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How Istighfar Clears the Fog | Khutbah
There are layers on the heart that prevent it from receiving guidance. Istighfar is not just for forgiveness, but also for clarity.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that every time a person commits a sin, that there is a dot that is placed on the heart.
فَإِن نَزَعَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ وَتَابَ And if that person abandons that sin and seeks forgiveness from Allah ﷻ and repents back to Allah ﷻ,
not only is that spot removed, سُقِلَ قَلْبُ But the heart becomes polished in that very same spot. Because that sin, not only is not going to be counted against you,
because the mercy of Allah ﷻ is such that the Prophet ﷺ said that the one who repents is like the one who never committed a sin,
but on top of that, it will become a means of bringing you back to Allah ﷻ because in the process of repentance, you developed a newfound clarity.
And so there is a connection as well between the good deed that is placed instead of the sin on your record, and clarity, the newfound closeness to Allah ﷻ,
that comes through توبة نصوحة, comes through a sincere repentance. Now if you don't treat it, Allah ﷻ says, كَلَّا بَلْ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
that the reason why people cannot capture the beauty of revelation in their hearts, cannot find that guidance, cannot feel what they should feel
when they hear it being recited upon them, turned away their prophets and messengers in such ways,
is because the stains developed on the hearts and ultimately the heart became so stained that it blocked out the light from coming in. And so the light could not come into that heart anymore.
Now, that is for the person whose heart is locked and a person whose heart cannot take any of that guidance.
What I wanted to speak about was the layers that we find in the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
There is that layer of a heart that becomes so tarnished, so stained, that becomes so enveloped in its layers of darkness that it can no longer receive the light.
Earlier this week I talked about the very famous companion Suhaib al-Rumi ﷺ, and he was the representative of the famous man Abdullah ibn Jud'an.
Abdullah ibn Jud'an was a wealthy man who had many good qualities and Aisha ﷺ asked the Prophet ﷺ, would all of the good that he had done, would it benefit him? And he said, he never said,
لم يقول يومًا رب اغفر لي خطيئتي يوم الدين. He never asked Allah for forgiveness for his sins on the day of resurrection. And so the istighfar of turning back to Allah ﷻ to start to remove that,
and no distance from Allah ﷻ cannot be made up with sincere tawbah. And then the next step that you take towards Allah ﷻ, when you seek forgiveness from Allah and the mercy opens up to you.
And then subhanAllah there is this beautiful hadith from the Prophet ﷺ that the scholars feel a great apprehension around in trying to explain it.
And that is when the Prophet ﷺ said, إنه لا يغان على قلبي. That verily sometimes I feel like there is fog upon my heart.
Now, there is an adab with the Prophet ﷺ, a mannerism with the Messenger ﷺ. He was not one who would partake in prohibitions. So it's not sins that he was talking about.
And we know that there is an istighfar, there is a seeking forgiveness from Allah ﷻ that is of feeling deficient. That we can never pay Allah back for what he has given to us.
That our acts of worship, no matter how perfect they are, would not be equivalent to the perfect blessings that he has bestowed upon us. The greatest of those blessings being rightful guidance. And so we say after prayer,
أستغفر الله أستغفر الله أستغفر الله. And the Prophet ﷺ he said, that I feel a fog, لا يغان على قلبي, a fog that overtakes my heart,
and I seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ at least a hundred times a day. What is the deficiency that the Prophet ﷺ was talking about? And when you dive into the meanings of these words,
you find something so beautiful. And there are many clouds in the sky and we are outside, and Allah knows how long we'll be doing Jum'ah outside. So I want you to appreciate the beauty of the language for a moment, and what the Prophet ﷺ is expressing to us.
رَيْن or رَان, رَان is when the heart becomes completely covered. Complete darkness that blocks out the light. غام with a م at the end, or غيم with a م at the end, instead of a ن at the end,
refers to a heavy cloud, a heavy fog. A heavy fog, and that's why when it gives rain, it is غيث, a heavy rain that comes from it. So it refers to a heavy cloud, a dark cloud.
غان refers to a very light fog, a very light cloud. And Ibn Kathir ﷺ he explained this so beautifully, he said رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ رَيْن
refers to the hearts of the kafireen, right? Those that completely rejected rightful guidance. غيم with a م at the end, refers to the hearts of al-abrar, the righteous.
Because the pious are not those that don't sin, they're the ones that turn back to Allah when they sin. So there are people that feel when they commit a sin,
a sense of guilt, it hurts their hearts, and they turn back to Allah ﷻ quickly, right? And so they're still righteous people, because again the goal is not to sin. The goal is not that you won't sin,
the goal is that you will keep turning back to Allah, and trying your best not to sin, and every time you do sin, you turn back to Allah ﷻ. And so those are the hearts of al-abrar, the hearts of the pious.
And taqwa is turning back to Allah ﷻ and abandoning that which puts a distance between you and Him. And then he said al-ghayn with a ن at the end, which is what the Prophet ﷺ described, these are the hearts of al-mukarrabin,
these are the hearts of those that are close to Allah ﷻ. So think of the right, the left, and those that are closest to Allah ﷻ directly under His shade, may Allah make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Those are the hearts of the closest people
to Allah ﷻ. And who are they? And what was the Prophet ﷺ talking about? The Prophet ﷺ was talking about that even in the capacity, even throughout the day, when a person engages in things that are permissible,
not things that are sinful, that a person could feel a distance from Allah ﷻ. In the engaging of al-mubah, in the permissible things, in the engaging of permissible things,
in the going about your day, in the wasting of time, or in the using your time in permissible ways that puts a distance between you and Allah ﷻ. And so the Prophet ﷺ is talking about that,
innahu layughanu ala qalbi, that that creates a fog of sorts. Not one that stains, not one that causes to sin, not one that blocks out the light, but istighfar, turning back to Allah ﷻ,
creates such a level of, not just closeness, but clarity. Clarity in one's life. And so in one day, the Prophet ﷺ would say istighfar at least a hundred times.
Not for sinning, not for sinning, but to create that connection and that clarity with Allah ﷻ. Abdullah ibn Umar ﷺ said, we would sit with the Prophet ﷺ, he said in one gathering, not a day,
in one gathering he would say, رَبِّ اخْفِرْ لِي وَتُبْعَ لَيَّ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ تَوَابٌ رَحِيمٌ Oh my Lord, forgive me and accept my repentance. You are the acceptor of repentance and the especially merciful.
He would say that 70 times in one gathering. And so when the Prophet ﷺ said, I seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ a hundred times, that's the minimum. He would seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ in a day.
Then how much more should we have istighfar as a part of our routine? How much more should we have istighfar as our morning remembrance and our evening remembrance? As our sitting and gatherings?
As our sitting in front of our computers? As we're going about our day? That we continue to say, استغفر الله استغفر الله استغفر الله Not because Allah ﷻ wants to cause us anxiety,
but because Allah ﷻ gives us clarity on top of forgiveness through that. And even the lightest fog is cleared where the brightest of that rightful guidance can come to our hearts at all time.
We ask Allah ﷻ to purify our hearts, to remove from our hearts anything that distances them from their Lord, to remove from our hearts anything that places a barrier between them and that and righteous guidance.
We ask Allah ﷻ to keep us connected to Him at all times. Dear brothers and sisters, a very simple thing. Make sure that istighfar is part of your habit, morning and evening, in your gatherings,
in your day to day. استغفر الله استغفر الله استغفر الله Let it peel away the fog so that a person could always find that closeness and that clarity to Allah. May Allah grant it to us all. اللهم آمين أقولك لهذا
واستغفر الله لي ولكم ورسالة المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه هو الغفور الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين الصلاة والسلام على رسوله الكريم وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين اللهم اغفر المؤمنين والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات
الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع قريب مجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا واعف عنا ولا تعذبنا ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا لنكوننا من الخاسرين
اللهم اغفر لوالدين رب ارحمهما كما ربونا صغارا ربنا هبلنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين واجعلنا للمتقين إماما اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في كل مكان اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في كل مكان
اللهم اهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا وإخواننا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله أن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعيذكم لعلكم تذكرون
فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزد لكم ولذكروا الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون .
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