"The Almighty is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. How can anyone ever lose hope in His Mercy?"
A Muslim should live with the hope that “My Lord is the source of mercy, may He forgive my errors.”
This is because in hundreds of verses Allah Almighty describes Himself as “Gafurun rahim”, that is One Who forgives much and protects.
Our Lord has commanded us to beg His forgiveness and to repent to Him. To live in such hope is called raja.
In these verses Allah Almighty’s mercy comes in waves like the sea and gives great hope to humanity:
“O my servants who have ruined themselves by committing great sins! Do not despair of Allah’s mercy, because Allah forgives all sins. He is the oft-forgiving, the One who has great Mercy.”
That is to say, “All but the unbelievers should never despair of Allah’s mercy.” Thus, no matter how many errors or sin a person makes, no matter how deeply immured they may be in the swamp of sins, they should never fall into despair of Allah’s forgiveness.
They should not forget that Allah says: “My servants! Only I can forgive you, who commit sins day and night, of all your sins. Ask Me for Mercy and I will forgive you.”
It is known that in order to accept the repentance of those who commit sins during the day the Gates of Mercy are open during the night, and in order to accept the repentance of those who commit sins during the night the Gates of Mercy are open during the day; this will continue until the Day of Judgment.
Infinite Mercy:
There is no reason to lose hope of Allah Almighty’s mercy, because His mercy embraces everything. His Mercy is greater than His wrath.
Allah only punishes those who are ungrateful.
Allah’s wrath only descends upon those who denigrate the Prophets and those who turn their backs on Him.
Thus, those who believe in Allah should not despair of His forgiveness.
Allah Almighty revealed to the Prophet Muhammad that His mercy has been divided up into a hundred parts; only one part of this has been sent to the earth for humanity, the jinn, animals and insects.
Due to this one-hundredth of His mercy, all beings that have ever existed and that will ever exist, from the day the first living beings were created until the final day of the earth, love one another and have pity on one another.
It is due to this mercy that mothers are tender with their babies and wild animals can show mercy to one another.
And what of the other 99 parts of mercy; what has happened to them?
Allah has kept them with Him to use for His servants on the Day of Judgment. This mercy will embrace the good and the bad will be punished with His Wrath.
We should live between fear and hope Allah’s mercy is as wide as His wrath is great.
Prophet Muhammad said that if a believer were to realize the greatness of the Divine wrath then that person could have no hope of heaven. If an unbeliever were to realize the extent of Divine mercy, then they would never despair of Heaven.
Thus, it is important to balance this fear and hope, or in other words, to live between khawf andraja. As a good servant of Allah, one should pray with fear and hope, knowing that those who carry out good deeds and good actions are close to Allah’s mercy.
No one, not even the Prophets, can enter heaven just because of their good deeds and worship without Allah’s mercy and assistance. Everybody should keep this hadith in mind and no one should take their future for granted.
Prophet Muhammad said that even if a person were to carry out heavenly deeds throughout their life and if only a small distance were to remain between that person and heaven, if Divine predestination was such, this person would carry out an evil deed and thus enter Hell.
The opposite is also true. If one who always carried out evil deeds, and even if only a small distance were to remain between this person and the gates of Hell, if Divine predestination were so to decree, that person would commit a blessed deed and enter Paradise.
This truth should not be forgotten; one should ca
rry out their lives balanced between fear and hope.
rry out their lives balanced between fear and hope.
He Runs towards Those Who Walk towards Him
There are many proofs of Allah’s mercy and there are many reasons to be hopeful of this mercy; He will punish one who does evil only for that evil they have done; but one who does good will be given blessing up to 700 times as much, or even more.
In a hadith qudsi we are told how a servant is rewarded many times for the worship and good that they do, and in a metaphorical expression we are told that one who advances one step towards Allah will be met at twice the distance, He will run towards the one who walks towards Him, and as long as the servant does not put another god in Allah’s place one, the one who comes with a world full of sins will be forgiven to the same extent.
Prophet Muhammad said that a servant who utters, believing from their heart, that there is no god but Allah and that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is Allah’s servant and prophet will not be sent to Hell.
When one sins Allah will be pleased if that person says “My Allah! Forgive my sin,” begging for forgiveness. In return He says: “My servant has sinned; but they are aware that they have a Lord Who will forgive their sins and who will interrogate them. I have forgiven My servant, now let what they ask for be done,” thus forgiving the believer.
Yes, Allah is pleased when His servant recognizes his Lord, turns towards his Master and repents his sins; indeed, using the metaphor of Prophet Muhammad, He is more pleased than one who has been lost in a lonely desert and then found.
The fact that Allah would destroy us if we were never to sin, replacing us with a people who sinned and then repented, clearly presents the great importance to desire forgiveness from Allah.
The Winds of Hope that Bring Glad Tidings:
The following glad tidings from Prophet Muhammad are enough to give us hope of Allah’s mercy:
*The servants of Allah have rights on Allah in the same way that Allah has rights on His servants: Allah’s rights over His servants are that they serve only Allah and that they do not treat any other person or thing as a divinity. The rights of servants over Allah are that He does not send His wrath against those who do not treat any being other than Him as divine.
*When a non-believer does a good deed that person is rewarded for that deed in this world; however, when a believer does a good deed they are rewarded in this world and their blessings in the next world increase.
*The believer who prays five times a day is like a person who washes five times a day in a roaring river, being thoroughly purified each time.
*In the funeral prayer of a Muslim who has died, if forty people (or more) who believe in no god but Allah pray for that person’s forgiveness Allah Almighty accepts this prayer.
*Allah Almighty tells us that on the Day of Judgment He will hide a believing servant from the people and bring that servant close to Him, asking “Are you aware of this sin? Are you aware of this sin?” and the believer will confess the sin. Then Allah will say “I hid your sins in the world and today I forgive you.” That believer will be given a record of only their good deeds. Allah! What great happiness!
Thus, in the face of all these facts the believer should know that Heaven and Hell are closer than their own shoe laces and they should live etween hope and fear.
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