Istighfaar wa Tawba – 2

Auto-generated transcript: Bismillah ar-Rahman ir-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Alameen. As-Salatu Wassalamu Ala Ashrafil Anbiya wal Mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasoolullah ﷺ. Tasliman Kathiran Kathira Hum Radhu. My brothers and sisters, yesterday we were talking about the issue of tawbah and istighfar and how that is the way to do that and why it is important. And as I mentioned yesterday, the importance of istighfar and tawbah is because everything good starts with that. Before Allahﷻ does anything for us, we have to turn towards Allahﷻ. So when we are talking about istighfar and tawbah, anytime we are in any difficulty and so on and so forth, the first thing we need to look at is say, how is my state with Allahﷻ? And am I obeying Allahﷻ or not? So, Allahﷻ said, especially with regard to difficulties and trials and tribulations, we see what Allahﷻ said, where He said, وَمَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجَالُّهُ مَنْ خَرَجَ. For the mutaqee, I will solve his problems; I will extract him from his difficulties. So the mutaqee is the one whose only focus in life is to please Allahﷻ. Nothing else. So all his decisions, all his actions, everything he says, speaks, is based on this principle: Does it please Allahﷻ? If it pleases Allahﷻ, He does it. If He does not please Allah, He does not do it. If there is a doubt, He clarifies the doubt. Until that time, He does not do it. Then depending on the clarification, He does it or He does not do it. Taqwa begins with istighfar and tawbah. Now Allahﷻ, therefore, we should know what tawbah is. Tawbah and istighfar have to do with the one whose rights have been transgressed. So the kind of sin or the kind of mistake, or the kind of crime that we commit, the istighfar and tawbah depend on that. So the first principle of istighfar and tawbah, Allahﷻ mentioned in Surah An-Nisa, where He said, أُوْذِنِ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ إِنَّمَا التَّوْبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ يَتُوبُونَ مِن قَرِيبٍ فَأُولَئِكَ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيماً حَكيماً And then He said, wa laysati tawbatu lil-ladhina ya'maluna as-sayyi'ati hatta iza hadhara ahadahumu almawtu qala inni tubtu al-aan wa la al-ladhina yatoobuna wa hum kuffar ulaika aatadna lahum azaban alimani Allahﷻ said which means, Allah only accepts the repentance and istighfar of those who may commit something wrong, something evil, ignorantly out of ignorance or recklessly they don't think something has happened and then repent immediately as soon as they realize that I have done something wrong, they immediately seek forgiveness, they immediately repent and Allah will pardon them and Allah is all-knowing and all-wise. And then Allahﷻ said, there is no acceptance of repentance from those who knowingly persist in sin. Knowingly, they know it is wrong, they will still do it again and again until they start dying, until the last time of their life, and then they cry, now I repent. That repentance is not accepted. Nor is there any repentance for those who die as disbelievers. So that's a separate thing. But even believers if you consistently and continuously continue to do something wrong knowingly and then you want to repent when you see malakul baut on the way, then this tawbah is not accepted. And then Allah said, for them we have prepared a painful punishment. May Allahﷻ forgive us and may Allah save us from His punishment, inshaAllah. So as I said, there are two kinds of rights that are there on us. They are called hukuk. Plural of haqq. Haqq is right. Hukuk is plural. Two kinds of rights that are there on all people. One, we call them hukukullah. The right of Allah on us. The first and foremost and most important right of Allah on us is the right of abudiyat. Which is the right that only Allah should be worshipped without any partners, without any shareholders, without any ill-willed people. So it is only the right that Allah should be worshipped without any partners. And the second kind of right is tawheed. The right of Allah on us is the right of abudiyat itself, which is the Salah. So the declaration of Tawheed, declaration of Tawheed, which is called the Shahada, and what comes with it, which is the application of that, which is Salah. So these two are or rather the declaration and its manifestation. This is the first and foremost right of Allahﷻ. Then the rights of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are all those things which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made fard upon us, which refers to the other pillars of Islam, which is fasting, which is Zakat, which is Hajj, and it refers to everything else which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made fard upon us. These are the rights of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, everything to do with Ibadah. Then there are rights which we have, rights of people. Which we call Hukukul Ibad. Now Hukukul Ibad is vast because Hukukul Ibad, the rights of basically Ibad is the rights of the slaves. So it is people, it is animals, it is the environment, it is everything in the world. The rights of all of them. And those rights differ on how those people are related to us. So for example, the rights of parents. Those come number one in the Hukukul Ibad. Actually before that, the rights of Rasulullahﷺ comes. The right of the Rasul a.s.s. This is the number one right in the Hukukul Ibad. And after that comes the rights of parents. And then the rights of spouses, children, the rights of people with whom we have a connection of the Raham. Right? So brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, people with whom we have a blood relationship. And then the circle widens. And then the rights of the extended family. Then the rights of neighbors. Then it even goes to the rights of if you are in a public space, if you are sitting in a bus, in a train, in a plane, the rights of the people around you. If you are listening to something loudly, you are transgressing on somebody else's rights. The rights of people when you are driving your car, you are waving your hand. You are not listening to the people around you. You are not listening to the vehicle on the road. The people who are using the road along with you, they have rights on you. That you should drive properly in a way that is not dangerous or inconvenient to anybody else. How you park your car is from Hukukul Ibad. How you leave your slippers or shoes wherever you are outside the mosque or wherever. If you remove your footwear, how you place it is from Hukukul Ibad. You use the bathroom after using it, how you leave it is from Hukukul Ibad. And even if you found it dirty, clean it, use it, clean it and then leave. Don't say, I found it dirty. No, no, no. That is somebody else. Somebody else has transgressed against you. That does not give you the right to transgress against somebody else. How you treat your cat and your dog. How you treat your horse and your cow. How do you treat the animals that you have as pets or animals that you have. If you have a farm or something and you have animals, you have to be careful. How do you treat trees and how do you treat the grass and all of these things. Do you pollute rivers? Do you pollute water? Do you pollute air? Right? As a Muslim, everything has a right. Every single thing has a right on us about which we will be questioned. So if you are running a factory or something and you are throwing effluent into the river, you will answer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Whether the pollution control officer catches you or does not catch you, it doesn't matter. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will question you and will punish. All of these things whether you go through a red light or not is from the hukukul ibad. Right? A signal when the signal light is red, do you stop or do you go through the light? Whether there is a policeman watching or not, whether you get a ticket or not, none of that matters. What matters is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is watching and you have transgressed against the rights of somebody. You are not supposed to go through the red light; you went through the red light. This is answerable to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Please understand this deen is very complete. Obviously, the rights of people includes giving inheritance to whoever the inheritance is due to. So your father dies, your mother dies, inheritance comes. If you are in charge of that, are you making sure that whoever that inheritance needs to go to, is it going to them correctly or not? It's very common that brothers swallow the inheritance of their sisters, that they will swallow the inheritance of their mother. It's very common all of these things. While the parent is alive, say the father dies, the mother is alone, poor thing, she feels probably weak, she feels intimidated because now she's got this big son each one is like eight feet tall and six feet wide. And then one day they will come and sit there and tell her why do you need all this property? Please write everything in our names. They can't wait for her to die. They want the property before that. So please write everything in our names. And out of fear, she will write everything. She will write everything in their name. So even if they don . . . When you seek forgiveness, do it properly. Don't go and say, don't go and do it as if you are doing some ahsaar on that other person. Please forgive me. How can I forgive you? You are a big man; you come and ask for forgiveness. What do you say now? He is a bad person. He is just doing his work and going up. Isn't it? So don't do that. Go and genuinely; the point being, the regret has to be in the heart. Sincerely remember and understand, I did something which was very wrong, I should never have done that. It is a great sin. I am in great mercy of Allah that Allah did not take my life before this, that Allah gave me a chance to make amends and correct things. I am here to correct that. Beg and plead, make sure that you seek forgiveness for this person. Right? Similarly, any action that is ongoing,