By now most of us have already memorized the du’a on Laylatul-Qadr by heart: Allahumma innaka ‘afuwwun, tuhibbul-‘afwa, fa’fu ‘anni (O Allah, You are Most Forgiving, You love to forgive, so forgive me).
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Have you ever wondered why Prophet Muhammad ﷺ didn’t say: Allahumma innaka ghafoorun, tuhibbul maghfirah, faghfir li? The word ghafoor / maghfirah is often translated as ‘forgive’ too. So what’s the difference between this & ‘afuw?
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Maghfirah means that Allah will forgive us & won’t punish for the sins we did. He will also conceal our shortcomings in this world & won’t expose us in the hereafter. But! Allah will confront & remind us of those sins.
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In Sahih Muslim, The Prophet ﷺ said that the believer will be brought to Allah on the Day of Judgment. Allah will veil him & make him confess his faults. Allah will say: ‘Do you recall (the sins that you did)?’ He will say: ‘Yes my Lord.’ Allah will say: ‘I concealed them for you in the world & today I forgive them.’”
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Even though he’s forgiven, wouldn’t it still be really embarrassing to come to Allah with all of those sins? Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to be reminded by Allah that you watched this, you drank this, you did this & that? We would feel so embarrassed if someone looked into our history & reminded us of all the mistakes we made. We wish no one would ever remember them, isn’t this true?
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Now look at the meaning of Al-’Afuw. It has 2 linguistic meanings:
(1) Completely erased & wiped away. The Arabs would say: ‘The wind has ‘afuw (wiped away) the traces’, meaning people can’t tell if somebody has walked on this path or not.
(2) Excess & abundance. This meaning is derived from: “They ask you (O Prophet) what they should donate. Say: ‘Afuw (i.e. the excess beyond one’s needs).’” [Al-Baqarah 2:219]
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Now put these 2 meanings together: Al-’Afuw will erase all of our sins, will not leave any single trace of those sins, and as such we ourselves won’t remember & be embarrassed about them. Allah will not remind us of them & won’t punish us. And not just that, Allah will give us everything that we asked & much more than what we originally asked!
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May we leave Ramadan completely forgiven by Al-‘Afuw. Ameen.
