Repentance

After 20 days of fasting I am finally getting used to it. Excellent when you consider that there are only 9-10 days left to go! After a great result last weekend, with critics suggesting that Liverpool are ready to mount a serious title challenge, all the hype came crashing down when they could only draw 0-0 to mighty Stoke City and in a 180 degree turn the critics are back to saying Liverpool won't get anywhere once again. I love football!

During this month, Mondays have become my religious discussion day. So far, I've talked about Patience and last week I discussed Self-struggle. Today I want to type about Repentance. Arguably one of the most important subjects for Muslims - the chance for change, a chance to redeem ourselves and seek forgiveness from God. We all make mistakes from the mundane to the major and seeking forgiveness, repentance allows us to change and earn God's blessings.

When we are born our soul is pure, sinless and clean -like a blank canvas. Sinful acts darkens the soul making it more and more difficult to remain pure and close to God. The act of repentance (tawbah) enables us to clean our souls, inshallah back to its original state (or as close as possible). However, it is not a straight forward process. We cannot simply state "I repent" and move on. Repentance has been described as a six stage process by Imam Ali (a.s.) in his book, Nahjul Balagha:

1. Remorse over the past - over the mistakes/errors that have been made.
2. Resolve not to make the same mistake again.
3. Return what is not yours, so no-one can claim anything against you. To seek forgiveness from those whom you have wronged.
4. Fulfil every duty that you neglected in order to satisfy your obligation in respect to it.
5. You cleanse yourself from any sin/mistake that affected your body.
6. Make your body taste the pain of obedience in the same way as it earlier tasted the pleasure of sins.

The first two stages are the most important. Remorse and resolution. It is not good enough to simply ask for forgiveness and then carry on as normal. That is something we are all guilty of, to ask God for forgiveness for our sins and then fall back into bad habits. Making a resolution to not commit the same error is the hard part, and only when that is achieved are we able to benefit from God's mercy and forgiveness.

There are numerous occasions I can think of when I have asked God for forgiveness and then sooner or later fallen back into old habits. A classic for me and a lot of people is gossiping - or to give it its real name - "backbiting" - we all do it. Numerous occasions I have asked God for forgiveness and shown remorse, but still the resolution is not strong enough. However thanks to God's infinite mercy the chance to repent is always there. Obviously, being all-knowing, means that God will only forgive when we sincerely make a change and achieve resolution, but our purpose is to constantly struggle for that repentance.

The door is always open as Imam Ali (a.s.) states: "I wonder at a man who loses hope of salvation when the door of repentance is open for him." We can never give up hope - each time I ask for forgiveness, the resolution not to commit the same error grows stronger and lasts longer. It is the hope for God's forgiveness that keeps me going - knowing that one day God will inshallah forgive me because my resolution has grown to the point where I don't repeat my mistakes.

Repentance and hope go hand in hand. They co-exist. Hope for God's mercy allows us to continually seek repentance. Repenting gives us the hope and strength to make sure we don't repeat our mistakes. As long as our struggle continues to improve ourselves God's mercy is always on hand to help us. God states in the Quran, "O ye who believe! Turn unto Allah in sincere repentance! It may be that your Lord will remit from you your evil deeds and bring you into Gardens underneath which rivers flow..." (Surah 66, Verse 8) and "Triumphant are those who turn repentant (to Allah), those who serve (Him), those who praise (Him)..." (Surah 9, Verse 112).

Continuing to seek repentance throughout our life is essential in purifying our soul. Errors and sins have removed it from its original state and our objective is to remove the darkness that the sins have caused. Hopefully, by the time it comes to our deaths, the struggle for repentance will have returned our souls to a state worthy of God's blessings and rewards.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?