OK, let’s say you’ve just committed the perfect bank heist. I mean perfect. You’re going to be rolling in dough the rest of your life and Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Kojak put together couldn’t solve the crime. As long as you don’t spend the money too freely and make the neighbors suspicious, you’ve got it made.
Ah, but then you get that little prick of conscience. A little voice in you tells you that there is One Person Who knows “whodunit” and there’s no escape from Him. So what are you going to do?
There are some who would try to silence that little voice. They just delve deeper and deeper into sin (yes, robbing a bank is a sin, folks), enjoying every pleasure they can of this life until that little voice is just drowned.
Some would just try to justify their actions to themselves until they’ve convinced themselves that they didn’t do anything wrong. Or they’ll try to “turn over a new leaf” while still living off the results of their sins. (“Well, I’ll just live off the $10 billion for the rest of my life and never do another wrong thing.”)
But you know what, folks? It doesn’t work that way! There really is no escape from Allah, and the way to escape from His wrath is to repent. But to repent, you can’t just feel sorry for what you did. You’ve got to stop the sin and make amends. You’ve got to give that $10 billion back to the bank!
Well, OK, maybe you don’t do anything as big as robbing banks. So you’re more of an average Joe or Jane. But the point is, to repent properly you’ve got to repair the damage you’ve done. You’ve got to repay the rights of others that you’ve usurped. If you’ve stolen something, you’ve got to return it or its value to the owner. If you’ve backbitten someone, you’ve got to tell everyone that what you said was wrong and tell the truth about the person (unless it was worse than what you first said!) If you’ve hurt someone’s feelings, you’ve got to apologize to him or her. Whatever you’ve done wrong, you have to find a way to make it right. Only then can Allah accept your repentance.
So, to repent means more than just to regret what you’ve done. It also means to repair the wrong and (yes, there’s more) to resolve not to do that same thing again. (But, by the way, if your sin was just against the rights of Allah, you only have to regret and resolve not to repeat it; there’s nothing to pay back.)
And what if you’ve made such a resolution but find yourself repeating the sin? Then you’ve got to repent again. And you’ve got to examine yourself to see what is leading you to repeat that sin. Maybe you need to change your circle of friends. Maybe you need to find a constructive activity to take up some of your free time (studying Arabic, reading Qur’an, or working — paid or volunteer — instead of loitering on the streets). And if you’re still having trouble, you can always ask Allah to help you keep your resolution. I’ve learned through experience (yes, folks, I admit it, I have sinned occasionally) that if you ask Allah for help on this one, He’s sure to grant your request.
And always keep in mind that Allah loves to forgive the sinner who repents. And He is The All-Merciful, The Ever-Merciful. Some people despair of Allah’s forgiveness, even after they’ve done all they need to do to repent—stop, regret, repay and resolve. But that is only the devil’s way of keeping them away from Allah, of keeping them away from repenting. If you truly regret the wrong you did and make a sincere effort to stop, if you repay others their rights, if you firmly resolve not to sin again and change your ways so that you’re not tempted to repeat your sin, you should fully expect Allah to forgive you.
And on Judgment Day you will be happier than if you had kept the $10 billion.
