How do we make proper tawbah to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala? For our repentance to be accepted, there are 3 things that we must take care of: the Past, the Present and the Future.
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🔵 With regard to the Past, we have to REGRET.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ❝Regret is part of repentance.❞ [Sunan Ibn Majah 4252]
Meaning, we must regret the sin that we did. We must feel bad for doing it and feel terrible for disobeying Allah. We must be humble in front of Allah while seeking His forgiveness.
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🔵 With regard to the Present, we have to IMMEDIATELY STOP the sin. We cannot say: In shaa Allah, I will stop doing this when I am older / when I get married / after I do ‘umrah, etc. No, that sin must stop right now.
Allah says about the righteous people: ❝(They are) those who, upon committing an evil deed or wronging themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness, and do not knowingly persist in sin…❞ [Ali Imran 3 : 135]
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🔵 With regard to the Future, we have to MAKE UP FOR IT.
Allah says: ❝As for those who repent, believe, and do good deeds, they are the ones whose evil deeds Allah will change into good deeds. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.❞ [Al-Furqan 25 : 70]
Do a good deed whenever we fall into a sin, and this is how we try to make up for the mistake that we did.
Allah says: ❝…Surely good deeds wipe out evil deeds…❞ [Hud 11 : 114]
And Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ❝No man commits a sin, then purifies himself in ablution, then prays, and then asks Allah for forgiveness, but that Allah will forgive him.❞ [At-Tirmidhi 406]
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🔵 If the sin involved other people, we need to FIX IT.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: ❝The martyr is forgiven for every sin except debt.❞ [Sahih Muslim 1886]
Brothers and sisters, this is not something to be taken lightly of. If we’ve taken someone else’s rights, we need to give those rights back. If we’ve stolen something, we have to return it to the proper owner. We must take all the necessary steps to return what we took.
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When we have done all of the above, then in shaa Allah, we have made a sincere, proper tawbah. May Allah make it easy for us to right the wrongs that we did, and accept our repentance. Ameen.
#Tawbah
