10. HASTEN TO REPENT FOR THE OUTCOME OF SIN IS SEVERE
O my brothers and whoever accepts my advice (nasiha) You should know that the bitterness of sins doubles the sweetness it brings and the ugly effects that follow.
The One in whose hand is reward and punishment is aware of all your sins and no sin whatsoever will He miss.
Take heed in the story that was reported in the books of tasfir about the twelve sons of Prophet Ya’qub (!alayhi as-salam), each of whom had twelve children except Prophet Yusuf (‘alayhi as-salam) who had eleven children as a consequence of his innate desire that he had when he was seduced.
I pity a person who is being lashed yet still unable to feel the pain of flogging! I pity a person whose body is severely wounded but unaware of his injury! I pity a person who is being punished but still unaware of his punishment! How true it is that the greatest of all punishments in this life is when a person is punished, all the while he is oblivious to such punishment.
I wonder at a person of contradictions; he indulges himself in a sinful desire and then pleases his Lord with an act of worship before starting to count his deeds into two groups; saying this is a good deed and that is a misdeed!
I say, ‘Woe to such a person!’ It is his balance that he is wasting and it is his merchandise that he is ruining and it is his honour that he puts to disgrace! Indeed a small wound may kill a person and a small slip may cause the destruction of a man. A person may commit a minor sin but never be able to avoid its consequences.
I say, ‘Woe to such a person!’ Be mindful. What are you waiting for so that you may turn to Allah in repentance?
Do you want to wait until you age and see the grey hair?
It is about time as there is nothing after the death of the wife, children and relatives except your turn to follow them.
Assuming you have achieved all that which you want to have in this life, then ask yourself, ‘then what?’ Either the wishes you have fulfilled were instant, resuking in keeping you busy and the last sip of all these pleasure makes you choke, or you end up departing from your loved ones or your loved ones departing from you. Indeed that is one bitter sip making you wish that you never had!
I wonder at a person whose intellect cannot assist him in contemplating, and 1 wonder at a person who cannot drink a sip of water though he can see a spring of water right in front of him! Does he not find the graves around him standing as enough warnings?
Does he not find the changes in people’s condition enough as an admonisher? Where are those who ruled the world? Have they reached what they hoped for? Call them if they could hear you now! But never, they are deaf after their death! Was it only death that would occur to them, their graves would have been a place of comfort for them! But never, it is punishment that awaits them after death, which will make their stay disastrous.
O you who was nothing yesterday and who will perish tomorrow! I urge you to spare no effort to do good deeds, for how would you meet your Lord with all the sins you have committed?! Are the pleasures you attain from your sinful desires worth hearing a single word of blame in the Hereafter? By Allah, if showing mercy after blame may not be enough to remove the feelings of bitterness from the heart; how would it be the case if punishment follows the blame?
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdu’l-Rahman Al-Sayrafi related, “One of my neighbours saw Yahya Ibn Aktham in his dream after he died, and so he asked him, ‘What did Allah do with you?’ He replied, ‘I stood before Him and He said to me, ‘What a bad outcome is waiting for you old man!’ I said, ‘O Lord! Your Messenger said You will not punish your believing slaves who died in their eighties. I am Your captive on Earth and one of those! He said, ‘My Messenger has said the truth. I have pardoned you.’
In another report, it says that he said, “Allah made me stand before Him then said to me, O evil old man! Was it not for the grey hair you have, I would have burned you in Hell.”
The intended meaning of all that I said is to contemplate the reality’ of sins to understand whether repenting from sins is enough to let us enter Paradise—and to make us understand the reality of the pleasures of this worldly life.
I ask Allah, Exalted is He, to wake us up from the state of heedlessness and to show us the reality of all things so we can know the defects of sins.
And Allah is the Guide to Success.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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