My beloved brothers and sisters the
verse that has the most old in it in the
Quran it is a verse of surat az-zumar
allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala says to
muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say
o my worshippers who have transgressed
against themselves never lose hope in
the mercy of allah for indeed he is most
forgiving most merciful he will forgive
all your sins
I want to highlight to you
the mercy of Allah Allah is so merciful
that he is addressing the sinful people
as all my worshippers if Allah was not
merciful he would call the simple people
all my enemies he would possibly call
them all those who are cursed but Allah
says ya ibadi all my worshippers who
have done something wrong I want you to
know I will forgive you no matter what
you have done for indeed I am most
forgiving most merciful so this is the
mercy of Allah that he speaks to us who
have sinned against him calling us all
my worshippers never lose hope in the
mercy of Allah he will forgive all your
sins for indeed he is most forgiving
most merciful but then we have one
problem some people when they look at
that they start thinking I can sin and I
know Allah is merciful so in order to
avoid that and another scenario is when
a person says I have sinned
I know Allah is merciful but I will seek
that forgiveness later on in my life not
now I still want to send a little bit
more some people think like this I’m not
yet ready to repent to allah subhanahu
wata’ala so then allah says you’d better
get back to allah subhanahu wata’ala
and surrendered to him very quickly
before punishment comes to you and no
one will help you may Allah protect us
from earthquakes may Allah protect us
from floods may Allah protect us from
any form of punishment not to say that
every time there is an earthquake or a
flood it is the punishment sometimes it
is a test of allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala
but when you have been transgressing
against Allah then indeed it is a
punishment
remember this you ask yourself am ia
good person am I trying to please Allah
am i seeking the forgiveness of Allah if
the answer is yes then the negative that
comes in your life is not the punishment
of Allah he won’t punish you whilst you
are seeking forgiveness but there is an
issue where if you are sinful and you
are transgressing against Allah and you
have no intention of turning to Allah
then when something negative happens to
you it is indeed the punishment the rod
of Allah has now whipped
may allah subhanahu wa’ta’ala forgive us
so the first type of prolonging in sin
and not seeking forgiveness Allah says
the punishment may come to you in a way
that nobody will be able to help you at
all no matter what and who they are the
second type of punishment Allah says
follow quickly follow the best of what
is revealed to you follow the Quran and
the Sunnah you know if you ask yourself
as Muslims
what do you follow you must always ask
yourself that question what do you
follow you need to have a specific
answer and that answer should be
universal from the beginning right to
the end
I follow the Quran and the Sunnah of
Rasulullah saw regardless Allah and I
follow the Iijima I follow that which is
the consensus of the Muslim in I follow
what I have been taught from Allah as
words and from the words of the
messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if
that is true you will continue asking
yourself no matter what you do what I am
doing is it what I’m supposed to be
following if it is not dropping if it is
strengthening learn more so Allah says
follow the best of that which has been
revealed
before punishment overtakes you in such
a way that you don’t even realize that
this was the punishment of Allah and
that it will come and it came sometimes
a person progresses in life they go
higher and higher in terms of wealth and
health and authority and everything is
improving and increasing but if he is
far from Allah a day can come when he is
at the top that suddenly he crashes and
he didn’t realize that that would happen
so Allah says you know what turned to me
before a day comes without realizing you
will be wiped out so this is why it is
the mercy of Allah when a person becomes
although they are sick or they are
terminally ill and they think they are
going to die they will be preparing for
death because at least it’s the mercy of
Allah that they no halfway that and now
I’m not well at all the doctors have
given me two weeks to stay and to live
you might live for long you might live
for many years but at least it gave you
a chance to turn to Allah Allah is
tapping you to tell you hey start
preparing you are now coming to me
subhanAllah in a way that is a mercy of
Allah if you don’t turn when you are
sick and ill and when you are now aging
then you are even worse may Allah
forgive us because I was giving you a
reminder and you did not take it but not
always does that happen sometimes
suddenly a man is healthy while he is
singing his life is gone there are lots
of hang on over to Alana too that if you
were to read these verses in child at
the end of surah zumar you will find
that allah speaks about those who are
arrogant and those who did not turn to
allah how they will regret when they get
to allah and they will say o allah grant
us a return we want to go back if we had
another chance we would be better people
Allah says no my verses came to you my
verses were read to you
but you belied them you
not one thing you didn’t even listen to
what was said it didn’t even change you
and you were arrogant and you were among
those who didn’t even believe not at all
you turned away so Allah Subhanahu WA
Ta’ala says those who have belied the
verses of Allah on the day of judgement
their faces will be darkened they will
be embarrassed they won’t be able to
show face their faces will be darkened
meaning they will be embarrassed they
have not do that to us and then Allah
speaks about the two groups of people
those who are taken two gentlemen and
those who are taken to Jahannam first
Allah says those who will be members of
hellfire they will be taken into
Hellfire in groups you and your friends
you go together who you used to mix with
and who helped you to get to Jahannam
you start going together so you go in a
group into jahannam and as you get into
Jahannam you find the dough would have
been closed prior to you getting there
when you get there the door will be
opened you go in and the door will be
closed again now he’s in there forever
and Allah Subhanahu WA Ta’ala says the
gatekeepers of Jahannam will ask a
question to those who will be going to
help Hey did a messenger not come to you
reading you some verses of the Quran and
verses of Allah reminding you of this
day they will say yes indeed we had few
people who came to us reminding us so
what happened we didn’t take them
seriously when we have those may Allah
make us from those who antigen assay I
mean you have lo Lucia antigen
battlefield
Allah says they will also enter in
groups you enter in your group of
friends with the Nabi perhaps who is the
one whom you followed and whom you loved
the most as we will enter general fear
those the gatekeepers will be saying
speech be upon you you have done well
enter into gel metals wear those forever
and ever and there is a good description
Allah says when they get to the door of
gentlemen they will find it will be wide
open waiting for them they are people
welcoming you from the gate
welcome welcome they are rushing with
you taking you in to right up to where
you have to get to this is the palace so
amazing how are not described this how
do I know I have been pardoned and
forgiven by the Almighty the messenger
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has said
when your good deeds make you happy and
make you pleased and your bad actions
make you sad and hurt you then that is a
sign of a believer so the fact that a
person has a concern a a passion to know
if he or she has been forgiven that
itself is a positive sign now moving
forward in terms of answering this
academically so in in the Quran and
Sunnah we come across two terms and
phrases we have still far and we have
Toba in the 12 Jews in surah hood the
advice of satan ahout alayhi salatu
was-salam to his people instead of
europe become from me to boo la seek
repentance to your lord and seek toba
when we merge and marry the two then
that is a sign that Allah has forgiven
me stick far is asking Allah for
forgiveness for the past and Toba is
pledging to Allah that I will not revert
to it now what should be the nature of
our is still far is it just a verbal
declaration it’s just a verbal apology
no it has to be deeper and it has to be
beyond that when a person makes tawba to
Allah and he repents then he’s got to
feel that how does he feel it things
narrow up upon him is that when we
repent to allah subhanahu wata’ala they
must be the sincere guilt it cannot be a
casual commitment or a casual
acknowledgement and we persist on the
crime so that is definitely not not in
accordance with sincere Tova so that is
the first thing and they realized that
there is no hope and eminence
but in allah then allah subhanahu
wa’ta’ala forgave them but here is the
beauty of the quran and the beauty of
the forgiveness of the Almighty
the first is Allah says in the hadith
Qudsi that when a servant repents to
Allah o my servant I will forgive you
and it doesn’t matter to me I will give
you a clean slate and it doesn’t matter
to me
the second thing when Allah forgives a
sinner Allah doesn’t only remove the
hostility that existed due to the sin
between the criminal and his creator but
Allah is were dude Allah is affectionate
so Allah loves the one that repents
often we become complicit and we
stagnate at the level of seeking
forgiveness for the past but we make no
pledges for the future if a person has
violated me and offended me and asked
for my apology and I apologize but I
have the slightest hint that he or she
will repeat the wrong then I would
withhold my pardon but when it comes to
the Almighty at the time we repent we
might be sincere and Allah knows for the
fact that due to our fallible nature at
some point we would relapse but given
the fact that we repeat or we repent
sincerely for the moment Allah accepts
our apology and Allah accepts our
repentance so like somebody said that we
wash our clothes but we know consciously
it’s going to get stained again but we
don’t stop washing it knowing it’s going
to get stain in the very same way we
repent and probably due to our fel
ability we will resort to sin but we
should not tire repent in we ask Allah
to make us amongst those that are
pardoned before we take our last breath
