Mercy of Allah in Regard of Forgiveness

"O son of Adam, as long as you call upon Me and put your hope in Me, I have forgiven you
for what you have done and I do not mind. O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the
clouds of the sky and then you would seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of
Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the earth and then you
would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would certainly bring to you
forgiveness close to filling it."

In this Hadithi Qudsi, Allah gives hope to mankind more than any other narration. It displays
the quality and attribute of Allahs mercy. Indeed, He is ar-Rahman, the Most Compassionate,
and ar-Raheem, the Most Merciful. In this Hadithi Qudsi, Allah tells man of the greatness of
His forgiveness and mercy so that no one would despair due to the amount of sins he may
have committed.

This is supported by the following verse of the Holy Quran: Say: O My servants who have
transgressed against their own souls, despair not of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah
forgives all sins. Truly, He is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surah az-Zumar 39:53)

This hadith teaches us the importance of realizing Allahs mercy, having faith and hope in
Him especially when making dua, calling to Allah alone for forgiveness, and the importance
of repentance in the life and faith of a believer. Allah catches the attention of mankind by
calling out, O son of Adam! This is a call to every human being. Why didnt Allah say, O
mankind or O People? The significance of this specific call is because it was the first human
being, Adam (alaiyhis-salam) who committed the first sin. Adam was an example to all
humans of the consequences of sin and how to turn to Allah for forgiveness of ones sins. This
gives hope that even after committing a violation, ones sins can be forgiven if one repents to
Allah sincerely the same way that the father of mankind sinned, repented, and was forgiven
by Allah.

Allah calls out to His servants, a call of forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. For He knows
that man was created weak and is prone to fall into sin. After calling out to mankind, Allah
informs them that as long as they call on Him and put their hope in Him, He will forgive
them and not mind.

This statement alone can convince one to have hope and never to despair. When one calls out
to Allah or makes dua, he is displaying his need and dependence of Allah. He is
demonstrating his weakness to the fact that he has no power to do anything for himself. It is
the essence of submission and servitude. It is also a recognition of Allahs attributes of
kindness, generosity, forgiving and merciful nature, and His unlimited power and knowledge.
Humans are never in a situation where they are not in need of Allah. A believer always turns
to Allah to ask for guidance as well as to seek forgiveness of sins and shortcomings.

Allah says, Call on me and I will respond to you. One of the most important conditions of
making dua is that one must completely trust that Allah will respond. One must also
supplicate with sincerity, hope, and seriousness. One must not have any doubt at all on
whether Allah will respond to ones call or if He accepts the dua. The Messenger of Allah
(sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, Supplicate Allah while you are certain of a response. And
know that Allah does not respond to a supplication from a heart that is heedless and
inattentive. He also forbade that one say, Oh Allah, forgive me if You will. But he said,
Instead, you should ask with will and conviction for there is nothing so great to Allah that He
cannot grant it. When supplicating, one should truly seek Allahs aid and His forgiveness and
demonstrate his need for Allah and submit to Him with fear and hope in receiving the desired
response.

Allah advises in Surat al-Araaf 7:56: And invoke Him in fear and aspiration (of hope).
Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to those who do good. Another important condition of
supplication is that one must not become hasty and impatient and stop supplicating because
he did not receive a response sooner or at all.

The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, You are responded to as long as you do not
become hasty and say, I supplicated and it is not being or was not responded to. And the final
condition of ones dua being responded to is that one must make sure he is living off of halal
and permissible means. Allah says, Put your hope in Me. Man was not created sinful, but he
was created weak. He is prone to fall into the temptations of sin and the whispers of Satan
and when he does, he should always remember to turn to Allah, call upon Him, and ask for
forgiveness with hope in His mercy. Allah stated in a Hadithi Qudsi, I am with My servant as
He expects of Me. The meaning of this is that Allah treats His servants the way he expects
Him to. If one has hope in Allah and trusts Him, Allah will act accordingly to that servants
beliefs and faith. And if he does not have faith and is in despair of his Lords mercy, Allah
will act accordingly.

Not having hope in Allah and despairing of His mercy is a great sin and an act of kufr. Allah
quotes Prophet Yaqoob (alaiyhis-salam) in the Quran:

Indeed, no one despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people. (Surah Yusuf
12:87)

One must be hopeful of Allahs mercy and forgiveness and fearful of His punishment. It is this
fear that should lead one to seek Allahs forgiveness with hope.

Allah says: Know that Allah is severe in punishment and that Allah is Forgiving and
Merciful. (Surat al-Maaidah 5:98)

In the above verse, Allah gives us reason to fear because His punishment is justly severe, as
well as good reason to have hope, since He is the Most Forgiving and Merciful. There should
be a balance between fear and hope and not too much or too less of one or the other. If there
is too much fear, then a person may negate Allahs quality of mercy and ascribe to Him
unkindness (Allah forbid!).

To understand the balance of fear and hope of Allah, let us look at the very first chapter of the
Quran, Surat al-Fatiha. The first verse says, All praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. In
this verse, love for Allah is expressed. We acknowledge that Allah is our Lord and the Lord
of all the worlds. He is the Creator of all things; He sustains and nourishes everything; He
gives life and death; anything good that we have is from Him; and everything is dependant on
him and nothing can happen unless Allah wills it to happen. In the second verse we express
our hope in Him by stating, ar-Rahma-nir-Raheem.

The meaning of which is: The Beneficent, the Merciful. When we mention these two names
of Allah, then we have hope, since He is the One, who is full of mercy and we hope He will
forgive out mistakes and shortcomings. We should never lose hope because there is no reason
to. And in the third ayah of Surat al-Fatiha, fear of Allah is expressed when we recite, Master
(King) of the Day of Judgement. When we recite this verse, we remind ourselves of the Day
that we will be standing in front of our Lord and be questioned for our deeds, a Most Awful
Day. It will be a day in which not even the smallest action will be hidden. This reminder of
the Day of Judgement should bring fear to our hearts. Fear and hope, both should be equally
proportioned in our hearts, in our worship, and in our dua to Allah.

Allah says: Call out to Him with fear and hope. (Surat al-Araaf 7:56)

They forsake their beds to call their Lord in fear and hope. (Surat as-Sajdah 32:16)

The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, The like of these two qualities do not unite in
the heart of a servant except that Allah gives him what he hopes for and protects him from
what he feared. We should never lose hope or stop asking for Allahs forgiveness. Its
importance is shown to us in the following hadith of the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa
sallam): O people! Turn to Allah in repentance and seek His forgiveness, for surely I make
repentance a hundred times every day. Repentance is such a great act of worship that doing it
can totally erase ones sins altogether, as the Noble Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said,
One who repents from sins is like one without sin. When a person sins and then sincerely
turns to Allah for forgiveness, one will find Allah ready to accept his repentance and to
forgive him,

as this verse indicates: And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself, but then seeks
forgiveness from Allah, he will find Allah forgiving and merciful. (Surat an-Nisaa 4:110)

Everyone commits sin and does wrong, but Allah is always willing to forgive and He always
gives them a chance to repent and seek His forgiveness. A believer should never forget the
fact that Allah is so forgiving. If Allah had willed, He could have held everyone accountable
for his or her sins, but He has decreed that He shall allow His servants to seek His
forgiveness and that He shall in fact forgive who and what He wills. In fact, Allah commands
that His servants seek His forgiveness:

And seek Allahs forgiveness. Certainly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Surat al-Muzzammil
73:20)

Repentance is an act, which purifies the soul and brings the servant closer to His Lord. It puts
the heart at rest from guilt. It protects one from falling prey to his desires and lusts and
increases his faith. Allah then says in the Hadithi Qudsi that is being discussed,

O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins close to filling the earth and then you
would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would certainly bring you
forgiveness close to filling it. Look at how great Allahs mercy, compassion, and love is! The
least Allah asks for is that one not ascribe any partners and gods with Him, for, He is alone in
His Sovereignty. And after that if one commits sins and seeks sincere forgiveness, Allah will
forgive him and shower His mercy upon him.
However, one is not forgiven if he seeks repentance from Allah at the time of death when he
sees the angels or when the sun rises from the west at the approaching of the Day of
Judgement. This is confirmed by the following verse:

And of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil deeds until death faces
one of them and he says, Now I repent, nor of those who dies while they are disbelievers. For
them, We have prepared a painful torment. (Surat an-Nisaa 4:18)

Allah also does not forgive one who commits shirk, which is the association of partners with
Allah. Forgiveness will only come to those who die while adhering to tawheed and avoiding
any form of shirk.

Verily, Allah does not forgive that partners should be set up with Him, but He forgives
whatever is less than that for whomever He wills. And whoever sets up partners with Allah
has indeed invented a tremendous sin. (Surat an-Nisaa 4:48)

Verily, Allah forgives not the setting up of partners with Him, but He forgives whom He
pleases whatever is less than that. And whoever sets up partners with Allah has indeed
strayed far away. (Surat an-Nisaa 4:116)

We must ask ourselves this question: Would we be willing to forgive anyone who hurts us
and disobeys us constantly as easily as Allah is Able to forgive? Most probably, the answer
would be no. But our Creator is the Most Kind and He is the Most Perfect.

Lo! Allah is a Lord of Kindness to mankind, but most of mankind give not thanks. (Surat al-
Baqarah 2:143)

Will they not repent to Allah and ask His forgiveness? For Allah is the Forgiving, the
Merciful. (Surat al-Maaidah 5:74)

And who can forgive sins except Allah? (Surah Ali Imran 3:135)

Allah praises the one who truly believes, has hope, and seeks the forgiveness of his Creator,
as did his father, Adam:

Say: Shall I not inform you of things far better than those (things of this world)? For the
pious, there are gardens with their Lord, wherein rivers flow. Therein (is their) eternal home
and pure wives. And Allah will be pleased with them. And Allah is Seer of the slaves. Those
who say, Our Lord! We have indeed believed, so forgive us our sins and save us from the
punishment of the Fire. They are those who are patient, those who are true and obedient with
sincere devotion in worship to Allah. Those who spend (in charity) and those who pray and
beg for Allahs forgiveness in the last hours of the night. (Surah Ali Imran 3:15-17)

Allahs forgiveness and mercy is far greater and more vast than the sins of the creation. One
must always have trust and hope in Allah in both good times and bad times and especially
when seeking Allahs forgiveness. And the believer who calls out to his Lord for forgiveness
demonstrates his true weakness and that he is totally dependent on the Creator. When one
confesses his sins to Allah and sincerely repents with hope in Allahs mercy, the heart should
come to peace and the soul should feel rest. When a person has hope, he has no reason to
despair because it only leads to destruction.

Allah gives hope to all, especially those who despair that there is no reason to despair
because Allah is the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy. Allah praises those who
repent and turn to Him:

And those who, when they commit a lewd act or wrong themselves with evil, remember
Allah and ask forgiveness for their sinsand who forgives sins except Allah? And they do not
persist in what (wrong) they were doing while they knew it. For such, the reward is
forgiveness from their Lord and Gardens with rivers flowing through, wherein they shall
abide forever. How excellent is the reward of the doers (of good)! (Surah Ali Imran 3:135-
136)