Nineteenth: Repentance

It is an honoured position. None can be exempted from it because of the abundance of sins. One should keep repenting in the beginning of the matter and in its end. We are informed that he, peace and blessings be upon him and his progeny, has said to Abu-Dhār: ((The rights of Allah, exalted be He, are greater than to be done by the slave. So, when you begin your day, be amongst those who repent, and when you are at the beginning of your night, be amongst those who repent)).

Repentance has two basics:

• One of them is regret. One must regret the ugly deed that he did because of its ugliness. One must regret what he neglected from the obligation, as it is considered a neglecting in the obligation. He has to exaggerate in this regret with an intensive exaggeration, so that this regret can be considered bigger than the regret for mistaking or neglecting in the mundane matters, as much as possible. He should repent for every single sin. Or else he must repent for all his sins, totally and at once, if he was not able to count them. He must fulfil all what he neglected in from the rights of Allah, exalted be He, and from the rights of the creatures, according to the way that saves him according to the Islamic Law.
• The second basic is the intention, which means to intend a strong intention (as strong as he can) not to do anything ugly and not to neglect anything from the obligation. It is also to break one’s desire, and to humble oneself by bearing some of the exhausting worships like fasting, praying and similar.

When all of the previously mentioned are done completely, then it is considered the honest accepted repentance if it is the will of Allah, exalted be He.

He must not be free from fear and dread, as he does not guarantee that the repentance has happened according to the way which is satisfying and acceptable. What helps him on completing the repentance is to fill his heart with fear and dread, because the repentance does not last except with these matters. There is no doubt that fear for repentance is like the base of the building. And from its strongest motivations and powerful reasons is the mention of death as much as possible, and mentioning the conditions which is prior to death and the matters which comes after the death from the tests or torturing inside the graves, and remembering the conditions of resurrection, and reviving, and for the conditions of the people of Hell and people of Paradise. He who feels that there is toughness in his heart, should imagine and realize his conditions at the time death reaches the throat and end of life, as well as when the soul leaves the body. He should imagine his case and the reaction of his family regarding death, and what he will feel about them, his orphans and how will they cry for him and how sad will be them for him. This also applies to the rest of the matters that should be known according to the necessity of habit. He, peace and blessings be upon him and his progeny, said; ((He who mentions death a lot will forget the desires. He who forgets the desires, the disasters will be so easy for him to accept. He who accepts the disasters will hurry to do the good deeds)).

Know that conserving repentance is very difficult, and these who cannot keep it are the majority of people. Some of the sages said that people are divided according to repentance into three levels:

• One who repented in front of himself, in case he did not face a desire, but if he faces a desire, then he will miss the judgment and he will commit it. Most of the people do this.
• One who repented with his heart, but his limbs confuse him, so it goes straight sometimes and it goes fairly sometime. He makes a great effort, and according to this great effort, his gloominess and unhappiness increases.
• One who repented with his heart, and his limbs are cooperating together, so he becomes addicted to reckoning himself because he fears that he might do some mistake or that his enemy might have victory over him. This is the one who deserves to grant the infallibility and steadiness from Allah.