3 Levels of Forgiveness - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Three Levels of Forgiveness

I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and that peace and blessings be upon him and his family and companions.

This topic of forgiveness — and the means of attaining forgiveness — is what I want to focus today's khutbah upon. I want to mention to you a single hadith of our Prophet ﷺ in which the Prophet narrated from his Lord and our Lord a hadith qudsi — three ways, three of the greatest ways of attaining and achieving forgiveness from Allah. And these three things should be uppermost in our minds throughout this month of Ramadan.

The Hadith Qudsi: Three Levels

In the hadith of Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, that is collected in the Jami' of Imam al-Tirmidhi, our Prophet ﷺ said that Allah says — and the hadith qudsi is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ takes the words and the meanings from his Lord directly, as opposed to every other hadith where the meaning is from Allah because the Prophet ﷺ only spoke with Allah's command and with His revelation when he came to the affairs of this religion. But the wordings, the speech — they are the wordings of the Prophet ﷺ. In the hadith qudsi, the wording and the meaning both come from Allah.

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

"O child of Adam" — addressing each and every single one of us sitting here — "so long as you continue to make du'a along with raja', I will forgive you for whatever your sins may be, and I will not mind."

This is the first level of forgiveness. In this hadith, three levels of forgiveness will be mentioned, and they will be opposing three types and levels of sin. This is the first of them and the least of them.

The First Level: Du'a with Raja'

Allah says: so long as you make du'a — asking for Allah's forgiveness, seeking Allah's mercy — but with the cause that along with it is raja', Allah says that He will forgive you for whatever your sins may be. And there isn't a single person here except that we are in need of that type of du'a, that type of forgiveness from Allah.

Only we know the number of sins that we have committed. Only we know how grand and how big and how major they are. Only we know the reality of ourselves. And that is why the Salaf, may Allah have mercy upon them, used to say that from the greatest mercies of Allah upon us is that sins don't have an odor. They don't smell. Because if sins had an odor, I wouldn't be able to sit with you, you wouldn't be able to sit with me — because you would be so repugnant, the odor of our sins. That is how often we sin.

But from the mercy of Allah, and especially in this month of Ramadan, is that those gates of forgiveness are wide open. It is not befitting for a Muslim that the whole month of Ramadan passes by and they don't make tawbah once, they don't make istighfar once, they don't make du'a to Allah once to forgive them for what is a lifetime of sins.

Sins that we do openly and secretly, sins that we do by day and by night, sins that we do individually and as groups — as whole communities together, families en masse, sinning against Allah. In this hadith the Prophet ﷺ is saying that our Lord says: so long as you make that du'a but with raja'.

Raja' means hope. Raja' means that you have an attentive heart when you make du'a. It doesn't mean any type of du'a where your lips are moving or you are seeing the words but your heart is elsewhere — there is no sincerity, there is no attention, there is no focus in your du'a. The Prophet ﷺ said in another hadith: make du'a and you are certain of Allah's promise that He answers every single du'a. Doesn't Allah tell us in the Quran, in Surah al-Baqarah, in the midst of the verses of fasting:

"And when My slaves ask you concerning Me, tell them that I am close. I respond to the one who makes du'a to Me." What greater du'a is there that me and you can have in this month of Ramadan than the du'a to ask Allah for His forgiveness?

The Prophet ﷺ said: make du'a and you have certainty that Allah will answer. For Allah does not accept the du'a of the heart that is neglectful, the heart that is heedless, the heart that is somewhere else while the tongue is saying the words of du'a. When you are focused, you have attention, you are concentrating in your du'a — you know the importance of that du'a and the need that you have of Allah's forgiveness — Allah makes a promise to me and you that He will forgive our sins wherever they may be.

Me and you may have a sin that we think is extremely great. It is major in our eyes and it may well be major. But so long as we don't come with shirk, Allah can forgive every single one of those sins — and Allah does forgive them. This month of Ramadan is a prime opportunity to make istighfar.

The Prophet ﷺ, in the well-known hadith, stood upon the three steps of the minbar and on each one of them he said: Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. When the companions asked him, "O Messenger of Allah, why did you say Ameen?" He said because Jibreel, peace be upon him, came to him, and from the du'as that he made was: the one who sees the month of Ramadan and it passes him by and he doesn't seek forgiveness for his sins — then may he be distanced, may his nose be rubbed in the ground in dust and in sand. And the Prophet ﷺ said Ameen to that du'a. This shows you what is on offer in this month of Ramadan. But you must take that opportunity and grasp it with both hands.

The Second Level: Istighfar and Tawbah

The Prophet ﷺ then said that Allah says in this hadith qudsi — the second level of forgiveness, in accordance with that second level of sin which is greater:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

"If your sins were to reach the level and the height of the clouds of the sky, and then you were to make istighfar, Allah says that He would forgive you. If you were to repent, Allah says that He will forgive you."

If me and you were to take our sins and place them, stack them one on top of the other — all of us without exception — I think our sins would reach the height of the skies. The clouds that you see above you — that is how much our sins would be, one upon the other upon the other. And that is because we often sin and we forget the sins that we commit. If you were to sit down and try to remember every sin that we committed today, yesterday, last week, last month, last year — let alone the 20, 30, 40, 50 years of our lifetime — it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to write down every single one.

And then what do we know about the scale of those sins and their impact? We sin but we don't realize the scale of that sin. We sin, we don't realize the gravity of that sin. We disobey Allah and we hurt and harm others and oppress them. We don't know the effect of those sins and the way that they will be measured on Yawm al-Qiyamah.

But in this hadith the Prophet ﷺ is saying that Allah is saying to me and you: then you make istighfar, you make tawbah, you turn to Allah. And this is a specific act of worship that is more specific than the first level. The first level you are making a du'a. But istighfar in the second level has certain conditions.

From those conditions is that you make a firm conviction that you will not return to that sin. From those conditions is that you show remorse and regret before Allah for the sins that you have committed. From those conditions is that if you have hurt others and oppressed them, you return their rights to them. If you do that, the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah said that He will forgive you for all of those sins. That stack of sins that goes up to the sky — Allah will remove them all and expiate them. Allah will change those evil deeds into good deeds. Allah will reward you — by a single act of istighfar, you wipe away a whole lifetime of sin.

The Story of the Man from Bani Israel

The Prophet told us ﷺ in the well-known hadith of the man from Bani Israel who killed 99 men in cold blood — murdered them. In our time you would call such a person a serial killer. Someone who goes and kills people randomly — 99 men. But then within his heart he felt remorse. He wanted to turn back to Allah. So he was guided to a man of worship who had little knowledge of the religion of Allah. When he came to this man and asked, "Is there forgiveness for me?" — the man said, "How can you have forgiveness after killing 99 men?" So he killed him as well and made it a hundred. But he still felt within his heart that remorse, that regret, that need to turn back to Allah and His mercy.

So this time he was directed to a scholar, and the scholar said to him: "Who can possibly come between you and Allah's forgiveness? Who can stand before you and stop you from repenting to Allah, seeking Allah's mercy?" It is from the traps of Shaitan that he tells us that our sins are too many, they're too great. "You sin and you repent, but you'll sin again tomorrow — so why repent?" That is from the traps of Shaitan. But Allah loves the servant who is sincere in repentance and repents even if they go back to their sin again because of their weakness — but again with sincerity they repent a second time and a third time. That is the way that the believers are. They are tawwabeen — those who often and continuously repent to Allah.

The man from Bani Israel leaves his town. He is told by the scholar: "Leave this land, go somewhere else." That is a sign of his sincerity, a sign of his conviction, a sign of wanting to change his ways. That is what Allah wants to see from me and you this Ramadan.

We make istighfar, we make tawbah, we make du'a — but is it sincere? Are we willing to make that change? Are we willing to take those first baby steps in this month of Ramadan to say: "O Allah, yes, I used to miss prayers before Ramadan, but from this Ramadan onwards I won't miss another salah. I didn't use to give zakah before, but from this Ramadan I will ensure that I give zakah each and every single year. There were sins that I had before Ramadan, but O Allah, You will see in my heart the sincerity and the conviction that I will change in this month of Ramadan." That is what Allah wants to see.

Allah decreed for that man from Bani Israel that he would die on the way — on his journey. He didn't even reach his destination, didn't really start his new life of tawbah. He died on the way. But Allah gave him mercy and forgave him for his sins of murder — mass murder — because of the repentance that he showed in the sight of Allah. Whatever your sins are, however grave they may seem to you, I don't think that there is anyone here who is worse than that man of Bani Israel in terms of sin. Allah forgives all sins. Allah forgives beyond shirk everything for anyone as He wills. But me and you must show the effort. We must make the firm pledge with Allah in this month of Ramadan by changing our ways, by showing the true conviction, by showing the level of remorse.

We want Allah's mercy, we want Allah's forgiveness — because there is no greater reward on offer than Allah's forgiveness. Because with Allah's forgiveness and mercy comes His Jannah, and with Allah's forgiveness and mercy comes His pleasure. As Allah says in the Quran:

Allah's pleasure is the greatest of rewards that a person can attain.

The Third Level: Tawheed

In this hadith the Prophet ﷺ then goes on to say that Allah says in this hadith qudsi — the third level of forgiveness, in accordance with the third level of sin which is the greatest:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

"If you were to bring the likes of the earth full of sin — the likes of the earth with all of its breadth and its depth, all of its lands and all of its seas and all of its oceans and all of its mountains and caves and everything that you see upon the face of the earth were to be covered with sin — you were to come with that amount of sin to Allah, but you were to come to Allah with tawheed, worshipping Allah alone, not having any shirk within your heart or in your practices or in your belief — Allah says: I will bring you a similar amount of forgiveness. You bring the likes of the earth in sin, Allah will bring the likes of the earth in forgiveness."

But with one condition — and that is the greatest lesson that you can learn from this khutbah. One of the greatest ways of attaining Allah's pleasure and His forgiveness and mercy is to make sure that your belief in Allah is correct. That your tawheed of Allah is correct, as the way that it should be. Because there are far too many Muslims who say لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ but they depend upon other than Allah, they have divine reliance upon other than Allah, they have divine hope and fear in other than Allah. Too many Muslims who don't fulfill this condition of tawheed. Allah is saying it is one of the greatest ways of attaining His forgiveness.

The Card of La Ilaha Illallah

In the hadith, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that a man will come on the Day of Judgment and he will bring with him 99 scrolls of evil deeds. Each scroll when it is opened will stretch as far as the distance of the horizon — as far as the eye can see. When this man will be asked by Allah to present his good deeds, the man will belittle his good deeds in contrast to those 99 scrolls. He will say that he has no good deeds. But Allah does not oppress anyone on the Day of Judgment. So the good deed that will be brought forth is a single card upon which is written لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ.

But this is a man who understood the correct meaning of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — who had sincerity in the way that he said it and in his practice of it. He may not have had a great deal of good deeds in comparison to those sins, but he understood the tawheed of Allah. When the man sees that card in relation to the 99 scrolls, he will say: "O Allah, what good will it do?" But Allah will say to him: "No one will be oppressed on this day." The 99 scrolls will be placed on one side of the scales and the card will be on the other side. The Prophet ﷺ said that the card will be so heavy that the scrolls will go flying.

That is the weight of لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — because Allah does not just weigh on the Day of Judgment the quantity of deeds, but the quality and the weight behind them. And so when you trust in Allah, you know your religion, you know the tawheed of Allah, and you leave off every other means when it comes to your divine repentance except attaching yourself to Allah — Allah will forgive you for all your sins, with that condition that you stay away from shirk. For Allah does not forgive anyone who makes shirk with Him. But Allah forgives to whomsoever He wills anything beyond that.

Conclusion: The Month of Repentance

So this month of Ramadan, my dear brothers and sisters, is the month of repentance. It is the month of seeking forgiveness. And there are a number of du'as and a number of acts of istighfar and tawbah that you can make that will attain for you, insha'Allah, that forgiveness from Allah. But one of the most important conditions is that you show Allah your sincerity — in the way that you want to change, in the way that you want to improve and become better, in the way that you want to increase and strengthen your relationship with Allah.

We ask Allah on this blessed day, in this blessed month of Ramadan, that Allah forgives our sins and that Allah showers His mercy upon us, and that Allah makes us from amongst those whose sins are all expiated, and that Allah changes and turns those evil deeds into good deeds that weigh heavily upon our scales, and that Allah on the Day of Judgment will make us from amongst those who will enter into Jannah without any accounting and without any punishment — us and our parents and our families and our children and our teachers and all of the Muslims.