In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, ask His help and His pardon. We ask Him to protect us from the evil of our selves and from our bad actions. Whoever Allah guides none can lead him astray, and whoever He leads astray none can guide him. I testify also that there is none worthy of worship except Him, and that Muhammad is His servant and Prophet, may peace be upon him, upon his family and his brothers till the day of resurrection.
Dear brothers and sisters! Abu Sa‘id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said:
“There was a man from among a nation before you (from the children of Israel) who killed ninety-nine people and then made an inquiry about the most learned person on the earth, and he was directed to a monk. He came to him and told him that he had killed ninety-nine people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted? He said: “No”, and the man killed him also completing one hundred. He then asked about the most learned man in the earth. He was directed to a real Islamic scholar. He told him that he had killed one hundred people and asked him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted? He said: “Yes,” and asked: “Who stands between you and repentance? Go to such-and-such land; there [you will find] people devoted to prayer and worship of Allah, join them in worship, and do not come back to your land because it is an evil place.”
“So he went away and when he had reached half of the distance, death overtook him; and there was a dispute between the angels of mercy and the angels of torment. The angels of mercy pleaded: “This man has come with a repenting heart to Allah”, and the angels of punishment argued: “He never did a good deed in his life.” Then there appeared another angel in the form of a human being and the contending angels agreed to make him an arbiter between them. He said: “Measure the distance between the two lands. He will be considered belonging to the land to which he is nearer.” They measured and found him closer to the land (land of the pious people) where he intended to go, and so the angels of mercy collected his soul.”
In another version of the Ḥadith:
“…He was found to be nearer to the locality of the pious by a cubit and was thus included among them.”
Yet another version says:
“Allah commanded (the land which he wanted to leave) to move away and commanded the other land (his destination) to draw nearer and then He said: “Now measure the distance between them.” It was found that he was nearer to his goal by a hand’s span and was thus forgiven and admitted into the Jannah (Paradise).”
Respected brothers and sisters! Wanting to advise his son Al-Hasan, Ali Ibn Abu Ṭalib said:
“My son: Beware of three, be in harmony with three, be modest before three, race to three, flee from three, be in disagreement with three, fear three, and hope of three.”
Al-Hasan said, “O my father, please explain,”
“Beware of pride, anger, and the base kind of ambition. Live in harmony with Allah’s Book, His Messenger’s Sunnah, and the lives of His righteous servants. Hurry away from sinning, race towards repentance and sprint forward in the pursuit of knowledge. My son, flee from lying, treachery and transgression. Be in disagreement with evil and its people, hypocrisy and its people, and foolishness and its people. Fear Allah, fear the company of those who do not fear Allah, and fear the evil speech of your tongue. Hope for Allah to forgive your sins, to accept your deeds, and to accept the intercession of your Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).”
Dear brothers and sisters! A righteous man was once asked to tell the story of the pivotal moment of his life, the moment in which he first began to apply the teachings of Islam, and the following was his answer:
“When I was a young man, I would not hesitate to perpetrate any sin that was made available to me. Then, one day, I saw a young woman who was perhaps the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Much tempted by her, I indicated to her that I wanted her to approach me. She seemed nervous, but I thought that she would probably agree to satisfy my sexual desires for money. She approached me with what seemed to be a great deal of apprehension, and when she actually stood before me, she looked extremely terrified. Feeling sorry for her, I said, ‘Do not fear, for I will not harm you.’ But my words did not lessen her terrible fright in the least; in fact, her situation worsened. She began to tremble like a palm tree leaf trembles with the wind. I said, ‘Tell me your story.’ She said, ‘By Allah, o my brother, never before this day have I offered my body in this way. Dire need is what has driven me to this, for I have three daughters who have not eaten a single morsel of food for three days now. It was pity for them that brought me to this low point in my life.’
For the first time in my life, I felt pity; her story moved me, and I no longer entertained the intention of taking advantage of her. After she told me where she lived, I took a great deal of money, clothing and food to her house. When I returned to my house, I told my mother what had happened.
My mother knew that I had a book in which I would record all of my evil deeds, and so she said to me, ‘My son, you are a man who has never performed a good deed except for the good deed that you performed today. I know that you have a book in which you record your evil exploits, go now and write in it your good deed.’
I stood up, went to my book, opened it, and found that all of its pages were blank- except for the first page on which was written a single line.
“…Indeed, good deeds remove the evil deeds…” [Qur’an, 11:114]
At that very moment, I raised my hands to the sky and said, ‘By your Might and Majesty, never again will I disobey You.'”
Respected brothers and sisters! From this story we learn that a person can change at any point in their life, even if they seem to be some of the worst of people, hope should always remain in our hearts for them. We are also reminded of the blessings of Allah in which He causes our good deeds to be a cause of removing our past evil deeds as is mentioned in the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) in which he said
“And follow up a bad deed with a good deed and it will wipe it out.” [Al-Tirmidhi]
Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa bara ka tuh
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Prayers, peace and mercy are upon our beloved master, Muhammad, the son of Abdullah (Peace be upon him), his family and Companions.
Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene’s Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com or +2348038289761 or +2348024192217.
