from the lecture delivered by shaykh 'Abdur Razzaq 'Abdul Muhsin al-'Abbad


بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم



SAYYIDUL ISTIGHFAR


The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:


"The noblest and most excellent manner of seeking forgiveness is that one says:


"O Allah! You are my Lord! None has the right to be worshipped except You. You created me, and I am Your slave. And I am faithful to my covenant and my promise as far as I am able. I seek refuge from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge before You all the favours that You have bestowed upon me, and I confess all my sins to You. So forgive me, since none can forgive sins except You".


Then he (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said:


"Whoever says it in the day, with firm conviction in it, and dies in that day before evening- then he is from the people of Paradise. Whoever says it in the night, with firm conviction in it, and he dies before the morning- then he is from the people of Paradise". [saheeh al-Bukhari]


Hopefully the following transliteration will make it easy on you, the reader, to pronounce this du'a properly insha Allah:


"Allahumma anta rabbee laa ilaaha illa ant, khalaqtanee wa anaa 'abduk, wa anaa 'alaa 'ahdika wa wa'adika mas tata't, a'oodhu bika min sharri maa sana't, aboo o laka bini'matika 'alayy, wa aboo o laka bidhanbee, faghfir lee fa innahu laa yaghfirudh-dhunooba illa ant".

This topic is indeed one of the most important topics we Muslims should pay attention to. The texts in the Book and the Sunnah that deal with the importance and encouragement of seeking forgiveness are many, but I will stick to some of which shaykh 'Abdur Razzaq mentioned in this lecture. The shaykh mentioned the saying of Allah the Most High:


"Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed greatly against themselves through sins! Do not despair of the Mercy of Allah. Indeed Allah forgives all sins to those who repent. Indeed He is the Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful". [Az-Zumar (39):53]


It is related that a man came to al-Hasan al-Basree, the noble Tabi'i(rahimahullah), and complained to him of poverty. So he said to him, 'Ask forgiveness of Allah'. Another man came to him complaining that he did not have any children. So he said to him, 'Ask forgiveness of Allah'. A third man came to him complaining of the barrenness of his garden. So he said to him, 'Ask forgiveness of Allah'. He then recited to them the saying of Allah, the Perfect and Most High:


"I said to them, 'Ask forgiveness from your Lord, indeed He is Oft-Forgiving. He will send rain to you in abundance and He will give you increase in wealth and children and bestow on you gardens and rivers". [Nuh (71):10-12]


So the fruits and benefits of seeking forgiveness are for the wordly life as well as the Hereafter.


Also, keep in mind the following hadith qudsi:


Allah's Messenger sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:


"Allah the Most High said, 'O son of Adam! As long as you supplicate to Me, and hope in Me, I will forgive you what you have done and I do not care. O son of Adam! If your sins were to reach the lofty regions of the sky, then you asked Me for forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of Adam! If you were to come to Me with enough sins to fill the earth, but you met Me not associating anything with Me- I would bring you the like of it of forgiveness".


Subhan Allah!!! Allah tells us He will forgive our sins, no matter how many and how tremendous, as long as we (continuously) seek His forgiveness!!! Then which of His blessings will we deny???

Rasulullah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam used to repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness more then 70 times each day, and this is the one whose earlier and later sins were forgiven, so where are we in comparison to him (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam)??? Surely, we do not keep count of our sins, in fact most of them we so easily forget, but Allah opens the door of forgiveness, and all we have to do is knock on that door-by repentence and asking for His forgiveness, and insha Allah there will come a time when we can walk through that door.

Allah does not want us to become desperate and without hope. Allah WANTS us to supplicate to Him, He WANTS us to knock on that door, in fact He LOVES those who repent. This can be concluded from the following hadith [in sahih Muslim]:


Abu Hurairah narrated from the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam that he said:


"By Allah! If you did not commit sins, Allah would have taken you away and brought a people who seek Allah's forgiveness, and He would forgive them".


Another important point which we must pay attention to are the perfect Names of Allah, and we must call upon Him by His Names and worship Him by that which His Names demand. Allah Himself said:


"And the most beatiful names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them ". [Al-A'raf (7):180]


Also, it is reported [sahih Bukhari and Muslim] that Rasulullah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:


"Allah has ninety-nine names, a hundred except one. Whoever memorises and is mindful of them will enter Paradise".


From this hadith we see that mere memorisation of His names is not sufficient. Rather, as the scholars have explained, mindfulness of His names comprises three levels:


1. Memorisation of the names
2. Understanding of their meanings
3. Calling upon Allah by these names and acting as they demand.


Shaykh 'Abdur Razzaq gave a beautiful example of this by saying:


"As an example of this, we may take from the names of Allah that of At-Tawwab. We then understand that its' meaning, 'He who guides His servants to repent and accepts their repentance', is telling us that Allah, the Majestic and Most High, accepts His servant's repentence, guides them to repent and grants that to them. We also understand that He, the Most High, is the only One to grant forgiveness. Having understood all this, we act as the name demands by repenting to Allah from all our sins......However, it is important that our understanding of them should be correct and far removed from such corrupt methodologies as ta'wil, which attempts to explain away the meanings of Allah's attributes by deviated and twisted understandings, or ta'til, which denies both the attributes and that which they indicate-that which Allah and His Messenger sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam intended. No, our understanding is based upon the methodology of the Salaf of the Ummah".


This only briefly touches the topic of the importance and the manner of seeking forgiveness, and I pray that we may find it benefical in this world and in the Hereafter. A Muslim should live between hope, fear and love, trying to stay away from the impermissible-thus fearing Allah; seeking forgiveness for his sins-thus hoping in Allah; praising and thanking Allah and always thinking good of his Lord-thus loving Allah. There are so many blessings that Allah bestows upon each and every one of us, and we should thank Him for them and take advantage of them before our time expires. So I leave you with the beautiful and perfect words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala:


"Allah does not forgive that anything is associated in worship with Him, but He forgives whatever is lesser than that to whomever He pleases". [An-Nisa (4):48]


"Indeed I am forgiving to the one who repents, truly believes and does righteous good deeds, and then remains constant in doing them". [Ta Ha (20):82]

"Say, O My servants who have transgressed greatly against themselves! Do not despair of the Mercy of Allah. Indeed Allah forgives all sins. Indeed He is Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful". [Az-Zumar (39):53]