept of shirk. The idea of the trinity and the deification of Jesus, such that atonement and salvation can only be found through that medium. To this, Allah responds in this way and with other ayat in the Quran. Now, shirk is one of the most heinous of crimes, therefore it's not surprising that Islam contrasts very sharply in this regard. And not only that, but it is, from a tawbah point of view, even a sin like this, which Allah won't just forgive, he says this is the one sin, but when repentance is sought, when tawbah is made, even this sin is forgivable in the sight of Allah. In his saying, oh my servants who have transgressed against themselves by sinning, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. The scholars in the Mufassireen of Quran, scholars who have interpreted this text, say that
yes, this is referring to all sins in the time of the Prophet, when those who were coming into Islam were coming in having committed some, you know, done some pretty horrible things in their past, including shirk. And they were reassured that this was the means. So this actually describes, we can find the overarching mercy of Allah in this. Also, the sharia in general, as we know, the goal and the objective is to preserve the well-being, the preservation of man, and to protect man from harm. And so everything that is prescribed by Allah and his wisdom and his mercy encompasses this. Therefore, one can see right away of the numerous benefits of not allowing intermediaries or shirk in any form, is that there is an unmistakable connection here between the believer and Allah. This is something that is, as I said, very unique and something that is beautiful in Islam, in that tawbah is made directly to Allah at any time, at any moment, and it's a new beginning. So tawbah is proactive. It is simple in its deep and it's very simple, proactive, unambiguous, uncomplicated, ensures the protection from those who are not only incapable but unsanctioned to speak on behalf of Allah, but also a protection from the harm of those who might be seeking opportunity to unnecessarily treat with harshness, condemn, or impose any kind of abandonment or prejudice against those genuinely struggling with, or grappling with those, you know, with immorality and with sin. Basically, to sum it up, no one can surpass the mercy of Allah, and that's what we really understand here in this particular aspect of his sole authority to forgive. And undoubtedly, his response to Adam, and then not only forgiving him but making him a noble prophet, what does that really show us? It gives us hope. It gives us motivation,
something that everyone is in search of regardless of one's belief. Who doesn't want to live in hope and motivation? So the psychological impact, the spiritual impact, the moral impact on one who has this conviction, and who believes and lives in accordance with faith and with constant dhobba as practice in their lives, is one who would then be, who would stay away from further disobedience and heedlessness and falling into despair. Another concept that needs to be clarified, again a distinction that would be made here, is this idea of being sinless at birth. The Quran and the Sunnah speak very clearly in clearing this misconception that there is no shouldering the sin of anyone else. Each of us is individually responsible. We are not born inheriting an inherently sinful. This is a concept that you may be familiar with, known as original sin. Original sin is taken from that same creation story of Adam and Eve, and basically the premise in just a quick version of it is that mankind is born inheriting this sin. For their mistakes, humanity will pay for that being born sinful, and will have to seek atonement through sacraments like penance and baptism and salvation through Jesus. So this is one belief where it manifests itself in this manner. And the Quran speaks very clearly to that, as I mentioned earlier in Surat al-A'raf in particular, and there are different passages in the Quran where we learn that Adam and Eve both, yes, they disobeyed Allah. They were both tempted, first of all, by Iblis. They both disobeyed Allah. They both sought forgiveness, and they were both forgiven and sent to Earth.
And this is meant to serve as a model and a lesson for us, but that each of us is responsible for our own actions. Another example of this is in the caste system and the karma that I was talking about earlier, the idea of salvation through one's deeds, in that those who are then born into what you might have heard of as the untouchables or the Dalit population, which is about a sixth of the population of India today, unfortunately, they're experiencing extreme social injustice and prejudice, and almost it's an apartheid that is being called upon by the world, and even within the reform movements of those who follow that faith, that essentially this is something that's just they're subjected to this because of where they're born. They're born into it, and Islam came to eradicate these things, and unfortunately, as I've mentioned with all of these categories, humanity as a whole, including even within the Muslim world, we know that social classism and divisiveness and racism and injustice is rampant, and even within the Muslim world, people have strayed from the teachings of Islam, but Islam speaks very clearly to this, that there is individual responsibility for one's actions, and one cannot shoulder the sins of anyone else, nor can one inherit or intercede for another without Allah's permission, and that individual responsibility is something that we are given knowledge, and we are tested to the level that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala deems us capable in terms of our response, and those actions that we take consciously with that knowledge of good and bad are the sins we incur for which we make tawbah, not for having been born into a particular station or place in life. Imam Ghazali adds to this beautifully by talking about the communal responsibility as well, and the communal responsibility is that of the community is a place not of salvation, but a place of responsibility,
and this is exemplified, for example, in calling enjoining good and forbidding evil as a community, trying to maintain justice and morality within the community, and the famous hadith of the Prophet, in which he said, when you see an evil action, try to stop it, and so on. We are familiar with that, and so as Allah says, O mankind, fear your Lord, and fear a day when no father will avail his son, nor will a son avail his father, and the Prophet, further stated in a hadith, that every human being is born innocent. In fact, every child is born on what we call the fitrah, the fitrah or this innate inclination to worship, and recognize Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala as his creator, and the one he is to worship, but that his parents convert him to the religion he follows, to Judaism, to Christianity, and so forth, showing us again that Islam is open for all of humanity, no one is born with sin, and that it is up to us to seek that guidance, and for Allah to guide, and we are only incurring sin with deliberate action. Understanding the nature of forgiveness, another important concept here, when we talk about Tawbah, what are we talking about? What gets forgiven? Am I forgiven for everything? Do I need to repent for every sin? What we have here is essentially a need to understand, and really again, we said Tawbah plays an essential role in our outlook on life, and that's why it's so crucial to understand what is the nature of sin. Just a couple of quick points I'll mention here, number one, that Tawbah is the wiping out of every sin that precedes it. As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the one who repents from sin is like the one who did not sin. So at this moment, a sincere Tawbah to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is essentially a new beginning,
and that is just a very powerful statement in and of itself. With that, as Ibn Taymiyyah, the famous scholar, said, that the punishment and consequence of that sin is also removed, as if it was never there. Also, coming into the fold of Islam, so abandoning what came from outside of disbelief, is a new beginning. When somebody accepts Islam and comes into the fold of Islam, all of their previous sins are forgiven. And this was illustrated beautifully in a hadith in which the companion, Umar ibn al-As, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, he came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam looking to pledge allegiance and become a Muslim. After years of opposing Islam and opposing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his mission in Mecca, as one of the Quraysh, and then he was actually one of the latter companions to accept Islam, and initially he has his hesitation, he puts his hand out and then he kind of pulls it back, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asks him why, and he said, I want to stipulate something. I want to stipulate that, you know, will I be forgiven? Will everything be forgiven? And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam reassures him that, do you not know that Islam destroys that which came before it? Meaning this is a reassurance that every sin that occurred, in essence, is abandoning that disbelief, and what was prohibited and what is sinful, for that which is within accordance with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that is Islam, his submission to Allah, is tawbah, and tawbah wipes out everything prior to it. The Qur'an itself is this very call to return. As we said, tawbah, faith, interchangeable in many aspects as is illustrated here. So it is an open invitation to anyone, and that's why the message is universal. Say to those who have disbelieved, Allah says, if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven. One other point I want to mention in this category here quickly is that there is the danger, the real danger of ignorance and extremism.
You know, early on, and we don't have time to go into specifics, but in the early, in the stages of Islam growing and spreading beyond the Arabian Peninsula, you had different sects that were trying to, were emerging because of the number of infusions of outside influences and some of the politics that was going on at that time. And so, for example, an extreme group that would say, well, sin is kufr, and therefore that person is no longer Muslim, and therefore that person can be fought and that person can be killed. Do we see that kind of extreme behavior today? It shows you that when we don't have the correct understanding of tawbah, it's basically misconstruing Islam, the faith itself. And in that, it does shape your outlook, it shapes your actions, and so we see the powerful role that it plays. Likewise, on the other extreme, well, no, Allah's divine decree is so absolute that I have no control, no say, no free will, I'm not responsible, so therefore I don't need to make tawbah. Do we see that? There's a real problem in that, now that we've understood a little bit about what the depth of this really is. And in actuality, no one can be excommunicated for being sinful. So this is something that is part of our, the understanding and general agreement of the scholars is that that's not possible, and that we are hopeful for those who sin, we pray for them. We are never certain of any individual's forgiveness, but we are hopeful, and we pray for them, and we're hopeful for all of us that we will be forgiven as long as we believe. Another distinction is that of not all sins being alike, and inshallah I'm just wrapping up here very much at the end. Not all sins are alike. What is this? This is the idea, have you heard about major sins, minor sins? From the time of the Sahaba, they were trying to extrapolate and quantify what sins required forgiveness, seeking forgiveness. And this is something that scholars over the ages did, and there's a lot of different groupings that have come up, and differences of opinion.
I'm just going to state sort of a general statement here, that those sins that are agreed upon, I would say, that those sins for which there is a threat or a specific prescription of punishment, the hudud, for example, or those that have a threat in the hereafter, these are understood to be major sins, and for such, it is obligatory in Islam to seek forgiveness for these kinds of sins. That doesn't, however, mean, and for example, that would encompass sins like shirk, like we talked about earlier, or taking the unjust taking of a life. These are obvious ones, but there are many others. But that does not mean that one can belittle or ignore minor sins. In fact, all sins should be sought forgiveness for. But the Prophet says in particular in regard to minor sins, warned us that beware of minor sins. It's sort of, if you can imagine, he gave this visual analogy of people descending into a valley, each bringing a stick and putting it on a pile until they have this burning fire. He said that one sin minimized will build and build and build, and then eventually it becomes a means of destruction for the person. And Ibn Abbas, radiallahu anhu, he said that the major sins are closer to 700 than 7, but he said no sin is an enormity if forgiveness is sought, and no sin is minor if it is stubbornly repeated. And that is the idea, is its sincerity. It goes back to intentions, it goes back to the intent to refrain from this action once we have sought forgiveness from repeating it again. And Ibn Taymiyyah took it a step further and said that not only should repentance be made for sins that we understand as something that is disobedience to Allah, but also for falling short in the things that Allah recommends we do, the mandub, the rewarded actions which are not obligatory upon us, for having fallen short and done those deeds,
or doing those deeds, and also for the actions that we may have taken which are not forbidden, but they're disliked, the makruh. And so he said these are the people who are the closest to Allah. But in all of this we see the mercy of Allah that minor sins are readily forgiven with many good actions, charitable acts, all the acts of worship, and there are many more, as I said, which I will elaborate inshallah one day in the paper that is more the practical application of tawbah. And in Surah Hud we have that beautiful ayah where Allah says, Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. So this is where this is expressed. To close, sort of just the final point I'd like to share with you, and this is a hadith of the Prophet, in which Allah's words, that most certainly my mercy prevails over my wrath. And I was in research in this topic, and it is a very comprehensive topic when you really take it at a holistic approach to it, as I said, with spiritual dimensions and practical dimensions. The one thing that just jumps out at us is the overwhelming mercy of Allah. And that is just reinforced if you go back to Adam, what began with Allah turning to Adam and allowing Adam to seek forgiveness. This in and of itself is an indication of Allah's wanting success for his slave, for his servant, that we pass through these tests of life with the challenges that will come of good and evil, and that we return to Allah with a book of deeds that ultimately by his mercy will be heavily weighed in our favor. This is the beauty of tawbah in Islam and repentance from the Islamic perspective, despite our having fallen short innumerable times. As we said, as the Prophet says in his words, every son of Adam commits sin. And along the
way we stumble and we get up, and we use this as a means to return to Allah safely. And he is at-tawwab in his saying, that then he turned to them so they could repent. It is Allah allowing us to repent. It is by his divine decree that indeed Allah is the accepting of repentance, at-tawwab, the merciful as he says in Surah Tawbah. And again, beautifully illustrated in the fundamental hadith that I think we've all heard, that deeds are considered by intentions. That a person is rewarded by their intentions. So even when there is an intention, but we aren't able to carry it out, a good deed, Allah rewards us. And likewise something that we do unintentionally, therefore is not punished unjustly by Allah. Though we need to be conscientious that we don't allow evil thoughts to settle into our minds and become a basis that will eventually lead us to that evil action. And when the companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, they asked him, what of those thoughts that kind of go through our minds, the Prophet said that Allah will forgive my ummah for whatever crosses their minds so long as they don't act on it or speak of it. And Allah has decreed good deeds and bad deeds. Those who think of doing a good deed but doesn't do it is still rewarded. And the one who does it is rewarded multiple times, 10 to 700 and maybe many more. And those who think of doing a bad deed but then don't follow it through are actually rewarded for a good deed. And those who carry it through have on record a single bad deed. So this is a very very powerful concept in Islam that Allah is actually appreciative and pleased with our tawbah. So this is where it raises, it becomes a means of raising our status and
closeness to Allah. And so for any moment that we feel regret, that we question or we doubt our return, our capacity to return, or to make change, or to change in any way in terms of our understanding of who we are and our place before Allah, it is as straightforward as tawbah. Conscientiously using that for the future as well as making it a means to resolve the past. And Ibn Taymiyyah sums it up beautifully which I'll just sort of say is this quote to end because I absolutely thought this was beautifully stated. He said the servant is always between a blessing that requires his thanks and a sin that requires the seeking of forgiveness. Both of these circumstances by necessity are always with the servant. He is constantly moving among the blessings and bounties of Allah and he is always sinful and in need of repentance and asking for forgiveness. For that reason the chief of all humans and the leader of the pious Muhammad would seek forgiveness in all situations. So I pray that Allah make us amongst those who are repentant and that he allows us to benefit from everything that was said and heard today. Jazakumullahu khair for your questions. We have about 6 or 7 questions. We'll do a few of them just for the sake of time inshallah. We have a few questions regarding what is the concept of tawbah and how can we do better ourselves when the sin that we are making tawbah for is affecting us. Knowing that the person will go back to the sin that they are making tawbah for and what do they do if they have reached a point where the sin has become so joyful in their
lives that maybe their life becomes very mundane. So how can they better themselves when the sin they are making tawbah for brings them joy. This is something that is addressed by the scholars. It really gets into some of those spiritual dimensions as I was mentioning earlier. Yes we will repeat. In fact I'm thinking of a hadith. I can't give you the exact wording of it right now but there is an authentic hadith I believe in Tabarani that for the moment for the believer that there is a situation a sin that they seem to fall back into. This is an acknowledged thing that the moment is someone who falls back into this one sin that there will be something that will just keep reoccurring. There is a beautiful explanation of this hadith if you look at an article that Sheikh Yasir Qadhi wrote about this in Muslim Matters. Just on this one hadith that sometimes we think what do I do? I just keep falling back into it. Yet also that the other qualities that will be within this person is that they also keep returning to Allah. So we don't let that become a basis of us to give up. And even though one may be as the questioner asked finding pleasure in it, it goes to sincerity and effort. Allah knows what we are capable of. Allah knows the condition of our hearts. And it is about and I didn't touch on it but there are so many hadith that get into this but with every sin that you may have heard that famous hadith that a black spot is placed on the heart and then every time you return from it, it is polished again. So it is a repetitive process. Just never give up is the simple answer to that. And that this moment has this quality of yes falling into the same sin but they also are returning back to Allah and the third quality that is mentioned in the hadith is that they are forgetful. So
it is again by divine nature that we have this but it doesn't mean that we are not responsible for what must come with it is the sincerity to pursue that and with every bit of effort we use it as a moral as a tool to improve ourselves morally and to self improve.
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