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Bismillah Ir-Rahman, Ir-Raheem. I begin with ALLAH's auspiciousness,whose Name is the Best among all the names. All Revences, All Sanctities and All Worships are due to ALLAH alone. Ashahadu An Laa illaaha illal llahu Wa Ash Hadu Anna Muhammadan Abdu Hu Wa Rasooluhu ''I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah who is without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) is the Rasool.'' "O Allah, Shower Your Peace come upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as you have brought peace to Ibrahim and his family.
Truly, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious. O Allah, Shower your blessing upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as you have blessed Ibrahim and his family. Truly, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious". Iam Satisfied with Allâh as My Rabb and Cherisher,Iam Satisfied With Islam as My Din(religion) and I am satisfied with Muhammad as a Rasulallah (Messenger)sallallahu alaihi was salam) I seek Protection with ALLAH! With the Glorious and Noble Face of ALLAH! With the Complete and Perfect words of ALLAH! With the Exalted Attributes of ALLAH! From the Punishment of Hell; From chastisement in the Grave; From the Trial of Life and Death; From the Mischief of the dajjal. There is no power nor strength with (anyone) save Allah. ALLAH is Good and Only accept that which is Good. ALLAH is the Truth and only accept that which True. ALLAH is Pure and only accept that which is Pure. Ya ALLAH! ALL the praises are for You,You are the Holder of the Heavens and the Earth, And whatever is in them. Ya ALLAH! All praises are for You; You are are the Substaner of the Heavens and the Earth And whatever is in them. Ya ALLAH! All the praises are for you;You have the Possession of the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is in them. Ya ALLAH! All the praises are for You; You are Light(Nur) of the Heavens and Earth And whatever is in them. Ya ALLAH! All praises are for You; You are the King of the Heavens and the Earth And whatever is in them. Ya ALLAH! All praises are for You; You are the Truth and Your Promise is the Truth, And Your word is the Truth and the Meeting with You is true, And Parardise is True And Hell is true and All the Prophets(peace be upon them) are true; And Muhammad Rasulallah(sallallahu alayhi wa salam) is true,And the Day of Resurrection is True. Ya ALLAH! You have promise and Your promise is the truth,Ya ALLAH! You have promise and Your words is the truth, Ya ALLAH! You have promise and You are the Truth!. ---from Mad?rij al-S?lik?n bayna man?zil iyy?ka na?budu wa iyy?ka nasta??n
[The Stages of the Seekers between the ranks of “You alone we worship and from You alone we seek help”]
By Ab? ?Abdill?h Muhammad ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (691-751 AH/1292-1350 CE)
[References to the hadiths can be found at sunnah.com]
The Station of Repentance (maq?m al-tawbah)
When this [previous] station [of accountability (mu??sabah)] is made sound, and the worshiper settles into this level, he is able to ascend from it to the station of repentance because through accountability he can distinguish concerning himself what is for him from what is against him. Therefore, he joins together his resoluteness and firm will to descend into it and to endeavor on it until death.
The level of repentance is the beginning, middle, and end of all levels. Thus, the worshiper and seeker never departs from it or ceases in it until death. If he travels on to another level, he travels by way of repentance. He makes it his companion and settles into it. Repentance is the beginning and end for the worshiper. His need for it is a necessity until the end just as his need for it in the beginning. Allah the Exalted says, “Repent to Allah all together, O you believers, perhaps you will be successful” [25:31]. This verse is in a Medinan s?rah. Allah is telling the people of faith and the best of His creation to repent to Him after they had faith and patience, made the migration, and engaged in the struggle (jih?d). Then He associated success with repentance, which is an association of the effect with its cause. He uses the particle “perhaps” to give awareness of hope. It announces to them that when you repent, you have the hope of success. Therefore, people cannot hope for success unless they are repentant. May Allah make us among those people.
Allah says, “Those who do not repent are among the oppressors” [49:11]. He divides the worshipers into the penitent and the oppressor. There is no place at all for a third group. He puts the name “oppressor” on whoever does not repent. There is no one more unjust than this person because he is ignorant of his Rabb and what is owed to Him, and of the defectiveness of his soul and the evil effects of his actions.
In the ?a??? from Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) who said, “O people, repent to Allah. By Allah, I repent to Him more than seventy times a day.”[1] His companions used to count him saying in any gathering, “My Rabb forgive me and accept my repentance, for You are the One who accepts repentance and forgives,”[2] one hundred times before he stood up. He did not make any prayer after S?rah al-Na?r [110] was revealed except that he mentioned in it, “Glory be to You, O Allah, my Rabb, and all praise to You. O Allah, forgive me.” It is authentically reported from him Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) that he said, “Not one of you will be saved by his actions.” They said, “Not even you, Ya Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)?” He said, “Not even I, for it is only that Allah will cover me with mercy and favor from Him.”[3] So may Allah bless and grant peace to the most knowledgeable of creation about Allah and the rights owed to Him, and about His majesty and what He the Most Sublime deserves of worship. He is the most cognizant of creation about worship and its duties, and he is the most righteous of them in establishing it.
[1] See Bukh?r?, 6307; Muslim, 2702b; Ibn M?jah, 3815.
[2] See Ab? D?w?d, 1516; Ibn M?jah, 3814.
[3] See Bukh?r?, 6463.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Reality of Repentance for the Seeker of the Truth (pt. 2)
from Mad?rij al-S?lik?n bayna man?zil iyy?ka na?budu wa iyy?ka nasta??n
[The Stages of the Seekers between the ranks of “You alone we worship and from You alone we seek help”]
By Ab? ?Abdill?h Muhammad ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (691-751 AH/1292-1350 CE)
The Reality of Repentance (?aq?qat al-tawbah)
Since repentance is the return of the worshiper to Allah, and his separation from the path of those on whom is wrath and who have gone astray, then that is not obtainable except by the guidance of Allah to the straight path. His guidance is not obtained except by His aid and His oneness (taw??dihi). Thus, S?rah al-F?ti?ah has given repentance the best arrangement and the most far reaching inclusion. If a person gives al-F?ti?ah what it deserves in terms of knowledge, witnessing, and full cognition of status, then he would know that he has no sound recitation of it on the basis of worship except through sincere repentance (al-tawbah al-na???). The perfected guidance to the straight path cannot occur with ignorance of sins, and certainly not with persistence in committing them. Firstly, ignorance negates recognition of guidance. Secondly, deviation negates the aim and desire for guidance. For this reason, repentance cannot be sound except after the recognition and acknowledgement of sin, and seeking to free oneself from the evil of its consequences from beginning to end.
?Abdull?h al-Haraw?[1] says in al-Man?zil, “Repentance is to observe sin in relation to three things: to your being withdrawn from protection (al-?i?mah) when you commit sin, to your joy in being successful in sinning, and to your failure while persisting (in sin) to comprehend it while being certain that the True One is observing you.”
It is possible that what he means by withdrawal from protection is the withdrawal of a person from his clinging to Allah for protection (?an i?ti??mihi bi-ll?h). If he had clung to Allah for protection, he would not depart from the guidance of obedience. Allah the Exalted says, “Whoever clings to Allah for protection has been guided to a straight path” [3:101]. If his protection with Allah is completed, then He would never abstain from assisting him. Allah the Exalted says, “Cling to Allah for protection, He is your guardian (mawl?), what an excellent guardian, what an excellent helper” [22:78]. This means that when you cling to Him for protection, He will guard you, and He will help you against yourselves and against Satan. These are the two enemies that do not separate from the worshiper or the human being. Their enmity is more harmful than the enmity of the external enemy. Therefore, help against the enemy is most important, and the worshiper is most in need of it. The perfection of help against the enemy is in accordance to the perfection of clinging to Allah for protection. The discussion will come after this, if Allah wills, about the reality of clinging for protection, and that faith can only be established through it.
It is also possible that he means the withdrawal of the protection of Allah given to you. That is, you will commit a sin only after your withdrawal from repentance as His protection for you. Thus, at this time a person should recognize this withdrawal—that the peril of this to him is magnified, and his separation is intensified for him, and he comes to know that each and every destructive [sin] drives him further away, that being the reality of the abstention of aid. Thus Allah does not leave a void between you and your sin except after He abstained from aiding you. He leaves a void between you and your soul, for were He to protect you and grant you success, sin would not find a way to you.
The sages (al-??rif?n) agree that concerning Allah, the abstention of aid means that Allah leaves you in the care of your own soul, and He leaves a void between you and it. And they agree that success means that He does not leave you in the care of your own soul. Allah, glory be to Him, has levels of wisdom and secrets concerning this void, and we will mention some of them [in another section]. The summary of these two possibilities is that repentance refers to your clinging to Him and His protection for you.
?Abdull?h al-Haraw? says, “to your joy in being successful in sinning.” Rejoicing over disobedience indicates the strength of the desire for it. It indicates the ignorance commensurate to the one who disobeys Him and the ignorance regarding the evil consequences of disobedience and the tremendous peril of it. His joy over it conceals all of that from him. Thus, his joy over it is a greater harm to him than actually committing an act of disobedience. A believer would never have complete delight in disobedience, and his joy in it would not be perfected. Rather, his pleasure in it comes only with a mixture of grief in his heart. However, the intoxication of desire veils him from perceiving it. At this time, his heart is void of this grief, and his pleasure and happiness intensify. Then he has suspicions about his faith, and he weeps over the death of his heart. For if it were alive, it would cause him to grieve about committing a sin, and that would irritate him and make sin difficult for him. Yet, a heart might not sense that. Then in as much as it did not sense it, that would be like an injury causing pain to a carcass.
Few people are guided to this point concerning sin or have heightened attention about it. It is a place of great fear and an arrow’s flight to destruction if there is not continued vigilance of three issues: fear that death overcomes him before repenting, regret over all the things from Allah that are lost to him by opposing His command, and endeavoring with earnestness to become rectified with Him.
?Abdull?h al-Haraw? says, “and to your failure while persisting (in sin) to comprehend it while being certain that ALLAH! The True One is observing you.” Persistence means being established on opposition (to Allah) and remaining firm on returning (to sin). That is now another sin, and perhaps it is much greater than the first sin. This is one of the punishments of sin, that it causes another sin greater than the previous one. Then this second one causes another sin, and that causes another one, to the point that the person is deserving of destruction.
Persistence in disobedience is another act of disobedience. The failure of the negligent person to comprehend disobedience means persistence and contentment with it, and tranquility concerning it. That is a sign of destruction. Yet more severe than all of this is to publicize sin while being certain that the Rabb, supreme is His majesty, is looking down at him from above the throne. Therefore, if he believes that He is looking at him and yet proceeds to publicize (the sin), then that is repugnant. However, if he does not believe that He is looking at him and is fully informed about him, then that is disbelief and complete abandonment of Islam. Thus he fluctuates between two conditions: either having diminished humility while publically admitting that Allah sees him, or disbelieving and abandoning the religion.
For this reason, it is a condition for the soundness of repentance that he is certain that Allah continuously sees him and is fully informed about him, and that He sees him clearly at the occurrence of sin. This is so because repentance is not sound except coming from a Muslim. And if he disbelieves in Allah’s seeing him, and disputes it, then his repentance is his entrance into Islam and his firmly establishing the attributes of the Rabb , supreme is His majesty.
[1] [trans. note: ?Abdull?h al-An??r? al-Haraw? (396-481 AH/1006-1089 CE) was a well known scholar and ascetic associated with the ?anbal? madhhab. Ibn al-Qayyim’s book is a lengthy commentary on al-Haraw?’s earlier book called Kit?b Man?zil al-S??ir?n (The Book of the Levels of the Travelers).]