The Primary Pause for Repentance

Indeed all praise belongs to Allah, we praise Him, seek His aid and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our souls and evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides there is none to misguide and whomsoever Allah misguides there is none to guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah without any partners and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O Allah send Your Mercy on Muhammad and his posterity as You sent Your mercy on Abraham and his posterity. You are the Most Praised, The Most Glorious. O Allah, send Your Blessings on Muhammad and his posterity as You have blessed Abraham and his posterity. You are the Most praised, The Most Glorious.

To Proceed,

Now as we approach the end of this year .. you must have a pause ..a  pause of amendment .. a pause for judgment.. to find out where you stand from Allah!!

Are you progressing or regressing? .. Are your deeds increasing or decreasing? What is your position in regards to Allah and  are you really a servant of Allah?

A believer should have pauses of accountabilities blaming himself ..

Pauses to admonish himself.. And keep it  accountable and under close watch..

If it went astray, you sentence a punishment.  

Usually  when there is a race, horses run to their fullest capacity as they approach the end.

this should be the way we, too, end our race with. .. 

whatever is the end

Watch out how your year ends!

You must know that the renewed job of a lifetime.. is the job of repentance.  Allah all Mighty ordered us to repent: {And all of you beg All�h to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful} An-Noor:31

The prophet peace and blessings be upon him used to repent and ask for Allah's forgiveness a hundred times a day. Here we have a pause, Repentance is one thing and asking for Forgiveness is another thing: {Seek the forgiveness of your Lord, and turn to Him in repentance} Hud:3

This shows that there is a difference between repentance and asking for Allah's forgiveness.

The servant of Allah needs quality time asking for Allah's forgiveness so that Allah will cover his fault. That is the truth about asking for Forgiveness.. It is the procedure of asking Allah to cover faults..      

The Second phase, after the phase of repentance, is seeking the erasing of sins. Sins would disappear without any trace or smudge in the heart. The prophet peace and blessings be upon him used to ask Allah for forgiveness as well as repent not only by mass numbers of supplications "I ask Allah for forgiveness". On the Contrary, he used to watch his heart and feel each supplication move his soul. He used to renew Repentance a hundred times a day. 

Consequently the job of a life time we are all asked to perform, that is regarded as the primary step on the way to Repentance is Confession.

You may feel like justifying yourself:

" I admit my sins, I am in debt to Allah, I am a sinner."

 But you find in your heart some excuses to your stance. Your excuses may include:

"O what can I do? The world makes us forget . .What do we do, should we forget about our children and wives? Should we forget about our work? Should our life be confined to living in Mosques until Allah is pleased? This is not our religion, so what should I do. All the previous reasons make me forget. Another, would say I am young and I need to marry in this era that's full of desires.

My eyes always fall on what's abstained thus finding myself dwelling in sins. What should I do? I am a young man and I can't afford marriage expenses. Another would say I don't work a job that keeps me living moderately. So what should I do? Sometimes I sin and another can't find money ... and another and another "...

All these justifications are only hangers we place between us and Allah. As much as these justifications increase, your repentance will never work. You are not admitting real confessions. You are saying: I am a sinner, but what can I do? This sin was out of my control. I didn't want to dwell into sins.

So what made you fall in them? Who was the reason? Was Allah unjust to you? You will reply:" no never Allah is never unjust" ..

But your heart has a mustard- seed weight of hidden disapproval..

You would say in your subconscious why didn't Allah give me money? Why didn't He give me a wife? Why did He make me in such a social standard? Why didn't He make it easier for me to worship Him?

This is where danger lurks ... We are not pleased with our destiny.. that's why the prophet peace and blessings be upon him said: "The one who tastes the sweetness of belief is the one who is pleased with Allah as his God .. and Islam as his religion .. and Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him as his prophet. "

Did you taste it?

This was the basic step while pausing for Confession..

 Source: Pausing for Confession, written by Sheikh Hany Hilmy

To be Continued ...  Pausing for Confession  (Search for the article in the INdex )