Golden, Yet Concise 5

In the Name of the Allah the Entirely Merciful and the Especially Merciful

Praise be to Allah, as much as He Pleases and as befits His Majesty. We testify that none deserves to be worshipped except Allah and that Muhammad SAW is His servant and Messenger. We ask Allah to bestow His Salutations and Peace upon His Messenger SAW, his household, companions and the entire Ummah as long as winds come before rains and thunder comes after lightening.

We give thanks to Allah for granting us His Favour of teaching and learning the Religion which He sent to us through His Messenger SAW. In our previous post we completed the conditions that are to be presented in order for the repentance of a servant to be considered as acceptable and complete and, thus, earn the forgiveness of Allah and also getting all his previous sins wiped. At the tail end of that post a question was posed concerning the times at which a servant’s repentance will not be accepted. A hadith has been reported from the Prophet SAW in which He SAW said that Allah accepts the repentance of a slave so long as his soul has not reached his collar bone. With reference to this hadith, was the Prophet referring to a servant whose soul has actually reached his collar bone or he was figuratively referring to someone who has lost hope of living.

A very important question follows the one which has just been posed above: this revolves around the repentance of a person who has been afflicted with a terminal illness and everyone knows that such a person will not live for long. Like the one who has been afflicted with cancer- may Allah Protect us- or one who has AIDS or any illness of the sort. Will the Tawbah of such a person be accepted by Allah SWA?

This question is based upon that which was asked previously. Was the Prophet referring to a servant whose soul has actually reached his collar bone or he was figuratively referring to someone who has lost hope of living?

The one who will say that the Prophet was referring to the soul reaching the collar bone in its actual sense will agree that indeed the Tawbah of such a person shall be accepted but the one who say that this refers to a person who has lost all hopes of living will veer towards the point that the Tawbah of this terminal ill person will not be accepted.

The correct and apparent stance concerning this issue- and Allah knows best- is that the Messenger SAW meant that the person whose soul has reached his collar bone i.e. he is in the last stage of his death shall not have his Tawbah accepted. Therefore, so far as a person is still alive and his soul has not reached his collar bone, whether he is healthy or terminally ill, whether he is young or a minute away from death, if he repents sincerely towards Allah, Allah will accept his repentance and forgiver him all his sins. May Allah forgive us all ours sins. May He take our lives whiles we ate inhabitants of Jannah. May join us with the righteous servants who have already passed away and may He join us with the Prophet SAW.

These explanations are taken from the explanation of the “Concise Admonition” of Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, by the Revered Scholar and Teacher Duktuur Sulayman ar-Ruhayliyy may Allah safeguard him for the Ummah.

May the Salutations and Peace of Allah be upon His Noble Prophet SAW.

As-salamu alaykum wa Rahmatu-Llah wa Barakatuhu