One of the most important characteristics that distinguishes
unbelievers from believers is that believers repent often as an act
of worship. As unbelievers consider themselves faultless and
sinless, they do not feel the need to repent. Believers, on the
other hand, do not want to commit any sins against Allah. However,
by their nature, people can sin temporarily by following their inner
selves. They can be lax in carrying out Allah's commands. But in
the end they regret and turn to Allah and ask for our Lord's
forgiveness.
Allah created people as very weak beings. People indulge in
negligence due to ignorance or unawareness; they can be mistaken
forgetting even the subjects they know best, they can think in a
wrong or mistaken way, take the wrong decisions, or act in an
unsound manner knowingly or unknowingly. This is because people
have a vicious enemy like satan who is trying to drag them into
rebellion and divert them from the true path by giving them
suggestions. The inner self also commands evil all the time. People
can earn the good pleasure of Allah to the extent that they can
protect themselves from these two negative Powers. His Highness
Master Bediuzzaman says, "In these times of distortion and misery
where this world has many captivating attributes, our basic action
point must be to dismiss evil and abandon sins". However no matter
what happens, Allah always guides people to make up for their
mistakes; this guidance is repentance.
It Is a Great Blessing That Our Lord is All-Merciful,
All-Compassionate and Kind and Protective to His Servants
Allah always gives people the opportunity to ask for forgiveness
and repent for their mistakes and sins. A person who sincerely
abandons his mistakes and repents to Allah can hope that Allah will
forgive him. Allah reveals in many verses of the Qur'an that He is
"Forgiving", "Merciful", the "Protector" and "Compassionate".
Allah's names of "At-Tawwab" meaning "The One Who Accepts
Repentance" and "Al-Gaffar" meaning "All-Forgiving" and "Ar-Rahman"
meaning "All-Merciful" manifest on all those who regret and repent.
In one verse Allah heralds His servants by saying, " Tell My
servants that I am the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful." (Surat
al-Hijr, 49).
It is impossible to claim that a person has not made any mistakes
and been faultless and perfect throughout his entire life, because
people are created as beings capable of making mistakes. Our
Almighty Lord is the One Who is All-Forgiving and All-Merciful.
Therefore, believers have to take notice of their mistakes, which
they made knowingly or unknowingly by falling into negligence or
listening to their inner selves. They have to regret their mistakes
and direct themselves to the right path and turn to our Lord as soon
as possible and strive not to make that mistake again. Of course a
person has to be careful not to make mistakes and commit sins and
protect the boundaries of our Lord; but when he makes a mistake in
spite of this, it is a great characteristic of a believer to ask
forgiveness from Allah. Our Lord's names "The One Who Accepts
Repentance" (At-Tawwab), "All-Forgiving" (Al-Gaffar),
"All-Merciful" (Ar-Rahman) manifest on believers who regret their
mistakes, repent and turn to Allah.
Repenting Very Often Is an Important Believer Characteristic
Repenting frequently is a sign of the believer's humility and
awareness of his weakness in the face of Allah. It is a behavior
that pleases Allah. In return for this act of worship, Allah gives
relief to, lifts the burdens on and opens the minds of those who
repent often.
With Repentance Allah Wants People to Learn Lessons and Notice Their Mistakes
One of the wisdoms of repentance is that the believer experiences
real regret and turns to Allah without wasting any time and strives
not to repeat that mistake. Therefore, he repents in a true and
sincere manner. He repents and keeps his word that he will remain
on the right path until the end of his life. In the Qur'an, the
point of view of someone who sincerely repents is described in the
verse, " Allah only accepts the repentance of those who do evil in
ignorance and then quickly make repentance after doing it. Allah
turns towards such people. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise..." (Surat
an-Nisa', 17) In another verse, Allah reveals how a believer should
behave, " Those who, when they act indecently or wrong themselves,
remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their bad actions (and who
can forgive bad actions except Allah?) and do not knowingly persist
in what they were doing." (Surah Al ' Imran Suresi, 135) .
Submitting to Allah right after making mistakes and not delaying
repentance is an important point. This is because as Master
Bediuzzaman describes, "(If mistakes) are not erased with repentance,
they turn into a poisonous snake that bites the heart. Once the
heart is stained it becomes open to further stains. So man falls into
a (corrupt) circle. Every sin brings a new one; not only this but
also it destroys the feelings of repentance and regret (jealousy).
In the end the secret behind the verse "Their hearts have rusted"
(Surat al-Mutaffifin, 14) becomes visible."
Of course, even if a person who experiences true regret carefully
strives not to repeat that mistake or sin, he can still fall into the
same mistake. This situation should not lead to this person losing
his self-confidence. For every person there is an opportunity to
repent and sincerely submit to Allah until death.
However a person should not be mistaken for the time he has been
given. He should not behave in a ways to abuse Allah's mercy,
forgivingness, grace. He should use the time Allah grants him and
find guidance by repentance and asking for forgiveness while there
is still time. This is because faith and repentance at the moment
of death may not be accepted in the sight of Allah. Therefore he
needs to behave like he will die any moment and strive to edify.
It should not be forgotten that a person can make small or big
mistakes throughout his life, but as long as he repents and submits
to Allah Who forgives and accepts repentance and turns evil into
good with a sincere heart, he can hope that his mistakes will be
forgiven. Allah always answers for repentance. Allah forgives his
mistakes and turns them into good and rewards his good deeds with
the best.
'' Our Lord ! grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter and save us from the torment of the Fire '' [Ameen]
-
{in Arab} :->
Rabbanaa aatinaa fid-dunyaa hasanatan wafil aakhirati hasanatan waqinaa 'athaaban-naar/-
(Surah Al-Baqarah ,verse 201)
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