Sunday 11 May 2008

How to stay away from sins

Recently I was reading near the end of Surah Mu'minoon, and I was wondering what was the best way to stay away from sins, especially sins we repeatedly do such as backbiting, lying and rushing our Salah. And the answer was pretty simple really:

93Say (O Muhammad SAW): " My Lord! If You would show me that with which they are threatened (torment),

94"My Lord! Then (save me from Your Punishment), and put me not amongst the people who are the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doing)."
Here the message is we have to remember the punishment for our sins, as that is the best incentive to avoid sins, whilst the best incentive to do good deeds is the reward of it.
Also the company we keep is clearly important, and there is a hadith about every person being resurrected on the day of Judgment with the people he used to spend time with. It is like a person who is friends with a scent merchant, he will always smell nice after he has been in his shop, though he may not have bought anything (e.i. done any good deeds) while a person who is friends with a toilet cleaner (with no disrespect to toilet cleaners!) will be the opposite.

96 Repel evil with that which is better. We are Best-Acquainted with the things they utter.

97And say: "My Lord! I seek refuge with You from the whisperings (suggestions) of the Shayatin (devils).

98"And I seek refuge with You, My Lord! lest they may attend (or come near) me."

Here Allah is giving us advice on how to cope, he tells us that we need to combat all evil with good, (and by very definition anything which is halal and attempts to eradicate evil is good) so with regards to staying away from sins, we need to do good deeds, and lots of them, to wipe out our bad deeds.

There is a hadith which describes that a black dot is put on the heart of a person when he does a sin, but when he does a good deed this dot is wiped off. And some people whose hearts become totally covered, lose their understanding of what is right and what is wrong. - The moral is simple: Lots of sins will make it difficult get rid of them, and also to realise we need to get rid of them. The worrying thing for us today is that we think that we are essentially good Muslims. There is a hadith that states that a sign of the believer is that he is constantly fearful that he is a hypocrite, whilst the sign of a hypocrite is that he believes he is a good Muslim. Umar (ra) used to just ask Allah in his du'aa to break even, so that he wouldn't go to hell, and he used to ask Hudaifa ibn al-Yamaan, the man entrusted with the identities of the hypocrites, whether or not he was a hypocrite - and this was coming from a man promised Jannah, who Shaytan had given up on - SubhanAllah where do we stand?

The next ayah is another divine advice that we ask Allah for his help against Shaytan and his whisperings to do wrong. Shaytan will come to us on the day of judgement and say "Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. and I too promised you, but I betrayed you. I had no authority over you except that I called you, so you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I deny your former act in associating me (satan) as a partner with Allah (by obeying me in the life of the world). Verily, there is a painful torment for the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.)."

99Until, when death comes to one of them (those who join partners with Allah), he says: "My Lord! Send me back,
100"So that I may do good in that which I have left behind!" No! It is but a word that he speaks, and behind them is Barzakh (a barrier) until the Day when they will be resurrected.

We should remember death much, as there is no other thing out there which will sober us up so quickly as to think that it is VERY possible that we may die any moment, and that we will be raised up on the day of Judgement doing the act we were last doing in the world. Imagine getting resurrected whilst in the act stealing, or in the act of adultery ....or in the act of Salah. The more good actions we do, the more likely it is we will meet death whilst doing good.

We have to also remember that this life is short, and that everyone will be regretful on the day of Judgement, the bad wanting to have done more good deeds, whilst the good people will want the same thing, but be less regretful than the bad! Let us make sure we minimise our regret as much as possible.

And finally this is the end we all have to face:

101Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship among them that Day, nor will they ask of one another.
102Then, those whose scales (of good deeds) are heavy, - these, they are the successful.
103And those whose scales (of good deeds) are light, they are those who lose their ownselves, in Hell will they abide.