Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,
Yesterday Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad (may Allah preserve his legacy) gave a very beautiful, and practical, reminder on turning in repentance to Allah Most High. I wanted to share a few of the points he made for those who were not able to listen to the talk.
1. Detached Yourself from Bad Company
Everyone is responsible for their own actions, but the company we keep strongly influences the decisions we make and can often be the impetus leading us to sin. Imam Ghazali mentions that a bad companion is worse than the bite of a snake, since the poison of a snake only kills the body, whereas the poison of a bad companion kills ones iman.
He further explains that a bad companion is actually worse than shaytan, since while shaytan will plant the idea to sin in our heart, he does not compel us to act. It is our doing which takes that idea and manifests it in sin. But when a friend calls us toward sin, he not only plants the idea in our mind, but grabs our hand and drags us toward the sin.
2. Make Tawbah from Two Sides
As soon as we disobey Allah Most High, we should ideally turn to Him in sincere repentance. However many times we may not realize the mistake right away, or be so caught up in it, that we dont care. So once we recognize the disobedience, we need to make tawbah from two sides:
a. Tawbah from the disobedience, and
b. Tawbah from the delay in making tawbah.
3. Fulfilling Rights is Part of Tawbah
Part of tawbah is having remorse and asking for forgiveness, but we must also ensure that the rights due upon us are fulfilled. Some of these are the rights of Allah, for example making up missed prayers and fasts, paying our overdue zakah, etc., while others are the rights of the servants of Allah, for example compensating for any financial loss (i.e in the case of theft), apologizing to someone if we backbit or spoke inappropriately to them, etc.
4. A Common Deterrent to Tawbah
We have all made our fair share of mistakes (may Allah forgive us), but sometimes shaytan tricks us into thinking, I have so many sins, how can they all be forgiven. There is no point in making tawbah! The key is not to look at the sins, however numerous and horrific they may be, but rather to look at the one forgiving the sins; how perfect and merciful is He!
5. A Common Complaint After Tawbah
I made tawbah, but bad memories of the sin linger. If the tawbah was sincere, the memories will dissipate over time. Focus on creating good memories in the meantime (i.e. acts of obedience), and on increasing your daily dhikr (so that the remembrance of Allah can replace the whisperings of shaytan).
These were just a few of the reminders; may Allah Most High forgive my shortcomings in presenting the words of our beloved Shaykh.
The most needy of servants,
khalid abdul sattar
http://www.ilmessentials.com/general/reminder-concerning-tawbah.html