Some people may ask: if Allah has
relented towards them so why were they obliged to repent? The answer is that
Allah’s Legislation of repentance had to precede repentance itself…His Saying, “He
turned to them so they could repent,” means that He legislated for them
repentance.
He said to them that if you committed a
sin or a guilt repent; and as long as Allah, be ever gloried His Majesty and
Might, asked them to repent they should turn to Him in repentance and Allah
will accept it from them. The legislation of repentance is not only a mercy
towards the sinner but also to the community at large. Had Allah, all glory is
to Him, closed the door of repentance then whoever has committed sins would
sink deeper in sins, as long as repentance is not accepted. And as long as a
sin leads to eternity in Hellfire, then whoever commits one sin will
consequently fill his life with sins, for there is no hope for him in ever
winning Paradise. So, he will decide to take his share of worldly life, and
consequently the whole community will suffer
because every sinner will sin even more.
The entire humanity suffers from the
spread of sin and not only the individual. Thus, by legislating repentance,
Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has mercy on the entire humanity against the
spread of sins. Because the first sin does not cast man eternally into
Hellfire, provided that man repents and returns to Allah. Therefore, man should
never persist in sin but he should hurry to righteousness and repent to Allah
and perform more good deeds, to have his sins forgiven. This way hope in
attaining Paradise remains and also remains the wish for goodness, thus the
community prospers and it becomes filled with blessings. Indeed, repentance is
a mercy on the entire humanity.
But Satan rejected the Commands of
Allah and he worsened it by his will to lure mankind into sin. He said as the
Noble Qur’an relates to us (what means):
“[Satan] said, ‘Because
You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight
path. Then I will come to them from before them and from behind them and on
their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful [to
You].’” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 16-17)
Satan did not admit his sin, but rather
he insisted on it and threatened that he would do such and such things, a
persistence in disobedience. On the other hand Adam and Eve admitted their sin
which is a very important point that we should heed, so that people who dare
and sin beware of. They should not justify disobedience or sin by contradicting
the Command of Allah, claiming that time or circumstances have changed.
For example, to the dealers in bank
interests, which involves a suspicion of usury, we say: do not claim that Ribâ
(usury) is not unlawful and that taking interests is an international system
and that the whole world transacts business through it and that time has
changed…to the end of what we hear nowadays. By such words of yours you remove
yourself from the domain of Allah’s Mercy to the domain of expulsion from His
Mercy, all praise and glory is to Him.
But rather say: O Lord, we have failed
to overcome ourselves, please forgive us and have mercy on us . This way you
have accused yourself of weakness, negligence and injustice and you have kept
yourself within the domain of belief. But by rejecting the Judgment of Allah
and by claiming that Ribâ is not unlawful you have walked out of belief to
disbelief, Allah forbid.
When man commits a sin he should
neither try to justify its commission nor defend it and claim that it is
lawful. Nor say that circumstances have changed and that the legal ruling must
have also changed. Because this involves a rejection of Allah’s Command, which
pulls man out of belief to disbelief, and from mercy to damnation. And that is
the difference between the sin of Adam and that of Satan.
Satan disobeyed and was puffed up with
pride, whereas Adam disobeyed but he admitted his sin. When Adam and Eve
confessed their guilt, Allah taught them the way of repentance. Had not Allah,
The Most Exalted and EverMajestic, taught them, they would not have known how
to repent. For repentance occurred by an inspiration from Allah, all praise and
glory is to Him:
“They said, ‘Our
Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy
upon us, we will surely be among the losers.’” (Al-A‘râf , 7: 23)
Then Allah, Whose Majesty reigns
Supreme, said (what means):
“(Allah) said:
‘Get down, some of you an enemy to some others. And for you on the earth is a
place of settlement and enjoyment for a time.” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 24)
We should observe the Ayat that relates
to us the act of descent. In another Ayah, The Truth, all praise and glory is
to Him, says (what means):
“(Allah) said:
‘Get you down, both of you, together, some of you are an enemy to some
others.’” (Tâ-Hâ, 20: 123)
And in another Ayah, Allah says (what
means):
“We said, ‘Go down
from it, all of you.’” (Al-Baqarah, 2:38)
The addressees are Adam, Eve and Satan,
and enmity here is preexistent between mankind and Satan. But His Saying, “Get
you down, both of you, together, some of you are an enemy to some others,” shows that enmity is between two parties: Adam
and Eve are one party, and Satan is the other party. So, we have two groups:
Adam, Eve and their offspring are one group against the group of Satan and his
offspring. All the Ayat perfectly agrees.
We have to understand that when Allah
says, “Some of you are an enemy to some others,”
there will be a
struggle and enmity between the offspring of Adam and the offspring of Satan,
and that the struggle (between the two parties) will last as long as worldly
life continues only and will not extend to the Hereafter. But as to the devil
and man, there is a lasting struggle as long as the lifetime of each in this
world, and not the lifetime of this world. When the devil dies or man dies the
struggle between them comes to an end.
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