By Ansaar
Allah invites ALL to forgiveness, one of the most inclusive ayaat!
Allah begins this ayah with قل: instructing the Prophet to say, to proclaim, to announce, and to tell others the information that is to come in this ayah!
يا عبادي – O My servants! Where the ي is a حرف نداء its purpose is to raise the attention of the listener and cause them to pay attention. Allah calls us His Servants here. This is inclusive of every soul, believer or non-believer, where Allah is the King, the Sovereign & all of us fall before Him in submission & servitude as His servants, طوعا وكرها [willingly or unwillingly].
الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم – Those who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)
أسرفوا comes from the root letters س ف ر – meaning to neglect the set bounds and go beyond them. إسراف meaning extravagance, is to go outside the set bounds & limits of spending. So, الذين أسرفوا insinuates “those who have transgressed, violated & went beyond the limits placed by Allah” – disobeying Allah & sinning.
على أنفسهم – Against themselves. Why against themselves? Because when we sin, who is going to suffer & bear the consequences? We will. And this is inclusive of every kind of sin & transgression. Anything from neglecting your duty to Allah, associating partners with Allah, murder and theft.
So what is Allah announcing?!
لا تقنطوا من رحمة الله – Do NOT despair of the Mercy of Allah!
No matter what error you’ve made, no matter what sin you’ve committed and no matter what you have done! There is always hope!
تقنطوا comes from the root letters – ق ن ط – meaning to despair of goodness. It’s an extreme kind of sadness that causes one to abandon hope! So Allah is telling us NOT to have this kind of sadness and loss of hope! Iblis is Ablasa min ar-Rahmah [despaired of mercy] and because of this, he wants us to be deprived of Allah’s mercy and cause us to lose hope after sinning.
Why should we not despair of hope? Allah says in the next part of the ayah: إن الله يغفر الذنوب جميعا – Verily, Allah forgives ALL sins!
SubhanaAllah, Allah says جميعا – ALL of them! Providing that a servant comes to Him in repentance, Allah is ready to accept & forgive one’s sins!
Because, as Allah says in the ending of this beautiful ayah: إنه هو الغفور الرحيم – Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
He is الغفور, the Oft-Forgiving, the One who will forgive our sins & الرحيم, the Most Merciful, this name is expressing that He is especially Merciful to the believers.
So no matter how big or how many sins you have, Allah will forgive you!
ألم يعلموا أن الله هو يقبل التوبة عن عباده – Know they not that Allah accepts repentance from His servants? [Taubah: 104]
Take the story of the man who murdered 100 people & received the mercy of Allah & was forgiven. & remember the Hadith “if you were to commit sins until your sins filled the space between the heaven and the earth, then you were to ask Allah for forgiveness, He would forgive you!” [Ahmad 3:238]
Do not despair and spread this good news among people!
