Allah (subhanahu wa'tala) says in the Quran in the translation of the meaning ''O ye who believe! Turn to Allah with sincere repentance: In the hope that your Lord will remove from you your ills and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow,- the Day that Allah will not permit to be humiliated the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their Light will run forward before them and by their right hands, while they say, ''Our Lord! Perfect our Light for us, and grant us Forgiveness: for Thou hast power over all things.'' At-Tahreem:8
The muffasireen explaining this ayah refer to Umar bin Khattab who was asked to explain sincere repentance. He replied :It means to repent from sins and never to return to repeating the sins
When the ulama delved into the subject of tawba, they explained that seeking repentance is a must for every Muslim and he should be sincere in nature.
Imam Nawawi clarified the notion of sincerity; He said: Tawba is a must for every Muslim, If Tawba involves the rights of Allah and does not involve the rights of other human beings, then it has three conditions:
1.To stop the sin immediately
2.To feel bad about what has transpired
3.To be determined not to repeat it again
If one lacks any one of these three conditions, the tawba would not be valid. These three conditions reflect the essence of sincerity. In many ayah Allah describes the people who turn towards him and later on turn away. Allah, for example says in Surah Ankaboot :When they ride on a ship, they implore GOD, devoting their prayers to Him. But as soon as He saves them to the shore, they ascribe partners to Allah
This verse is an example of those are insincere in obeying Allah. Nawawi goes on to explain that if a sin involves the rights of other people (like not paying debt, slander...etc), then a fourth condition should be added to make it valid. That is, the right of the other person should be fulfilled and his forgiveness must be attained, then the tawba is accepted by Allah swt. For example, if someone commits slander he should seek forgiveness of the person he has slandered and attain it. Only then Allah swt will accept his repentance.
Time also plays a role in repenting. Allah swt says in Suran Nisa verse 18 :''And of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil deeds until death faces one of them and he says: ''Now I repent;'' nor of those who die while they are disbelievers. For them We have prepared a painful torment.''
When the rooh reaches the dying person's throat, tawba is not accepted. Thus tawba should be sought well before this. Another time constraint for valid tawba is that it should be sought prior to the day of judgement. Abu Hurairah narrated :Prophet (saw) has declared that Allah will continue to accept the repentance of his creatures until the sun rises from the West (narrated Muslim)
The 'sun rising from the West' is an indication of the day of judgement. The crimes which has a specific punishment in this life, for example, cutting the hand of the thief, the tawba does not replace the punishment. The punishment must be implemented whether the individual gets tawba or not. Thus the thief's hands must be cut and his tawba is not a replacement for the penalty. However, in the absence of the Islamic state, since no one has the right to implement the punishment except the Khalifah, the crime is between the sinner and Allah. Although these conditions have been made clear, we often fail to realise the sphere in which tawba exist. Today tawba is perceived as being related to sins committed by the individual purely within the individual sphere without any connection related to situation of the society. However, Islam does not confine itself to the individual .It has legislations pertaining to society, individuals and relations with other societies because Islam defines the structure of the society and the world, we must not view Islam from a narrow perspective solely. One example to show our lack of this wide perspective is seen by the dominance of man-made systems prevalent all over the world, notions such as democracy in which man legislates, and obedience is given to man made laws. All of these are shirk because in Islam Allah legislates and we follow his laws. Shirk, as we know, is one of the sins not forgiven by Allah swt. Muslims, however, do not see any conflict in leaving societal aspects of Islam and utlising a kufr system. The misery of the ummah, the stranglehold of nationalism that divide us, the dominance of kufr are problems for which we are responsible for because we are not changing them. There are many other things that we are obliged to perform and other things which are prohibited from performing. Many of us fail to realise the establishing of the khilafah - a structure that solves all these problems - is an obligation. Which means it is an obligation equivalent to praying and fasting like we do in the Ramadhan. And therefore, if we neglect the work to establish the Islamic system, we will be sinning and we will be punished by Allah swt. For every land rule by kufr we are responsible For every slaughtered Muslim we are responsible. For every occupied land, For every day Islam is not implemented, for every moment the socio-economic systems of Islam are absent and for every breath we take without the existence of the Islamic state, we are sinful.
We should obey Allah and seek tawba for our neglect in performing the obligations and abstain from haraam. We must remember that to seek sincere tawba requires us to perform the obligations and leave the haraam (e.g calling for democracy and freedom) immediatel
y. Let us remember that Allah is Ar-Rahman Raheem i.e. the one who forgives.
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In the Nafsiya series
Source: AdduOnline
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