TOTAL REPENTANCE, THE GAIN OF RAMADAN- BY PROFESSOR TIMEHIN S.OLUROTIMI

Alhamdulillah, we are in the concluding days of the holy month of Ramadan. As a Muslim, you are at the most critical moment of this heavenly ordained spiritual exercise. 

This is the time when the mercy and forgiveness of its early period reach an ideational completion, and your soul enters the redemptive regenerational mode. 

The biggest gain of Ramadan is no doubt moral and spiritual purity through repentance from all sins.

This is the time when you rewrite your story in the book of life and recast your plot in its drama. It is the period of total repentance.

Repentance is thus the way provided by the Divine to free you from your sins and its negativities, and to receive forgiveness for them. Sins naturally slow down your spiritual progression and prevent you from reaching your goals. Repentance is that antidote that kills the poison of sin and makes it possible for you to grow in faith and cognition.

It attracts Allah's forgiveness and repositions you for Divine Clemency. It is anchored on 3R's:

Responsibility: Accept the fact that you have done what you have done; don't transfer the blame.  

Remorse: Be genuinely sad about it. Feel regret in your heart; be remorseful, it is the gateway to positive attitudinal tilt. 

Restoration: Correct your errors, right your wrongs, and make amends. Make a conscious effort to restore the pre-misconduct state. Learn from the situation and grow thereby. All these are achievable through four channels:

 Regret from the depth of the heart, seeking forgiveness with the tongue,deliberate action with the limbs, and solemn resolve not to repeat the sin.”

As a human being, you are weak and may not be able to easily climb the slippery stairs of repentance without support, you must not be too conceited not to seek support from only One Who can grant you succour.

He Himself has taught you throughHis Noble Prophet: Allahummo innaka Afuwwun, tuhibbul afwa, fa'fu anni

O Allah, You are the Pardoner; You love to grant pardon; therefore, pardon me. 

It is instructive that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) used this attribute of Allah instead of His popular attribute of forgiveness- Ghafur or Ghaffar. 

Al-Afuww does not only forgive, He also effaces the traits left behind by your sins. 

At this period, your most constant litany, therefore, is this. You need Allah's forgiveness over your past misdeeds, and you would love to make sure that they are all erased from your book of reckoning. 

May He overlook your shortcomings with His Grace, efface your sins with His Clemency, and eliminate your iniquities with His Mercy. In these last few days of the blessed month, His Omnipotence shall deliver unlimited blessings into your life, and His Primordial Essence shall reengineer your fortune for greatness.

 Salam alaykum W. W.

PROFESSOR TIMEHIN SAHEED OLUROTIMI

- Nigeria