The Blessings of Istighfar

The Blessings of Istighfar

There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone, having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is his slave, his messenger, and his perfect worshipper.

The Etiquette of Jumu'ah

In the 20 seconds that I started this khutbah, I saw 4 people checking their phones and talking to each other. And I just want to remind you all that Rasulullah ﷺ made of the etiquettes of Jumu'ah that we don't touch anything and we don't do anything other than listen to the khutbah. Rasulullah ﷺ says:

Whoever touches a pebble, they have committed laghu — vain speech — and whoever commits vain speech in Jumu'ah, then they have no reward for Jumu'ah. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 857)

A person came and they drove all the way over here, and they sat, they left work — but they also need to refrain for these 20 minutes. And I do believe that we need to spend more time reviewing even the fiqh of Jumu'ah, because we tend to forget. And I don't want anyone to think that I'm talking to young people, because the elderly are just as attached to their phones as the young.

Even when I'm not a khateeb — I was recently sitting attending a Jumu'ah khutbah, and the man next to me was buying stocks during the khutbah. And that's a combination of not only vain speech but vain actions, because the Prophet ﷺ told us that whoever buys or sells in the masjid, then the sunnah is to say: may Allah not bless your transaction. Because the masjid is not for that. The masjid is not for the dunya. It is for the seeking of the reward of the hereafter.

Allah's Promise of Forgiveness

In any case, Rasulullah ﷺ tells us in the hadith of Anas ibn Malik, reported by al-Tirmidhi, that Allah says:

"O my servant, as long as you call upon Me and have hope in Me, I will forgive you no matter what you have done, and I will not mind." (Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

We are told by Allah that no matter what sin a person has committed, no matter what they've done, that if they turn to Allah and they have hope in Him, Allah will forgive — and He will not mind.

The Disease and the Cure

I want to talk briefly about this concept of istighfar — seeking forgiveness. Qatada says:

"This Qur'an guides you, directs you, instructs you to your disease and to your cure. As for your disease, it is your sins. And as for your cure, it is to seek forgiveness." (Athar of Qatada)

Allah says:

Allah says: corruption has appeared in the land and the sea due to what people's hands have earned — that He may give them a taste of what they have done, perhaps they may come back.

All over the world you look and you see civil war, and you see strife, and you see calamity, and you see disease, and you see poverty, and you see drought. And Allah says corruption has appeared in the land and the sea due to what people's hands have earned — that He may give them a taste of what they have done, لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ — perhaps they may come back.

And so this corruption that we see in the land is a result of what our hands have earned, and it is just a bit of the return on the investment of our sins that Allah brings to us — perhaps by seeing the effects of our sins, we'll come back to Allah in repentance.

And so by seeking forgiveness from Allah — I don't want you to think that it is simply a cure for our sins on the Day of Judgment. Qatada says it directs you to your da', your ailment, and it directs you to your cure. Your ailment is your sins, and your cure is seeking Allah's forgiveness. Seeking Allah's forgiveness does not change just the trajectory of your hereafter — but it changes the trajectory of your life. It changes your life today.

Istighfar Opens the Doors of This World

There was a brother who was one of the first of my group to get married — the first of my friends. After college, out of everybody, he was the first one to get married. And I remember we all, when we went to his wedding, people at the wedding were asking him, they said: how did you get married? Like, how did this happen? We didn't think it would be you. And so he said: you guys want to know the answer? He said yes. He said: it's istighfar. I made a lot of istighfar.

And that's in the Book of Allah. Nuh ﷺ says:

Nuh ﷺ said: make istighfar to Allah — your Lord is Oft-Forgiving. So not only is your Lord Oft-Forgiving, meaning that He will forgive you, but look at everything that will happen as a result of your seeking forgiveness: He will send the rain down upon you, and He will grant you children, and He will grant you wealth, and He will make for you rivers. All of that will happen as a result of your istighfar. And for you to have children, you have to have a spouse first.

And so al-Hasan al-Basri — when a man came to him and complained of drought, al-Hasan told him: go and make istighfar. And another man came and complained of poverty, and al-Hasan told him: go and make istighfar. And another man came to him and complained of his inability to have children, and al-Hasan told him: go and make istighfar.

And when his students had witnessed all three discussions, they said: three people came with three different symptoms, and you gave them all the same prescription. He said: did you not hear what Nuh ﷺ said? Seek forgiveness from your Lord — your Lord is all-forgiving. He will make the sky cascade rain down upon you. So that farmer who's complaining of drought — make istighfar, Allah will cause the rain to come. That father who's complaining of lack of children — يُمِدَّكُم بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ — when you make istighfar, Allah will extend for you wealth and He will extend for you children.

Nuh ﷺ says:

Why is it that you don't give Allah His due reverence? Why is it that when it comes to the equation of success in your life, you remove Allah from the equation? And so you think of studying, and you think of getting good grades, and you think of networking, and you think of knocking on this person's door and meeting this person and asking this person — but you don't think about Allah. That if Allah says yes, it doesn't matter who says no. And if Allah says no, it doesn't matter who says yes.

And so seeking forgiveness from Allah — we don't just seek Allah's forgiveness for our sins, but it is beautiful that in Islam we know and we believe that there is no sin that Allah does not forgive or cannot forgive, if a person simply turns to Allah and asks forgiveness. As long as you turn to Allah, our servitude is to a Lord Who is so perfect in His ability to forgive.

Al-Ghafur al-Wadud: The Forgiving, The Loving

Allah says in Surah al-Buruj:

It is a beautiful, beautiful pairing. Surah al-Buruj is the only surah in Juz' 'Amma where Allah mentions two of His names together — الْغَفُورُ الْوَدُودُ — the Forgiving and the Loving.

Some of us, if we are injured by somebody who is very close to us, we might get to the point — over time — where we are able to forgive them. I want you to imagine the most severe betrayal. And if that person comes and asks for forgiveness and tries and shows changed behavior, then I might get to the point where I forgive them. But am I ever going to love them perfectly again? It is very hard. It is very hard for the love and that closeness to come back.

Umar ibn al-Khattab was standing in front of the man who killed his brother Zayd. Umar is the khalifah. And he says to the man: I ask you by Allah, did you kill my brother Zayd? Because Zayd was martyred in the battles of Riddah, and those people who had apostated accepted Islam again — and after they lost, those who survived accepted Islam and became absorbed into the Muslim community again. And so now Umar is standing in front of one of those people. And he said: did you kill my brother Zayd? And the man said: yes, I did.

So now, everything we know about the rage and the power and the justice of Umar ibn al-Khattab — his older brother Zayd, that he loved so much — he is now standing in front of his killer. And Umar ibn al-Khattab simply says to him: then stay away from me. Because I am never going to love you — just like the earth never likes blood, we are never going to mix.

And then the man says: O Ameer al-Mu'mineen, is your lack of love for me going to cause me to lose out on any of my rights? And he says: no — your rights as a Muslim is one thing, and my love is another thing. But Umar is saying that even if you are forgiven because you've accepted Islam again, there will never be a scenario where I can love you, because you killed my brother.

And even someone who had a greater capacity of love and forgiveness than Umar is Rasulullah ﷺ. And it is amazing how the Prophet ﷺ was able to absorb all of these people — one after the other — people who fought against him, people who insulted him, people who mocked him, people who hurt him, people who ridiculed him, people who fought against him. All of these people who became Sahabah — he absorbed them all and he loved them all. But there was one man who injured the Prophet ﷺ so much that Rasulullah ﷺ forgave him and accepted his Islam, but he simply told him: can you please stay away from me? And that was Wahshi, the killer of his uncle Hamza. It was such a painful image for him — the mutilation of his uncle on the battlefield of Uhud — that Rasulullah ﷺ simply told Wahshi: I don't want to see you around. If that's okay, just stay away from me. You're a companion, your Islam is accepted, your sins are forgiven — all of that. Even the Prophet ﷺ had limits when it came to his love.

And yet, when Allah says:

It shows us that there is no one who is alive who is not only beyond being forgiven by Allah, but beyond being loved by Allah — الْوَدُودُ. And this surah comes in the sequence of a people who had committed genocide:

Allah says: cursed are the people of the trench — the people who caused the genocide. But Allah still says: وَهُوَ الْغَفُورُ الْوَدُودُ — Allah is the Forgiving, and Allah is the Loving.

And so we are fortunate that we worship a God Who never disqualifies us from His mercy, from His forgiveness, and from His love — the minute that we turn back to Him.

The Full Hadith of Anas: Allah's Boundless Forgiveness

Rasulullah ﷺ says — in the hadith of Anas, and I want to conclude with this by reading the whole hadith:

"O My servant, as long as you call upon Me and have hope in Me, I will forgive you no matter what you have done, and I will not mind. O My servant, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky, and then you sought forgiveness from Me, I would forgive you. O My servant, if you were to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth, and then you met Me not associating anything with Me, I would come to you with forgiveness nearly as great as it." (Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3540)

Imagine somebody comes with whatever the weight of the earth is — and you came to Allah in sin — and then you met Him not committing shirk. As long as you do not commit shirk, Allah would meet you with what is equal to it in forgiveness.

And so we offer what we offer to Allah, and we stumble along the way, but we have to make sure that we continue to seek Allah's forgiveness. Make istighfar your constant companion. Make istighfar that which you use to illuminate your heart. Make istighfar that which you end your day with. Make istighfar that which you do after your obligations.

And after our salah we are taught to say:

We seek Allah's forgiveness even after our good deeds — much less our sins. Because even these good deeds that we offer Allah, we're not offering Him what He deserves. So we offer what we offer and we seek Allah's forgiveness for our shortcomings and our human deficiencies.

We ask Allah to allow us to hear the speech and follow the best of it.

Du'a