Tawbah – Clean the Dirt

It was reported by Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ drew a line with his hand and he said, “This is the straight path of Allah.” Then the Prophet ﷺ drew lines to the right and left, and he said, “These are other paths, and there is no path among them but that a devil is upon it calling to its way.” Then the Prophet ﷺ recited the verse, “Verily, this is the straight path, so follow it and do not follow other paths” [6:153]. [Musnad Ahmad] 

The Prophet ﷺ is telling us that the religion of Islam is the straight path, and once you accept this religion, you should know the direction you should be moving in. The fact that the Prophet ﷺ drew lines on the left and right and said Shaytan is at the end of each line indicates that there are paths out there ready to take us away from the religion. Now, although the scholars have said these paths are referring to innovation, one can expand on the concept and mention that there will be many forms of distraction when one is on a path of success. So when it comes to your religion, you might sometimes find your friends taking you away from this straight path. You might find the types of things you are listening to taking you away from this straight path. You might find the types of things you are watching, speaking about and sometimes ingesting are taking you away from this straight path. If you are serious about being a successful Muslim and staying on the straight path, then you will have to be strong and overcome these distractions of life.  

However, human beings have been created weak and this is why we all commit sins. We commit sins knowingly and sometime unknowingly. One may ask, does Allah want us to be a sinless creation? The Prophet ﷺ answered this question by saying,“If you did not sin, Allah would replace you with people who would sin and they would seek forgiveness from Allah and He would forgive them”. [Muslim] 

So the answer is no, we are not expected to be sinless. However, the Prophet ﷺ did advise us on how to deal with sins. He ﷺ said, every son of Adam is a sinner and the best sinners are those who do tawbah - ask Allah for forgiveness.  

Therefore, one of the ways to get rid of sins and stay on the straight path is to do tawbah – which is to ask Allah sincerely for forgiveness. We must think about the major sins we commit sincerely and ask Allah to help us stop them. We also have to make a good effort to stay away from the evil. Let us say that we have a problem with music, start listening to good nasheeds. If you have a problem with smoking and other bad habits, seek advice and have good friends who will have a positive effect on you. You will naturally, actively and passively learn from them and follow them.  

One thing that must be emphasised, and one has to be careful with the following message, is that even if we do a lot of sins, no matter how big or small they are, we should never give up having hope in the mercy of Allah and think that Allah will not forgive us. In a Hadith ul Qudsi, “Allah said, oh son of Adam, if you have sins piling up to the clouds and then ask for my forgiveness, I will forgive you”. [Tirmidhi]  

If you sincerely tawbah then all your sins will be wiped out. Regardless of the nature of the sin. Once you do tawbah, ask Allah sincerely to forgive you, then it will be as if you did not commit the sins, meaning that Allah will forgive you.  

The Prophet ﷺ had a habit of asking for forgiveness 100 times a day, so what about us? We make mistakes and sin every day, and therefore it should also be part of our daily habits to seek forgiveness from Allah.  

I’ll end the first part of the khutbah by sharing an advice given by Allah to the Muslims,
  وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّـهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ  
“…turn all together to Allah in repentance, oh you believers, so that you may be successful”. [24:31] 

Tawbah, asking for forgiveness, allows one to connect to Allah. It is so beloved to Allah that He said,
  إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ 
"Verily, Allah loves those who repent and those who purify themselves". [2:222] 

We have mentioned that it is impossible to not commit sins, however, is it impossible to do good deeds? Can we really believe a person who says that it is impossible to do righteous good deeds? Of course not. In fact, it is another way to get rid of our sins. The Prophet ﷺ said,“Follow a bad deed with a good deed and it will erase it”. [Tirmidhi]  

The advice is as simple as, do good deeds as much as possible with the hope that it will wipe out the bad ones. So if you have a habit of swearing, replace bad words with good words. Instead of using foul language, try to embed good words or Islamic terminologies; for example, say Subhanallah instead of the S word. Replace the F word and B word with words that can help you express yourself in a good way. You might think that it is ‘minor’ and not a big deal to use bad and vulgar words; but, the words piling up in your account of bad deeds. They will shape your future. If you make it a habit of using bad words, then they will become part and parcel of your actions. The saying goes, watch your actions, they will become your habits; watch your habits, they will become your character; watch your character, for it will become your destiny.  

 
Those who do not stop bad habits and do not engage in tawbah will have huge stacks of bad deeds. And we all know, if one’s bad deeds outweigh the good then that person will enter Jahannam, hell. One can describe the Jahannam at length, but if we just talk about the fire of hell, it should help us reduce our bad habits. The Prophet ﷺ said,“Your fire (in this world) is a part of the seventy parts of the fire of Hell”. [Bukhari & Muslim] 

So the hottest blue flame is nothing compared to the fire of hell. Imagine the hottest fire in this world, multiply it by 69, then that is the intensity of the fire of hell. To be honest, one cannot even imagine the pain the fire of hell will cause. May Allah protect us all from the fire of Jahannam. So let go of those bad words so the fire of hell does not touch your tongues. Let go of watching those bad things so the fire of hell does not have to touch eyes.  

Another issue that needs to be raised is to do with social media. At the end of the day most of us have two or more social media accounts. If you do something incorrect, like sharing a bad video or making negative comments, then try to stop yourself as soon as possible. Imagine if you share a bad video, and then your friends share it and then their friends share it. Can you imagine the amount of sins you will be accumulating? On the other hand, if you share Islamic videos and then others share it, imagine how many good deeds you will earn. So let us make it a habit to share at least one good thing every day on our social media and perhaps the good deeds will override the many bad deeds we have done.   

I conclude by asking Allah to give us the ability to do tawbah and seek His forigiveness on a daily basis, to forgive us for our shortcomings and to give us the strength and sincerity to do good deeds which will erase our bad deeds. Ameen.