Ramadan 3–2–1: Day Sixteen — Your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful

Repent and seek forgiveness from your Lord, for He is ever merciful to His slaves.

Welcome to the second half of Ramadan. By now, you can tell if you kept true to your goals or you deceived yourself. I’m sorry to put it that way, but just being frank. It isn’t deceit if you sincerely struggled in achieving them — we all did, and you’re not alone. What’s more important now is how you can finish strong. Therefore, do not lose hope because there’s still enough time to achieve what you’ve intended.

The life of a believer resonates between fear and hope. So be hopeful of Allah’s mercy, no matter how much you have erred. And be fearful of His punishment which is severe and unbearable. What you need is sincere repentance with a commitment not to return to your evil ways. The beauty of seeking forgiveness and repentance is that it brings you unimaginable benefits.

A man once came to Imam Hasan al-Basri and complained to him: the sky does not shower us with rain. He replied: “Seek Allah’s forgiveness”. Then another person came to him and said: I‘m impoverished. He responded: “Seek Allah’s forgiveness”. Then another person came to him and complained: my wife is barren; she cannot bear children. He replied: “Seek Allah’s forgiveness.”

The people who were present, said to al-Hasan: “Every time a person came to you complaining, you instructed them to seek Allah’s forgiveness?” Hasan al-Basri said: Have you not read the statement of Allah…

‘I said “Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Truly He is Oft-Forgiving. He will send rain to you in abundance; increase you in wealth and children; grant you gardens and bestow on you rivers. — Qur’an 71[Nuh]:10–12

This tells us how magnificent it is to seek forgiveness and repent back to Allah. It’s in the nature of man to sin, but what’s more important is to seek forgiveness and repent back to your Lord. The evil of sin is in its accumulation without repentance. The more you sin without sincere repentance, the worse you become as a human being.

This is why the key point in today’s Ramadan 3–2–1 is a call to action: repent sincerely to Allah and seek His forgiveness. The hadith quoted as evidence below points to three distinct ways that enable a Muslim to be forgiven by Allah. In sha Allah, we’d mention them vis:

3 Derivable Lessons

• Forgiveness via supplication (dua’): The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, said: “Supplication is the essence of worship” — Tirmidhi. Raise your hand to Allah, cry unto Him seek His forgiveness and enjoy His bounty.
• Forgiveness with repentance (istighfar): It is narrated that the Prophet, Sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, used to seek forgiveness from Allah more than seventy times a day, and in some narrations more than one hundred times a day. Obviously with true repentance comes forgiveness. Therefore, moisten your tongue with words of repentance and forgiveness.
• Forgiveness through Tawhid: At-Tawhid, as the scholars say, melts away sins. By fulfilling all the obligations of Tawhid, a believer will be forgiven and rewarded. In as much as you do not associate partners with Allah, there’s forgiveness in stock for you.

2 Pieces of Evidence

Allah says:

“O My servants, who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. Verily, Allah forgives all sins. Truly He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” — Qur’an 39[Az-Zumar]:53

The Prophet PBUH said:

From Anas, radiyallahu ‘anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, say: “Allah the Almighty has said: ‘O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me, and hope in Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds in the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I shall forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with an earthful of sins and were you then to face Me, without having associated anything with Me, I shall grant you an earthful of pardon.’” — Recorded by Al-Tirmidhi, who said that it is a good and sound hadith

1 Rhetorical Question

Ask yourself: “What gives you the confidence that Allah will forgive you without you falling back to Him with sincere repentance?” Many of us fall for this trick of shaytan: we commit sins and fail to repent. Make it a habit to repent constantly on a daily basis.

That’s it for today and I hope you find it beneficial. Catch you tomorrow by the mercy of Allah. And until then, keep striving to be the best version of yourself. As Salamu Alaykum! Waramatullahi!! Wabarakatu!!!

Yaumul Jum’ah 16th Ramadan 1444H // Friday 7th April 2023.