Tawbah: Learn The 2 Kinds Of Repentance To Allah.↩️

Two Types of Repentance

There are two types of repentance and returning to Allah. Ibn al-Qayyim says there's تَوْبَةُ الْعَوَام — the repentance of regular people — which is: we make a mistake, make a blunder, and we say, "Allah, I'm sorry, please take me back." And he says there's something called تَوْبَةُ الْخَوَاص — the special repentance for Allah's special people.

There are people repenting to Allah from doing good deeds. Now I'm going to ask you a very interesting question.

The Lesson of Ghufrānak

Every day there is something you do — every day, yeah? The Prophet ﷺ, when he finished this, he would say:

What is that deed? Relieving yourselves. When you answer the call of nature, the Prophet ﷺ — when he would go to the toilet, answer the call of nature, and come out — he would say: "O Allah, forgive me."

Forgive me from what? From the digestive system. What is he asking forgiveness for? When you and I are answering the call of nature, there is a digestive system working, right? Honestly, there are people who have irritable bowel syndrome, there are people whose digestive systems are not working — go ask them. Habibi, if you had a normal digestive system, how would you feel? They'll fall on sujood immediately. Say, "Please, let's swap."

You see, the digestive system is a huge blessing. And so while answering the call of nature, this is a blessing from Allah that you're able to actually remove the impure parts of your body. And it's something that requires praise and gratitude.

But in the toilet, are you allowed to mention Allah's name? No. So because for five minutes you didn't mention the name of Allah, when he came out the Prophet ﷺ used to say: "O Allah, forgive me. I should have said Your name. I should have thanked You. But I couldn't. Please forgive me."

The Secret of the Tawbah of Allah's Special People

You see — and here is the secret of the tawbah of Allah's special people. They don't ask Allah's forgiveness for crimes and major sins. They ask Allah's forgiveness constantly because they never feel like they've done enough.

The Prophet ﷺ — why did he ask Allah's forgiveness a hundred times a day? Not because he sinned. Not because he's a criminal. Not because he's done major sins. But because he never felt that what he did for Allah was good enough for him to relax.