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It appears certain people are interested in this topic, so it is included here.
Am I worthy of God’s grace?
Sometimes, people subconsciously turn away from God, because they feel unworthy of His grace. This is to misunderstand God at a very deep level.
O my servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the mercy of God Quran 39:53
Perhaps, they feel they have done too much wrong to dig themselves out of the hole in which they find themselves. Tragically, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Understand this:
a loss of hope, at its core, is a fundamental sign of disbelief in God.
… never give up hope of God’s soothing mercy: truly no one despairs of God’s soothing mercy except those who have no faith. Quran 12:87
And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except those who are astray? [Quran 15:56]
Did you know…
Muslims do not associate God with an image. This would limit Him. However, Muslims talk of the most beautiful names of God. These names are mentioned in the Quran.
Did you know…
That not one, but at least five of God’s most beautiful names can be associated with forgiveness:
Al-Ghafoor: The Most Forgiving
Al-Tawwab: The Acceptor of Repentance
Al-Haleem: The Clement
Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim: The Most Compassionate and the Most Merciful.
Did you know…
All but one of the 114 surahs (chapters) of the Holy Quran begin with the words:
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Did you know…
That God Who has power over all things, voluntarily chose to declare the following about Himself in the Quran giving extraordinary power to that attribute:
He hath prescribed for Himself mercy Quran 6.12 (this type of declaration only occurs twice in the Quran -Asad commentary)
God’s Messenger said, “When God completed the creation, He wrote in His book which is with Him on His throne, “My mercy outstrips My anger.” Sahih Al-Bukhari 4.416
Perhaps, you are still hesitant, so indulge me, and allow me to transport you through a story to a different time and place.
Imagine that you and your small son live at the edge of a dangerous jungle. You try hard to impress upon him the dangers of the jungle and tell him to stay safely inside your home at all times.
Imagine that your young and foolish child disobeys you and leaves your hut at the edge of the jungle. While in the jungle and being away from the safety of your roof, he suffers heavily. Finally, one day you glimpse his tiny, disheveled face staring at you longingly from the edge of the jungle. His little eyes are filled with the terror that you will be angry at him for disobeying you. He is torn between fear and the desperate hope of returning to you.
Would you abandon him to the terrors of the jungle, or would your face radiate with the joy of seeing him again? And what if a lion stood between you and your young son? Would that lion even stand a chance of keeping you apart? What do you think your son would think? And then ask yourself that very question.
Yet did you know…
God’s compassion far outstrips the love of a mother for her child.
God’s Messenger said: “There are one hundred (parts of) mercy of God and He has sent down out of these one part of mercy upon the jinn and human beings and the insects. It is because of this (one part) that they love one another, show kindness to one another and even the beast treats its young one with affection, and God has reserved ninety-nine parts of mercy with which He will treat His servants on the Day of Resurrection. (Sahih Muslim 1280)
Will you still hesitate?
Repentance
Repentance can include several steps: acknowledging, repenting, restitution, and replacing bad with good.
In Islam, one does not necessarily gratuitously expose all of one’s mistakes to others. For example, there are certain hadith where someone spoke of some of their sins before the Prophet, and the Prophet’s first reaction was to turn away. Further, in some hadith, one can also hear Muslims saying: “God has screened his sin. He should have screened it himself.”
God does not like any evil to be mentioned publicly, unless it is by him who has been wronged [thereby]Quran 4.148
If everyone starts boasting of their sins without any negative consequences, eventually it is possible that no public censure or discouragement will exist for certain deeds that should be publicly discouraged.
Nor is public humiliation for certain actions a necessary requirement for repentance. Would every human be strong enough to repent voluntarily if humiliation were a prerequisite for repentance for those actions? Or would repentance be effectively barred from some individuals who were in deep need of it? Thus, Islam makes easy the path to repentance. For, at its core, Islam is a religion of common sense.
One may sincerely repent, and turn to God -for there is no more important conversation than between God and oneself–and make amends and replace the bad with the good. Strive to be among those that will strive so mightily in doing right that it will begin to dwarf your past mistakes, so much so that it will be hard to even imagine you were ever previously anything else. Perhaps you may find, if you are truly sincere, that in time you may become a different person at your very core.
… Unless he repents believes and works righteous deeds for God will change the evil of such persons into good and God is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful Quran 25:70
There are many stories of the companions of Prophet Muhammad who before Islam lived lives of regret. Yet, after they made the decision to change, they changed so deeply, and fundamentally that they not only transformed themselves, but a nation, a region, the world and human history itself.
What choices will you make?
(Excerpt from book "Easily Understand Islam")
Click to read sample chapters from the book below
Table of Contents
Why is there Evil and Suffering?
Why I Believe in God — A Muslim Speaks
The Quran, Modern Science, and More
Islam & Racism
Islam: A Solution for America’s Social Problems?
Some Muslim Virtues (Sayings of the Prophet)
Section IV: Islam & Christianity
Common Ground: Judaism, Christianity & Islam