REPENTANCE AS DEMOLITION AND RECONSTRUCTION [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

If one ventures towards repentance, particularly when one faces
psychological conflict, and tries to destroy this behavioral abnormality,
taking the direction to Allah; the disobedient and criminal, while are
involved in such odd connections with the motives of deviation, need a
determination and firm will which enables them to cut off this relation
and change their self-direction towards the right path. Without such a
will and sincere determination, it is impossible for a man to change from
disobedience to obedience. Both sincere determination and firm will are
among the psychological starting points for man to take a decision and
specify his behavioral position.

How beautifully Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s.) describes the
role of a firm will and its importance in man's life:

"A man never gets weak if he is strengthened with a
firm intention (will)."

Consequently, firm will is a power capable of changing a
man's route and, also, correcting his direction in life.

Achieving Repentance

In order to achieve repentance, express his sincerity in
return towards Allah, man should change his repentance into action and
achieve his remoteness against his evil deeds; make for the better in
himself; and prove his true love for Allah by fearing Him in all his
decisions and actions. To achieve these, he should have:

First: Regret: It means that the repentant feels
pain and sorrow about his past sins and have an urgent psychological
desire to avoid them and fill the gaps resulting from his previous
behavioral attitudes which become odious and disliked.

Second: To give up sins and evil deeds which he
used to practise, in the past, and promises himself not to return to them
again, i.e., by eradicating the impact of a deviated, psychological
impulse which prevented him from expressing himself in any other way.

Third: To avoid what can be avoided of his sinful
acts and fulfill what can be fulfilled of them. For instance, if he stole
or transgressed against others or did an evil to others by oppressing
them, it is obligatory for him either to give back what he stole to their
rightful owners or to make an apology for his evils and compensate what
can be compensated for the oppressed and the transgressed...etc.

It is, also, obligatory for him to perform every
neglected duty in case of being able to do so, at the time; such as,
praying, fasting, pilgrimage (hajj) and filial devotion to
parents...,otherwise his repentance is meaningless and there is no
achievement in the realms of actions and intentions.

How delicately Imam Ali (a.s.) explains the concept of
repentance. Once someone said before him: 'astaghfirullah' (I ask
Allah's forgiveness), then Imam Ali (a.s.) said:

"Your mother may lose you! Do you know what
'istighfar'(asking Allah's forgiveness) is? 'Astighfar' is meant for
people of a high position. It is a word that stands on six
meanings.

1. To repent over the past.

2. To make a
firm determination never to revert to it.

3. To discharge all
the rights of the people so that you may meet Allah quite clean with
nothing to account for.

4. To fulfil every obligatory which you
ignored (in the past) so that you may now do justice with it.

5.
To aim at the flesh grown as a result of unlawful earning, so that you
may melt it by grief (of repentance) till the skin touches the bone and a
new flesh grows between them.

6. To make the body taste the pain of obedience as you
(previously) made it taste the sweetness of disobedience. On such occasion
you may say: 'astaghfirullah'"[15]

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Endnotes

1. Al-Raghib Al-Esfahani, al-Mufradat fi Gharib
al-Qur'an, Chapter On Repentance.

2. Al-Sahifah Al-Sajjadiyah, p. 282,
Englsih Version.

3. Ibid, Supplication No. 16, p. 60, section 31.

4.
Muhammad Mehdi Al-Naraqi, Jami' al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities),
vol. 3, p- 60.

5. The existence of two angels who are responsible for
recording man's actions is among the essential principles of Islamic
Ideology; supported by the Holy Qur'an and Prophetic Tradition
(sunnah).

6. Al-Muhajabah al-Baidha'e, Book on Al-adkar and al-Da'awat,
p. 274.

7. Prophetic Tradition (hadith)

8. Muhammad Mehdi
Al-Naraqi, Jami' al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities), vol. 3, p. 65
narrated by Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (as.) through his grandfather the
Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.).

9. Muhammad Mehdi Al-Naraqi, Jami'
al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities), vol. 3, p. 65

10. Muhammad
Mehdi Al-Naraqi, Jami' al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities), vol. 3,
p. 65

11. Ibid, p.67

12. Ibid, p. 17

13. Al-Naraqi, Jami'
Al-Sa'adat, vol. 3, p. 67

14. Muhammad Mehdi Al-Naraqi, Jami'
al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities), vol. 3, p. 65

15. Muhammad
Mehdi Al-Naraqi, Jami' al-Sa'adat (The Collector of Felicities), vol. 3,
p. 78.