Slow, Merciless Torture
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Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Umm…I’m awfully apprehensive in putting this up…so I may well show up at some strange hour and remove this..hmmm..will see..
For the moment then, what follows is the result of some dialogue between myself and another, devout slave of Allah. May Allah envelope her in His limitless mercy, ameen.
Before I paste part of our discussion, I’d just like to make clear that what I say below is in NO WAY a definitive answer to her query; I am not a learned individual, and Allah knows how many a sin I’ve enumerated against my own soul, so please don’t take what’s below and put me on a pedestal I’m not worthy of. What I am in need of, is the mercy of Allah, so if you benefit, then, after praising Allah alone, I ask that you make du’aa for me. Jazak’Allahu khairan.
Question: Sins - they catch up with [us] right? if i do something wrong and I repent… there will be a consequence to my sin, right?
Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
I used to think along those lines too. I dont any more alhamdulillah. Reason for that is because once more the matter comes back to having a good opinion of Allah. And if Allah tells us again and again in the Qur’aan, and in so many ahadeeth [Prophetic traditions], that He is Ghafoor ur Raheem [Oft-Forgiving, most Merciful], that He is the acceptor of repentance, that He wil forgive us sins as vast as what is between the earth and sky, so long as we come to Him, associating nothing with Him; then how is it that we say Allah will punish us even when we repent sincerely?
There are consequences to sins, and again Allah has forewarned us of this when He says, words to the effect, that if something evil befalls you, it is not from Allah, rather it is from yourselves [i.e because of what your own hands have wrought] [42:30]. But then we should be grateful if an exacting of wronging befalls us in this dunya, because so long as we’re still here and breathing, we still have a chance to rectify our ways. If Allah [swt] decided to withhold our punishment until the Hereafter, then we’d be destroyed. This, of course, does not mean one keep sinning like a fool in the dunya thinking im still breathing [and can repent whenever], or just comitting a sin with the [relaxed] intention of repenting. Allah [swt] knows us better, He Knows what’s in our hearts and minds better than we do. So to think, in complete ignorance, that you can ever hide from Him, or that He will not know the intricacies of your deviating from the right path, then that is sheer foolery. So, it follows, that, to know, and then to sin, is also sheer foolery.
Tayyeb, it is worth mentioning however, that if one is honest with themselves, then you will see the effect of sin. Sins slowly kill you from inside, like a tumour that’s discovered too late. By the time you establish it, you’ve knocked on deaths door. Similarly, constant sinning and heedlessness is a slow torturing of the pure heart, leading eventually to its destruction. So you will see, even within yourself maybe, as I do with myself sometimes, that over the course of time, something that seemed like such an enormous sin to you in the past, has lost its magnanimity today. The reason being that slowly, step by step, you’ve let go of certain things, maybe foregoing some sunnan or nawaafil [extra acts of worship], or something small or consistent you used to do, and because of that lax attitude laziness has appeared in your Islaam. And with the laziness has come a relaxed heart; a heart that’s no longer guarding itself from fitan [trials] the way it once did. So slowly you lose sight of the enormity of disobeying Allah, and eventually that leads to small [and major] sins. Even if you don’t get into the big sins, EVER, all those small sins may approach you one Day, and because you let them mount, thinking foolishly of their brevity, they’ve come before you on that Day, sufficient enough to topple and annihilate u.
So I guess in answer to your question, the consequence of every sin is the slow, merciless torture, and eventual destruction of the pure heart. The heart that was created solely to glorify Allah, Exalted is His mention.
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All that is good and correct is from Allah Alone, the One Worthy of all praise, and all that is false is from myself and the accursed iblees.
Allah is a witness over us, and Allah knows best.
In the care of Allah [swt],
Wassalaamu’alaikum wa rahmatullah
P.S - If any of what I’ve said above is contrary to your understanding, then please don’t hesitate to inform me of my [many] mistakes. And may Allah reward u, ameen.
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Assalaam folks,
umm, the bulk of that ^^ is pretty much the way it was when I conversed with the sister. only changes are the [] explaining something or another, and the reference to the ayah in Surah Ash Shura…i dont think that’s the one i had in mind initially but i can’t remember it…what can i say? too many sins, not enough almonds[!] if y’all know somethin more apt than the ayah i ref’d leme knw plz. jzk.
other than that i also changed the phrase to:
“if an exacting…” initially i wrote “exactment..” but it turns out that’s not a word [which is sooo dumb coz you know it sounds like word right?!]
ummm i think ima jus maybe delete this…im nt too comfortable wid it. if i do then alhamdulillah. if i dont then =/ i’ll be sure to leave a coupla comments with the ahadeeth im alluding to in the initial paragraph [about the mercy of Allah]..
i talk a lot. hmm.
assalaam
sorry i lie..i also standardised the english from the original..i tend to write in shorthand but y’all be’s academics innit so.. have to match up to the calibre!