jannahbound*
"So lose not heart, nor fall into despair: and you shall have the upper hand if you are believers." --
Quran (3:139)
"Life is only a crossing point and a passage that is not lasting,
just like a cloud that will soon move, and a dream that one will soon wake up from..."
- Ibn al-Qayyim
Saturday, January 10, 2009 @ 2:37 PM
Why you should never despair...
Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullah) said:"Sin may be more beneficial for a person, if it leads him to repent, than doing a lot of acts of worship. This is what is meant by the words of one of the salaf: 'A person may commit a sin and enter Paradise because of it, or he may do an act of worship and enter Hell because of it.'They said: 'How is that?'
He said: 'He may commit a sin and continues to think about it, and when he stands or sits or walks he remembers his sin, so he feels ashamed and repents and seeks forgiveness and regrets it, so that will be the means of his salvation. And he may do a good deed and continue to think about it, and when he stands or sits or walks he remembers it and it fills him with self-admiration and pride, so it is the cause of his doom.
So the sin may be the factor that leads him to do acts of worship and good deeds and to change his attitude so that he fears Allah and feels shy before Him and feels humiliated before Him, hanging his head in shame and weeping with regret, seeking he forgiveness of his Lord. Each of these effects is better for a person than an act of worship that makes him feel proud and show off and look down on people.
Undoubtedly this sin is better before Allah and is more likely to bring salvation than one who admires himself and looks down on others, and who thinks that he is doing Allah a favour. Even if he says words that indicate something other than that, Allah is the Witness over what is in his heart. Such a person may feel hatred towards people if they do not hold him in high esteem and humiliate themselves before him. If he were to examine himself honestly, he would see that clearly."
Anas (Radhi Allahu Ta'ala Anhu), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu alayhi wa Sallam) say: "Allah the Almighty said: O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great at it." [at-Tirmidhi, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal]
I am nothing more than a muslimah and mu'minah, insha'Allah, who is striving to please Allah
SWT.
A righteous man once said:
"Whoever enriches his outward behaviour by following the sunnah, and makes his inward soul wealthy through
contemplation,
and averts his gaze away from looking at what is forbidden, and avoids anything of a doubtful nature, and feeds
solely on what is halal- his inner sight will never falter."