Seeking Forgiveness and Repentance in The Month of Ramadan
The Holy month of Ramadan comes with a chance for Muslims to increase their stock of virtues. It is a month of blessing in which fasting and offering of Taraweeh prayer in addition to regular prayers leads to the stock of good deeds rising up and a Muslim transcending in his or her spirituality by becoming more pure. Besides, across the globe, Muslims make special arrangements and preparations to get maximum blessings in Ramadan from the Almighty Creator.
As great is the chance of increasing the reward against good deeds in Ramadan, it provides an equal opportunity of seeking forgiveness for the previous sins. The fasting and prayers that are performed during Ramadan for gaining reward can also be used as a means of seeking forgiveness from Allah Almighty during the whole month. Pertaining to seeking forgiveness in the month of Ramadan, a Muslim must remember the following things.
Seeking Forgiveness Leaves To Guidance:
In Quran, Allah Almighty says:
“But without doubt, I am (also) He that forgives again, and again to those who repent, believe, and do right – who, in fine, are ready to receive true guidance.” (20:82)
From this ayah of Quran it is clear that the doors of forgiveness never close. Allah Almighty is the Forgiver and the one who keeps on repenting over his or her sins receives forgiveness from Him. Moreover, this frequent repentance is what leads to true guidance. The ayah implies that when a person stops repenting and seeking forgiveness, the ultimate result is he or she going astray from the right path and hence the guidance does not shower upon such a person.
To err is human and as humans, we are to make and commit mistakes, however, the thing to remember pertaining to committing of sins is that a person should seek forgiveness for it from Allah Almighty. Therefore, as long as a person keeps on seeking forgiveness, the hope of finding guidance stays alive for such a person, and if he or she does not do so, then guidance and truth are a far cry for such a person.
Salvation:
Another outcome of seeking forgiveness and repenting upon the sins is salvation. The objectives of Ramadan also entails to direct the people towards Allah Almighty so that they understand that He is the Lord and to Him we all shall return, therefore, it is imperative that we all make efforts so that we achieve salvation in front of our Lord. Hence, in this regard seeking forgiveness and repenting over sins gets grave importance. Allah Almighty says in Quran:
“But any that (in this life) had repented, believed, and worked righteousness, will have hopes to be among those who achieve salvation.” (28:67)
In this ayah Allah Almighty gives the clear criteria for achieving salvation. In addition to believing in Allah Almighty and doing the works of righteousness, it is the repentance that takes a person to the destination of salvation. All these deeds are what Ramadan is all about, one believes in Allah and as per His orders keeps fast. People commit the deeds of righteousness and refrain from evil throughout the whole month and thus, the prayers throughout the month should also be utilized for seeking forgiveness and mercy from Him by repenting on all the previous sins.
Bad Changing Into Good:
In Quran, Allah Almighty gives another benefit of seeking forgiveness in the following way:
“Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (25:70)
This ayah of Quran gives perhaps one of the most tempting benefits of repenting and seeking forgiveness. Pertaining to repentance, the general perception is that people think that it is a means of seeking forgiveness for their previous sins so that if their repentance gets accepted by Allah Almighty, then their account of sins goes to zero and all the good that they have done gets counted.
In this ayah, Allah Almighty gives an even better perspective to repentance, and that is if a person repents and seeks forgiveness from Allah Almighty and if the repentance gets accepted, then instead of the sins being washed from the account of that person, the sins get replaced by reward and good deeds. Therefore, seeking forgiveness creates a situation where even the bad deeds get changed into goods.
Thus, it is of grave importance that a person seeks forgiveness during the month of Ramadan, as during this month Allah Almighty closes the doors of hell and opens the doors of paradise, which point towards the fact that Allah Almighty is willing to forgive everyone who seeks forgiveness from Him. Therefore, in Ramadan the emphasis of a Muslim should be on seeking forgiveness to increase their chances of redoing the past and turning it into a box full of virtues and good deeds.
Forgiveness Is Always There:
The one thing where most of the people go wrong is that they think that their particular sin or sins are unforgiveable, therefore, they don’t repent for them and instead of coming to the path of righteousness keep on going on the same path. A Muslim must remember that the door of forgiveness is always open and whenever a person seeks forgiveness from Allah Almighty he or she will find Him forgiving. Prophet (PBUH) said in this regard:
“Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, stretches out His Hand during the night so that the people repent for the fault committed from dawn till dusk and He stretches out His Hand daring the day so that the people may repent for the fault committed from dusk to dawn. (He would accept repentance)before the sun rises from the west (before the Day of Resurrection).” (Muslim)
Therefore, a Muslim must never despair and must try seeking forgiveness in the month of Ramadan, which is a month in which Allah Almighty is more inclined towards forgiving than ever.
Conclusion:
In a nutshell it is imperative that a Muslim makes best use of the Holy Month of Ramadan and in addition to asking Allah Almighty for blessings and mercy, a person should also emphasizes on seeking forgiveness from Him as well, which is pivotal to a better life in this world and in the world Hereafter.
