The qualities and actions that will wipe out past and future sins by Shaykh Muhammad Ahmad Amuwah (Hudaydah, Yemen) translated by Shoayb Ahmed (Pretoria, South Africa)
All praises are due to Allah, the Lord of the universe, whose help we seek and we seek His forgiveness for our sins that are innumerable. We thank Allah for favouring us with numerous actions that will expiate our sins. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah and our master Muhammad is His slave and messenger
There is no way in this day and age that a person could completely avoid sin except for those who are protected by Allah. So the one truly protected is the one who Allah protects and selects him to be among the people of special closeness (wilayah). So, since this is the case, Allah has favoured this Ummah by granting them many actions that would expiate their sins and He promised to pardon and forgive them after sincere repentance (tawbah) and (istighfar).
Allah directed them to this in Surah Hud, verse 114 “Indeed, good wipes out the bad.”
Therefore, it is imperative upon every intelligent person to strive to save himself from the Fire through sincere repentance and righteous actions. So, after fulfilling the obligatory actions (fard), he needs to occupy himself with those actions that would erase the sins so he is cleansed and gains closeness to Allah. The actions that expiate sins are many and thus very difficult to innumerate all. However, we are able to innumerate those that have reached us from the Messenger of Allah. Some illustrious scholars have authored works on this topic and among them was al-Hafiz Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Sa’id al-Marwazi (d. 292 A.H), al-Hafiz Abd al-Azhim al-Mundhiri (d. 656 A.H) and al-Hafiz Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani (d. 852 A.H).
More recently, Allamah Abd al-Hamid Quds ibn Muhammad Ali ibn al-Khatib, who was one of the renowned scholars of Makkah (d. 1335 A.H) also authored on this topic. He summarized what was written before him. Shaykh Muhammad Amuwah condensed this book even more, so that it is easy accessible.
Introduction
The purpose and objective in mentioning these actions is to merely encourage others to act upon these which are in reality different acts of worship and devotion. Some of these may be based upon weak hadith but can still be practiced upon in matters of virtue and as a form of encouragement. It should not be understood that a person can merely act upon these without sincere tawbah. One must be mindful that these actions wipe out the sins when the slave is truthful in turning to Allah and tries to adhere to a life of obedience to Allah and hastens in renewing his tawbah whenever he slips or sins.
Once a person has realized this and then he comes across one of these characteristics that would expiate sins and the person wishes to act upon it, then he needs to place his trust in the bounty and grace of Allah and hope that Allah will accept it. A person must not place his full trust in the action itself and fall into the trap of deception to the extent that one is not encouraged to perpetrate sins thinking to himself or even telling the next person that the sins I commit will be wiped out by these actions. This is not permissible, because sincere repentance (tawbah) from all sins is compulsory. Allah says in Surah al-Nur, verse: {And repent to Allah all of you, O believers so that you may be successful}.
Having established the above, a person must realize that if he intends to carry out the smallest of sins intending thereafter to follow it up with one of these actions so that Allah may forgive his past and future sins, know that this is unacceptable and not permissible. These actions cannot be used as an excuse to perpetrate sins. How certain is the person that death may not overcome him while he is engaged in the sin? Death may even overcome the person while he is contemplating on perpetrating the sin. In this case, a person is among those who are destroyed, because actions are judged according to their intentions and according to the end result.
These actions wipe out future sins: What does this mean?
The sins are forgiven the moment it occurs or the person is protected from falling into sin. It is not necessary that by having the sin forgiven in the future that taklif is lifted. The reason is that forgiveness of sin is a matter of the Hereafter and fulfilling acts of worship is a worldly matter.
Know that these actions will not wipe out past and future sins until and unless various conditions of acceptance are met, namely; sincerity, avoid ostentation, true tawbah and various other conditions. In fact if a person carry’s out these actions for show or ostentation, then these will be considered as sins that will require him to repent from.
The conditions of sincere and true tawbah are:
– To abstain from the sin
– To have regret
– To resolve not to return to the sin
– If the sin infringed on the rights of a person, then it must be returned to its rightful owner.
The proofs for these actions are narrations that are rigorously authentic (sahih), good (hasan) and weak (da’if). The author will state this with every narration cited. There is no harm in practicing on something based upon a weak narration because these are matters of virtue and that proofs have been established on the necessity to repent.