lana
المدير
عدد الرسائل : 1126
العمر : 34
Country : مصر
العمل/الترفيه : الرسم
المزاج : الحمد الله ممتاز
تاريخ التسجيل : 23/06/2008
 |  موضوع: A Christian asking about repentance .  الأربعاء نوفمبر 04, 2009 11:53 pm | |
| If a man decides after a life of sinfulness to
come to God and promise to reform his life, I understand that Islam
says that he will be forgiven and therefore inherit the promises etc.
My questions though is what has happened to the weight of this man's
sin, as in sinning he has offended God and therefore this sin has to be
atoned for, who is going to atone for his sin, if God is just going to
forgive him on the promise of his being good and faithful? Surely as we
saw with Adam there has to be a consequence for sin....
Praise be to Allaah.
Praise be to Allaah Who has guided us to Islam, for we would not have been guided
had He not guided us.
First of all, we thank you for your question, and we ask Allaah to bless you with
guidance.
Allaah has created us for a great purpose, which is to worship Him Alone with no
partner or associate. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And I (Allaah) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should
worship Me (Alone)”
[al-Dhaariyaat 51:56]
This is the purpose of life: to worship Allaah alone.
So
Allaah has not created us to eat and drink… or to relax and
play… or to strive and work hard… rather He has created
us to worship Him and not to be ungrateful to Him; to remember him and
not forget Him.
This
is the purpose of life, and what a beautiful purpose it is. When man
lives to worship his Lord and Master, to serve His religion and
establish His command, with his body on earth and his heart with Allaah
and the Hereafter, then he understands the reality of this life and how
insignificant this world is, and that what is left of this life should
not be wasted in passing pleasures and temporary desires. O Allaah,
bless us with Your guidance.
Because worship requires explanation and guidance, Allaah sent His Messengers:
“Messengers as bearers of good news as well as of warning in order that mankind
should have no plea against Allaah after the (coming of) Messengers”
[al-Nisa’ 4:165]
Whoever submits is guided, and whoever turns away is doomed and lost.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily,
proofs have come to you from your Lord, so whosoever sees, will do so
for (the good of) his ownself, and whosoever blinds himself, will do so
to his own harm, and I (Muhammad) am not a watcher over you”
[al-An’aam 6:104]
If a person submits (becomes Muslim), he has chosen happiness for himself:
“And whosoever has embraced Islam (i.e. has become a Muslim by submitting to
Allaah), then such have sought the Right Path”
[al-Jinn 72:14 – interpretation of the meaning]
Because
man is vulnerable to making mistakes and forgetting, and to falling
into sin, Allaah has prescribed repentance for His slaves and has
opened the door of repentance until the Hour begins, and He invites His
slaves to repent sincerely. Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):
“O you who believe! Turn to Allaah with sincere repentance! It may be that your
Lord will expiate from you your sins, and admit you into Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise)…”
[al-Tahreem 66:8]
“And all of you beg Allaah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be
successful”
[al-Noor 24:31]
See also question no.
14289.
It should be noted that sins are of two types:
1 – Transgressions against the rights of Allaah.
2 – Transgressions against the rights of created beings.
With regard to the first type:
Transgressions
against the rights of Allaah – such as adultery, drinking
alcohol, neglecting obligatory duties such as prayer, zakaah, etc.
These sins are punishable according to sharee’ah, such as
adultery and drinking, for which the hadd punishment is to be carried
out on the one who does them, and that is an expiation and a
purification for him. If the hadd punishment is not carried out on him,
but he repents to Allaah, then Allaah will accept his repentance and
turn his bad deeds (sayi’aat) into good deeds (hasanaat).
Whoever
meets Allaah with these sins, without having repented or had the hadd
punishment carried out on him, is subject to the will of Allaah on the
Day of Resurrection: if He wills He will punish him and if He wills He
will forgive him.
Al-Bukhaari
(18) and Muslim (1709) narrated from ‘Ubaadah ibn al-Saamit (may
Allaah be pleased with him) – who was present at the Battle of
Badr and was one of the prominent figures on the night of
al-‘Aqabah – that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, when there was a group of his
companions around him: “Give me your oath of allegiance
(bay’ah), pledging that you will not associate anything with
Allaah, you will not steal, you will not commit adultery, you will not
kill your children, you will not fabricate lies and you will not
disobey with regard to anything that is right and proper. If you fulfil
that, your reward will be with Allaah, but whoever commits any of these
actions, his punishment will be in this world and it will be an
expiation for him. Whoever does any of these things then Allaah
conceals him, it will be up to Allaah: if He wills He will forgive him
and if He wills He will punish him.” So they gave their oath of
allegiance to him on that basis.
According to a report narrated by al-Bukhaari (6416): “Whoever does any of these
things will be punished in this world and that will be an expiation for him and a purification.”
Al-Haafiz
said in al-Fath (1/68): It is understood from this hadeeth that
carrying out the hadd punishment is an expiation for sin, even if the
person who is punished does not repent. This is the view of the
majority of scholars…
Ahmad
(1365) narrated that ‘Ali (may Allaah be pleased with him) said:
The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said: “Whoever commits a sin in this world and is punished for
it, Allaah is too just to punish His slave a second time. Whoever
commits a sin in this world then Allaah conceals that and forgives him,
Allaah is too generous to go back to something that He has
forgiven.”
This hadeeth was classed as hasan by al-Arnaa’oot in Tahqeeq al-Musnad, and
al-Haafiz classed a similar report from al-Tabaraani as hasan.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And those who invoke not any other ilaah (god) along with Allaah, nor kill such person as
Allaah has forbidden, except for just cause, nor commit illegal sexual intercourse
and whoever does this shall receive the punishment.
The torment will be doubled to him on the Day of Resurrection, and he will
abide therein in disgrace;
Except those who repent and believe (in Islamic Monotheism), and do righteous
deeds; for those, Allaah will change their sins into good deeds, and Allaah is Oft‑Forgiving, Most Merciful”
[al-Furqaan 25:68-70]
“Verily,
Allaah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners (in worship) with
Him, but He forgives whom He wills, sins other than that, and whoever
sets up partners in worship with Allaah, has indeed strayed far
away.”
[al-Nisa’ 4:116]
This verse has to do with the one who does not repent. He is subject to the will
of Allaah, unless he commits shirk (the sin of associating other with Allaah), because shirk cannot be forgiven.
With
regard to the second type of
sins:
Transgressions
against the rights of people, such as transgressing against their
wealth by stealing it or seizing it by force, etc., or transgressing
against their honour by means of gossip and slander, or harming them
physically by striking them, etc. Repentance from this type of sin is
subject to the condition that the rights be restored to the people, or
they agree to forgive the offender.
Whoever
does not do that will remain subject to the effects of his sin until
the Day of Resurrection, when an amount commensurate with his offence
will be taken from his good deeds (hasanaat), as the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever has wronged
anyone with regard to his honour or anything else, let him settle the
matter today before there is no dinar and no dirham, and if he has any
righteous deeds, an amount commensurate with his wrongdoing will be
taken from him, and if he has no good deeds (to his credit) some of the
bad deeds of his companion will be taken and added to his
burden.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2317.
From
this we know that the view that the sinner must be punished in this
world is a view for which there is no evidence, but if a person is
punished (in this world) that will be an expiation for him, and if he
is not punished then he repents from his sin, Allaah will accept his
repentance.
Even
more false than this is the view of those who say that the punishment
for sin may be borne by someone other than the sinner, as some ignorant
people say concerning Adam (peace be upon him), claiming that his
progeny – including the Prophets – bore the burden of his
sin until God sent down His only son to be crucified and slain to free
the world of sin! This is a lie and a fabrication against Allaah and
against His Prophets, and is a kind of injustice of which the
divinely-revealed laws are free, because Allaah does not punish anyone
for the sins of another. Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):
“And no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden”
[Faatir 35:18]
Allaah is too merciful and too just to punish the offspring for the sins of their father,
especially since he repented and Allaah accepted his repentance.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Then
the Shaytaan (Satan) made them slip therefrom (the Paradise), and got
them out from that in which they were. We said: ‘Get you down,
all, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be a dwelling place
for you and an enjoyment for a time.’
Then Adam received from his Lord Words. And his Lord pardoned him (accepted his
repentance). Verily, He is the One Who forgives (accepts repentance), the Most Merciful”
[al-Baqarah 2:36-37]
“Then
they both ate of the tree, and so their private parts became manifest
to them, and they began to cover themselves with the leaves of the
Paradise for their covering. Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went
astray.
Then his Lord chose him, and turned to him with forgiveness, and gave him
guidance”
[Ta-Ha 20:121-122]
So two things apply in the case of Adam: he was punished for his sin, and he repented from it
and Allaah accepted his repentance, and He chose him and honoured him.
The
point is that whoever lives a life filled with disobedience and sin
only has to turn to his Lord, the most Merciful and Most Generous, and
seek His forgiveness and repent, in order for Allaah to accept his
repentance, as Allaah has promised (interpretation of the
meaning):
“Say:
O ‘Ibaadi (My slaves) who have transgressed against themselves
(by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of
Allaah, verily, Allaah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft‑Forgiving,
Most Merciful”
[al-Zumar 39:53]
This
is part of the kindness that Allaah has made in this tolerant
sharee’ah. It was decreed for the Children of Israel that the
innocent among them kill the wrongdoers so that their repentance would
be accepted [cf. al-Baqarah 2:54], then Allaah lifted this heavy burden
from this nation on whom He has had mercy.
Finally
we ask Allaah to bless the questioner and guide him and open his heart
to Islam, so that he may become a member of the Muslim ummah (nation)
which accepts Allaah as its Lord, Islam as its religion and Muhammad as
its Prophet.
And Allaah knows best.
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