The State of Repentance

 

The State of Repentance

Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah

Madaarij as-Saalikeen

Al Jumuah Magazine

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The state of repentance, tawbah, is at
the beginning, the middle and the end of all states of submission to the
will of Allah. The servant who seeks the pleasure of Allah never abandons
tawbah. He remains in the state of tawbah until his death. Whatever his
state of belief, the servant makes tawbah his constant companion. Thus,
tawbah is at the beginning and at the end of his servitude to his Creator.
His need for tawbah at the end, just as at the beginning, overrides, and
supersedes all other needs. Allah says: "And turn to Allah altogether (make
tawbah), O you who believe so that you may succeed," (24:31) 

The verse above is contained within a Madinan
Surah (revealed after the migration to Madinah), in which Allah addresses
the people of emaan, who are the best of His creation. He calls upon them
to make tawbah "turn in repentance" to Him after they had already believed,
gone through hardships, trials of faith, executed patience, migrated and
performed jihad. Allah then made success conditional on perfecting such
tawbah, as the effect is often conditional on the cause. No one can hope
for success, except: those who make tawbah. Allah says: "And those who
do not make tawbah are indeed the dhaalimoon (wrongdoers)." (49:11)

Allah divides His servants into two categories
only: the repentant and the wrongdoers. There is no third category. Allah
calls those who do not make tawbah, "dhaalimoon" (wrongdoers and transgressors)
and no one is more of a wrongdoer and a transgressor than a person who
does not repent for his evil actions. This state is a result of a person's
ignorance of his Lord and the rights due to Him, as well as, his own defects
and the evil of his deeds. The Prophet, sallallahu alayeh wa sallam, is
reported to have said: "O people, make tawbah to Allah. By Allah, I make
tawbah to Him more than seventy times each day." (Bukhari)

His companions used to count for him in
each congregation his saying one hundred times: "My Lord, forgive me and
accept my repentance, for You are At-Tawwab (the One who accept repentance),
Al-Ghafoor (The Oft Forgiving)." The Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam,
is also reported to have said: "No one will be rescued (on the Day of Judgment)
by his deeds. They (his companions) asked even you Messenger of Allah?
He said, even me, unless Allah would grant me His mercy and Grace."

May Allah's blessings and peace be upon
His Messenger, the most knowledgeable among His creation of Him, His Rights,
His Greatness and what servitude He deserves. He is the most knowledgeable
of servitude and its requirements and the most committed in servitude to
Allah.

The Starter (Fatihah) of Tawbah

Tawbah is the return of the servant to
Allah. It is also his turning away from the path of those with whom Allah
is angry and those who are astray. This returning cannot be done except
by Allah's guidance to the Straight Path. The servant will not attain guidance
except through Allah's help and the servant's submithrough tawheed. Suratul-Fatihah
explains this concept in the most complete and eloquent manner.

Whoever appreciates Surat-ul-Fatihah and
gives it is right estimate, through knowledge, contemplation upon its facts
and by living its directives, will realise that one cannot recite it, with
the true recitation of a servant, unless one makes sincere tawbah. The
perfect guidance to the Straight Path cannot be attained with the indifference
to sins or the persistence on sins. Indifference to sins negates the knowledge
of guidance. Persistent sinning negates the intention and the will of the
servant. Thus, tawbah will not be valid except after one recognises the
sins, admits to them and seeks to rid oneself of their evil consequences.

Seeking Refuge from Sin

The first aspect of tawbah, then, is to
see how one was taken away from seeking the pleasure of Allah, by committing
sins. Next, one has to recognize that Allah didn't safeguard him from sin.
One should also ponder how happy one was while sinning and being persistent
on the sin, while knowing with surety that Allah ever watches over whatever
is done in the heavens or on the earth. If the servant had sought refuge
in Allah, he would not have gone away from the guidance of obedience, "And
whoever holds firmly to Allah, then he is indeed guided to a Right Path."
(3:101)

If one's holding onto Allah is firm, one
would never be forsaken by Allah, "And hold firmly to Allah, He is your
Mawlaa (Protector) and what an excellent Mawlaa and what an excellent Naseer
(Helper)." (22:78)

In other words, whenever we hold firm to
Him, He will become our Protector and He will support us against our nafs
(inclinations) and the Shaytan. These two enemies, the nafs and Satan,
are the ones that do not leave the servant for even a moment. Their enmity
is more harmful to the servant than the enemies from without. Attaining
victory over such enemies is more difficult, and the servant's need for
such a victory is far more important. The degree of help rendered to defeat
these enemies is dependent upon the degree of our dependence and holding
onto Allah. If we do not hold firmly to Allah, we will go away from Allah's
protection. This is indeed the true loss. Allah could have aided us in
staying away from sins, however, because we deserted Him, we were allowed
to listen to any obey our nafs. If He wished to protect us, the sin would
not have found a way to get to us.

When the servant becomes heedless of the
consequences of sin, he finds pleasure when he satisfies unlawful desires.
This pleasure in disobedience is evidence of his ignorance of the Greatness
of the One of disobeys, and his ignorance of the evil consequences of sins
and evil actions. His pleasure with sin has concealed all of this from
his sight. In fact, his pleasure with sin is more harmful to him than perpetrating
the sin itself. The believer can never have any pleasure from sin. He cannot
have complete satisfaction with it. On the contrary, he would not even
pursue it, except with grief in his heart. But the intoxication of the
desires obscures one from feeling this remorse. When the heart becomes
empty from such grief and one is happy with sin, then one should question
his faith and weep for the death of his heart. If one were alive, he would
be sad for the perpetration of any sin, big or small. The evil effects
of sin, more times than not, go unnoticed in us and in our brothers and
sisters in Islam. Diligences in constant self-evaluation is necessary in
leading us away from sin and its destructive ends. One can do this by focusing
on the following.

1. The fear of dying before making tawbah.

2. Remorse about the good that was missed
because of the disobedience of Allah.

3. Working seriously on regaining what
has been missed.

If one becomes completely heedless then
one becomes persistent, which means constant disobedience with the intention
to perform the sin again and again. This by itself is another sin that
could be far greater than the first. Part of the punishment for sin is
that it leads to a greater sin, then another, and so on until it completely
and certainly destroys the person if he does not repent.

Persistence on sin is another sin. Not
attempting to rectify the sin means persistence on it and satisfaction
with it. This is the sign of ruin. Worse than all of that, is the commission
of sin in public when we are sure that Allah watches and sees everything
from above His Throne. If we believe that Allah watches us, yet we proceed
to commit sins publicly, this is a great contradiction. But if we don't
believe that He watches us, then we are completely out of the realm of
Islam.

There are two considerations for a sinner:
lack of embarrassment from Allah knowing that Allah's sight watches over
all, and lack of fear to go out of the deen. Therefore, one of the conditions
of the acceptance of tawbah is that a person should firmly believe that
Allah was watching and that He will always watch over him. He sees everything
during the perpetration of sins.

The reality of tawbah is to return to Allah
is not sound or complete without the knowledge of the Lord's names and
attributes and their manifestations within Himself and in the world. The
repenting servant should know that he was running away from his Lord, captured
in the grip of his enemy. He didn't fall into the claws of his enemy except
as a result of his ignorance of his Lord and his daring to go against Him.
He should know how and when he became ignorant, and how and when he was
captured. He should believe that tawbah requires great determination and
complete awareness to rescue himself from the enemy and be able to return
and run back, to his Lord Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. He should realise that returning
to his Lord is actually turning away from the road of destruction, where
his enemy had taken him. He should know the number of steps taken away
from his Lord and the efforts and obstacles that he must strongly work
on to get back to the Straight Path.