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#44 – The Mercy of Allah
Jun 13 – Jun 19, 2022
Dhul Qa’dah 14 – 20, 1443

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The Mercy of Allah

What have Allah and His Messenger said about

The Mercy of Allah

۞ قُلْ يَـٰعِبَادِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا۟ مِن رَّحْمَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Say, “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allāh. Indeed, Allāh forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”

[Surah Az-Zumar, Ayah 53]
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يَقْبَلُ ٱلتَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَعْفُوا۟ عَنِ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ
And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons misdeeds, and He knows what you do.

[Surah Ash-Shuraa, Ayah 25]
وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِٱلسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ ٱلْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِمُ ٱلْمَثُلَـٰتُ ۗ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ لِّلنَّاسِ عَلَىٰ ظُلْمِهِمْ ۖ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَشَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ
They impatiently urge you to bring about evil before good, while there has already occurred before them similar punishments [to what they demand]. And indeed, your Lord is the possessor of forgiveness for the people despite their wrongdoing, and indeed, your Lord is severe in penalty.

[Surah Ar-Ra’d, Ayah 6]
حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ إِسْحَاقَ الْجَوْهَرِيُّ الْبَصْرِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو عَاصِمٍ، حَدَّثَنَا كَثِيرُ بْنُ فَائِدٍ، حَدَّثَنَا سَعِيدُ بْنُ عُبَيْدٍ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ بَكْرَ بْنَ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ الْمُزَنِيَّ، يَقُولُ حَدَّثَنَا أَنَسُ بْنُ مَالِكٍ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ ‏ “‏ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ مَا دَعَوْتَنِي وَرَجَوْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ عَلَى مَا كَانَ فِيكَ وَلاَ أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ لَوْ بَلَغَتْ ذُنُوبُكَ عَنَانَ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ اسْتَغْفَرْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ وَلاَ أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ لَوْ أَتَيْتَنِي بِقُرَابِ الأَرْضِ خَطَايَا ثُمَّ لَقِيتَنِي لاَ تُشْرِكُ بِي شَيْئًا لأَتَيْتُكَ بِقُرَابِهَا مَغْفِرَةً ‏”‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ غَرِيبٌ لاَ نَعْرِفُهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ هَذَا الْوَجْهِ ‏.‏
Anas bin Malik narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:
“Allah, Blessed is He and Most High, said: ‘O son of Adam! Verily as long as you called upon Me and hoped in Me, I forgave you, despite whatever may have occurred from you, and I did not mind. O son of Adam! Were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky, then you sought forgiveness from Me, I would forgive you, and I would not mind. So son of Adam! If you came to me with sins nearly as great as the earth, and then you met Me not associating anything with Me, I would come to you with forgiveness nearly as great as it.’”

[Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3540]

Commentary of Surah Az-Zumar, Ayah 53

Verse 53 opens with the words: قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَ‌فُوا (O servants of Mine who have acted recklessly against their own selves, do not despair of Allah’s mercy. Surely, Allah will forgive all sins.). Taba` i, Said Ibn Jubayr reports from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ that there were some people who had killed a lot of people unjustly and had committed a lot of shameful acts. They came to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and submitted before him, ‘The religion you invite us to is, no doubt, very good, but we have a problem. We think about all those major sins we have already committed. Now if we were to become Muslims, do you hope that our repentance will be accepted?’ Thereupon, Allah Ta’ ala revealed this verse to the Holy Prophet ﷺ – reported by al-Bukhari in that sense (al-Qurtubi).

Therefore, the outcome of the subject taken up in the verse comes to be that, well before death arrives, the repentance made from sins, no matter how serious, even from kufr (disbelief) and shirk (ascribing of partners to Allah), gets to be accepted. And by virtue of a genuine taubah (repentance), all sins will be forgiven, therefore, no one should lose hope in the mercy of Allah.

Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn ` Umar ؓ said that, out of all verses of the Qur’an, this verse brings the strongest message of hope for sinners. But, Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ said that the strongest such verse is: إِنَّ رَ‌بَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَ‌ةٍ لِّلنَّاسِ عَلَىٰ ظُلْمِهِمْ (And surely, your Lord is the lord of forgiveness for the people against their wrongdoings – Ar-Ra’d, 13:6)

[Maarif ul Quran Vol-7 (pg 573- 574) , Maktabah Dar al Uloom, Translation by Prof. Muhammad Hasan Askari & Prof. Muhammad Shamim]

Surah Ash-Shuraa, Ayah 25

The literal meaning of “taubah” is to return and turn to; in religious terminology, giving up and renunciation of any sin is called ` taubah’. There are three conditions for its being proper and genuine.

One is to give up, immediately, the sin one is involved in. The second is to repent for the past sin, and the third is to determine firmly not to commit it in future. If it pertains to neglect of any obligatory duty (fard), one has to start observing it or start offering ‘gala” (prescribed compensation). If it relates to the rights of another person and if that right is monetary or material and the concerned person is alive, then the material or money has to be returned to him, unless he agrees to forgo, and if that person is not alive, but his heirs are available, then the material or money has to be returned to the heirs; if the heirs are also not available, then the material or money has to be deposited in the Islamic public treasury (bait-ul-mal) – if there is no public treasury, or it is not managed properly, then the material or money has to be given as alms on his behalf. If the right owed to another person is not monetary or material, for example, if another person has been distressed unduly, or he has been abused or his backbiting has been committed, then he has to be pleased and forgiveness has to be sought and obtained from him or her.

It is important to note that for all kinds of ` taubah’, giving up of sin must be for the sake of Allah, and not due to any physical inability or weakness. The ` Shari’ah’ demands that one ought to renounce all the sins, but if someone renounces only a particular sin, Ahl-us-Sunnah hold that that particular sin would be forgiven, whereas his liability for other sins would continue.

[Maarif ul Quran Vol-7 (pg 688 – 689) , Maktabah Dar al Uloom, Translation by Prof. Muhammad Hasan Askari & Prof. Muhammad Shamim]

Spiritual Reminders

The 99-Count Murderer and Forgiveness
You may have heard the story of a man who had committed ninety-nine murders, and, after all of these murders, they had this guilt due to which he went and asked a person that he felt was a religious person, “I have killed ninety-nine people and I am wondering if there is some way back for me.” That person told them, “No. You have gone too far. There is nothing you can do but suffer the consequences of your actions.” This fellow became enraged and killed him too, making his count an even 100. However, inside, he still had the sense of guilt and remorse, and even in the mind of someone doing the worst acts is the desire to be a better person or liked by people. No one wants to be a person that everyone hates or looks down at. He went off and searched for another person and they told them, “Yes, there is a way back for you; however, you must leave the people around you and go to a different environment. This is your only hope.” This person decided to do this and decided to leave the people and things that were having an influence on them. So, he left that area, and as he was travelling, he died.

The angels of mercy came and the angels of punishment came, each saying, “We are going to take him.” The angels of mercy came and said, “He had repented and was on his way to start a new life and make amends for what he had done.” And the angels of punishment said, “He had not reached there yet. He does not qualify for mercy.” Allah (SWT) sent a third angel to decide amongst them. He said, “Why not measure the distance that he had covered against the distance that was left? If he had covered more distance, the angels of mercy will take him, and if he had more distance to go than he had covered, the angels of punishment will take him. They did this and measured the distance and they found that he was just slightly closer to the place that he was going. In one hadith it is mentioned that Allah (SWT) ordered the earth to shrink on one side and stretch on the other so that when they measured it, they found him to be closer to the destination.
Through this hadith, the prophet (SAW) gives us many lessons; the first is that we should not despair from the mercy of Allah (SWT), and we should have hope that one day, we will also have the chance to make amends and we will make amends. The second thing we learn is that you have to do something to make up for what you have done. You cannot sit around and wish or wait for it. As long as you are sitting there wishing for it, nothing is going to happen. In this case, it was the influence of the environment this person had grown up in that had made him that way. He had to be ready to make the decision to make that place. Similarly, there will be times where we have to make the decision to leave our negative influences and those things that are having a negative impact on us, otherwise there is no path of correction for us.

We also learn that, when a person makes the effort to get on the path of rectification, the mercy of Allah (SWT) will come, and Allah will go out of his way to make sure things happen in your favor. In this case, the earth shrunk and stretched in an arrangement for this person because they had taken the serious step to go out of his way to do whatever needed to be done. We learn from it the power of intention when it meets the power of action. You have to intend to do things to make them happen. If we are not intending to do them, we will not see results in our lives and we will not see the impacts of our wishes and aspirations or the little voice in our head that says, “I want to improve.” We will never see the effects of that.

So, we should all have in our hearts and minds the desire to improve and the desire to do whatever it takes to please Allah (SWT). The second thing is that we need to bring from ourselves the power to make the decision to do whatever it takes to reform and do better. It will not simply happen by us sitting around; we need to take some steps.

[Taken from a lecture titled “The 99-Count Murderer and Forgiveness” by Mufti Aasim Rashid]

YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF

Sirah

A Supplication For Salah
`Abdullah bin `Amr narrated from Abu Bakr As-Siddiq that he said:
“O Messenger of Allah, teach me a supplication that I may supplicate with in my Salat.” He (ﷺ) said: “Say:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي ظُلْمًا كَثِيرًا وَلاَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ فَاغْفِرْ لِي مَغْفِرَةً مِنْ عِنْدِكَ وَارْحَمْنِي إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

O Allah, I have wronged myself much, and none forgives sins except You. So forgive me with forgiveness from You, and have mercy upon me, indeed, You are the Forgiving, the Merciful

[Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3531]

Sunnah Acts

Constantly Asking Allah For Forgiveness
Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar: We counted that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would say a hundred times during a meeting:

رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَتُبْ عَلَىَّ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ

“My Lord, forgive me and pardon me; Indeed, You are the Most-Pardoning and Most-Forgiving”

[Sunan Abi Dawud 1516]

Adhkar/Dua

Sayyid Al-Istighfaar
اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِّي، لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ، خَلَقْتَنِي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ، وَأَنَا عَلَى عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ، أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا صَنَعْتُ، أَبُوءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَىَّ وَأَبُوءُ لَكَ بِذَنْبِي، فَاغْفِرْ لِي، فَإِنَّهُ لاَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ
Allahumma anta Rabbi la ilaha illa anta, Khalaqtani wa ana `Abduka, wa ana `ala `ahdika wa wa`dika mastata`tu, A`udhu bika min Sharri ma sana`tu, abu’u Laka bini`matika `alaiya, wa abu’u laka bidhanbi faghfir lee fa innahu la yaghfiru adhdhunuba illa anta

O Allah, You are my Lord, there is no god but You. You have created me and I am Your slave and I am keeping my promise and covenant to You as much as I can. I seek refuge with You from the evil of what I do. I acknowledge Your blessing and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for there is none who can forgive sin except You

“If somebody recites it during the day with firm faith in it, and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise; and if somebody recites it at night with firm faith in it, and dies before the morning, he will be from the people of Paradise”

[Sahih al-Bukhari 6306]
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