How great Allah is in forgiving His servants' sins! In answer to Satan's challenge to lead people astray, He has declared that He will forgive a servant who seeks forgiveness (istighfar). The hadith also describes how vast the door of forgiveness is. What good news did the Prophet give about Satan's challenge and forgiveness?

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave countless instructions urging his ummah to seek forgiveness, because Allah revealed several verses telling His servants to ask forgiveness and repent. Allah commands the believers:

• "Seek forgiveness of your Lord, then turn to Him in repentance. He will give you good provision until an appointed time and give every doer of good his reward. But if you turn away, I fear for you the punishment of a great day." (Surah Hud)
• "O believers, turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, so that you may succeed." (Surah Nur: 31)
• "O believers, turn to Allah in sincere repentance. Perhaps your Lord will remove your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow, on the day when Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believed with him. Their light will run before them and on their right, and they will say: our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us; You have power over all things." (Surah Tahrim: 8)

Hearing Allah's command and the merit of forgiveness, the Prophet urged his ummah to seek forgiveness often. He himself repented 70 or 100 times a day, a great lesson for his followers. Several hadiths record this.

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri narrates that he heard the Prophet say: "Iblis said to his Lord: by Your honour and greatness, I will keep leading the children of Adam astray as long as there is life in them. Allah said: by My honour and greatness, I will keep forgiving them as long as they seek My forgiveness." (Musnad Ahmad)

To inspire his ummah to repent, the Prophet repented 70 or 100 times every day:

Abu Huraira narrates that he heard the Prophet say: "By Allah, I seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to Him more than 70 times a day." (Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmad)

Aghar ibn Yasir al-Muzani narrates that the Prophet said: "O people, repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness, for I repent 100 times every day." (Muslim, Abu Dawud, Musnad Ahmad)

How great Allah's forgiveness and generosity towards people are appears in another, long hadith, at the end of which the Prophet describes the door of repentance.

Zirr ibn Hubaysh narrates that he went to Safwan ibn Assal to ask about wiping over leather socks. Safwan asked, "Zirr, what brings you?" He said, "Seeking knowledge." Safwan said, "The angels spread their wings for the seeker of knowledge, pleased with what he seeks." Zirr said he had doubts about wiping over socks after answering the call of nature, and since Safwan was a companion of the Prophet he had come to ask whether he had heard the Prophet say anything about it. Safwan said yes: when they travelled, the Prophet told them not to take off their socks for three days and nights (that is, to keep wiping over them), except in a state of major impurity, but not after answering the call of nature or sleeping.

Zirr then asked whether he had heard the Prophet say anything about love. Safwan said they were travelling with the Prophet and sitting with him when a Bedouin called out loudly, "O Muhammad!" The Prophet answered him in a loud voice too: "Come here!" Safwan told the Bedouin to lower his voice, since it was forbidden to speak so loudly in the Prophet's presence, but the Bedouin said, "By Allah, I will not lower it." He asked the Prophet about a man who loves certain people but has not reached their rank. The Prophet replied: "On the Day of Judgement a person will be with those he loves."

The Prophet went on talking with them until he mentioned a door in the west "whose width is a journey of 40 or 70 years", or, he said, a rider would travel 40 or 70 years across its width. (Sufyan, one of the narrators, said the door is towards Syria.) "Allah created this door on the day He created the heavens and the earth, and it has been open for repentance ever since. It will not close until the sun rises from the west." (Tirmidhi, Nasai, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmad)

Abu Musa al-Ashari narrates that the Prophet said: "Allah stretches out His hand at night so that the one who sinned by day may repent, and stretches out His hand by day so that the one who sinned by night may repent. This will continue until the sun rises from the west." (Muslim, Musnad Ahmad)

Abu Huraira narrates that the Prophet said: "Whoever repents before the sun rises from the west, Allah will accept his repentance." (Muslim, Musnad Ahmad)

Abu Abdur Rahman Abdullah ibn Umar narrates that the Prophet said: "Allah accepts a servant's repentance until his soul reaches his throat." (Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah)

So whatever the sin or wrong, people should seek Allah's forgiveness at once, repent and return to the right path, and ask forgiveness often. In that lies the believer's success.

May Allah grant the Muslim ummah the ability to repent and seek forgiveness often to win His mercy, and to act on the hadith. Ameen.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.