- In that moment where you're just about to commit that sin,
where you've been tempted,
where you have made up your mind that you're going to do it
and you've been struck by the whisper of Shaitan,
and just as you're about to commit that sin, you wake up.
Okay?
So those are the people that
Allah (S.W.T.) says,
Tadhakkaru fa'dha hom mobsiroon
that after they've been touched by the whisper of the devil,
they wake up and then suddenly they can see,
they're completely, you know, tuned out of that sin
and they're turning back to
Allah (S.W.T.) in repentance.
That's the best case scenario,
that you were about to commit the sin and then you stopped.
Where the prophet (PBUH) said,
Idha dhokkirtom billah fantahu
that when you're about to commit a sin,
if you're reminded of Allah, don't ignore your conscience,
don't ignore your Taqwa,
don't ignore those thoughts about God.
Stop right then and there, don't say,
"Oh, well I'm already half way through the sin,
or I'm already, I'm already at the point of committing it,
I might as well commit it
and then worry about repentance later."
Stop yourself then, but what about when a person
just commits the sin and you commit that sin,
especially the first time you commit that sin
before you've become desensitized to it.
You feel so dirty, you feel impure,
you feel a great sense of remorse and regret.
And what you do in those moments is going to decide
whether that sin becomes a means of
bringing you back to Allah (S.W.T.)
or that sin becomes a habit
that takes you down the path of Shaitan perpetually.
That's where the prophet (PBUH)
talks about a very unique way
that we interact with these angels
that are on our right and our left.
Wa inna 'alaikum hafidheen, kiraman katibeen
You have these noble angels that are recording
on your right and on your left everything that you do.
Anything that you say, anything that you do,
Allah (S.W.T.) has commanded them to write.
And there's not a single word, Ma yalfidhu min qawlin Inna ladaihi raqeebun 'ateed
not a single word that you utter,
not a single expression that you utter,
accept that those angels write it down readily.
Now, as those angels write down,
they have a sense when you're about to commit a good deed,
or you're about to commit a sin
because Assufyan (Rahimahullah) said that
when a person is about to commit a good deed,
they emit, the soul emits the scent of musk,
this beautiful scent and when you're about to commit a sin
the soul emits a nasty stench,
and so there's a sense that a sin is coming.
But then after you commit that good deed or that sin
and those angels write down everything,
there's one exception, and that is what the prophet
(PBUH) said,
that when a person first commits a sin,
Allah commands the angel on the left
to hold his pen for six hours.
Now six hours here, an hour not being 60 minutes,
but six periods of time.
There's a time where Allah (S.W.T.) says hold off
and if that person repents within those six hours,
then Allah (S.W.T.)
does not have that angel write down that sin,
but instead Allah (S.W.T.)
has a good deed written for you instead.
If a person goes forth and commits that sin,
the prophet (PBUH) said,
one sin is written down.
Now to speak to that for a moment,
you know if you're thinking about
that angel that's on your left side
that's being told to withhold their pen
and not to write it down,
we know that the prophet (PBUH) said,
even if the sin was written down,
Atta'ibu mina adhambi kaman la dhanbad lah
the one who repents from his sin
is like one who never committed sin in the first place,
that good deeds wipe out sins,
that Allah (S.W.T.)
has always left the door of repentance open to you.
But in this unique situation
where the angel is told not even to document the sin,
what is the effect of that?
The prophet (PBUH) said
that a sin is written down as one sin
if a person actually commits it.
But a good deed, at the minimum,
is written at 10 good deeds, up to 700,
up to whatever Allah (S.W.T.) decrees it.
So from the mercy of your Lord,
if you turn back to Allah (S.W.T.)
immediately after committing a sin,
this isn't a person that intended to commit a sin
and say, "I'm gonna repent within six hours,
I'll be okay, so it's not gonna get there."
It's someone who, you know, fell into it
and woke up right away and said,
"I can't believe I did that, Astaghfir Allah
I turn back to Allah (S.W.T.)."
On your records, not only will you not have the sin
ever recorded, but you'll have the good deed
of Istighfar
the good deed of seeking forgiveness from
Allah (S.W.T.) recorded,
which is at minimum 10 times, up to 700 times,
up to whatever Allah (S.W.T.) decrees,
and so that's the mercy of your Lord,
that even as these two are recording
on your right and your left at all times,
Allah (S.W.T.) shows leniency
through the one on the left and says,
"Hold your pen, see if my servant will turn back to me,
see if he'll wake up in the midst of that moment,
see if my servant will decide
that this is not something I ever wanna do again,
see if this will be the means
by which my servant turns back to me."
And verily, a sin that brings a person back to
Allah (S.W.T.)
is better than a goods deed that takes him away.