Tauba

(Repentance)

When a servant of Allah (SWT) starts his journey towards God, he feels embarrassed by his past negligence, and disobedience and turns towards Allah (SWT) to seek forgiveness. He makes a strong resolve in his heart and admits through his tongue that he will never disobey Allah (SWT). If he has forsaken the rights of his fellow human beings, he makes amends for those. If he cannot make amends for certain things that he committed in the past, he asks for sincere forgiveness from those people. This is Tauba (repentance) in a nutshell.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلتَّوَّـٰبِينَ

Indeed Allah Loves those who repent (2:222)

Repentance is from the heart. It is turning towards Allah. It is not an act of hands that you strike your face and claim that you repent.

What is the effect of repentance?

“The one who repents from a sin is like the one who has no sin.” (Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ 730)

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يَقۡبَلُ ٱلتَّوۡبَةَ عَنۡ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَعۡفُواْ عَنِ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ وَيَعۡلَمُ مَا تَفۡعَلُونَ

He is the one Who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons their sins. And He knows whatever you do (42:25)

Repentance nullifies all sins and one is purified as if he/she is born today.

Remember! A human being is a compound of Ruh (soul) and body. Shariat (Divine Law) and ṭarīqat (Spiritual Journey) rectify the human body. ḥaqīqat (Spiritual truth) and maʿrifa (Gnosis) clean the soul.

The physical body has its needs like eating, drinking, clothing and physical desires. For example, if you starve your horse, it would become weak and if you overfeed, it would be hard to control. A rider should feed his horse and make it exercise so that it does not become lazy. However, he should be mindful of its rest. If the horse becomes stubborn, decrease its grass feed and re-introduce slowly and tame it towards the right track.

Being happy on a little food is contentment. Wanting more is greed. Laziness makes one useless. After repentance, one’s lower-self lures one towards other desires. Taqwa (God consciousness-being mindful of Allah) prevents one from evil actions. Therefore, we need Taqwa.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَّقِينَ

Indeed Allah loves those who are mindful of Him (9:7)

A sinful person fears Allah, (out of fear of punishment), on the other hand a righteous person is mindful of the majesty of Allah (SWT); which is also called ‘Khashyat Allāh’ (reverential awe of Allah).

How excellent is Suhaib; even if he does not have fear of Allah, he will not commit any acts of disobedience.

جب خیر خدا کے ہاتھ میں ہے

تو غیر سےامید رکھنا لایعنی

نمک حرامی آقا کی

غیر سےعرض حاجت ہے

In these Urdu verses, Sheikh Abdul Siddiqui Hasrat, says

“If all good lies with God

It’s pointless to expect anything from others

Disloyalty is indeed

Asking help from someone other than God.”

(Hasrat)

The faith of a Muslim lies between hope and fear. However, one should warn the youth against (the ill-effects of) their sins and offer hope to the elderly towards God’s mercy so that they can die peacefully.