Justice of Allah, Intercession and Repentance

The Riyakari (Show off) of a person is either related to obligatory acts or recommended acts. Either it consers the actual action or it is related to the condition of that action. For example a person intends to shows that he is steadfast in prayer he will pray in order to show off. If, however, he wants to show that he is very humble and devoted in prayers, he will exhibit these things in prayer. It is also possible that one show off in a part of the prayer or he does it in the whole of prayer. Some people are such that their whole life is spent in Riyakari. There is no doubt however that Allah will deal with justice. He will punish everyone in accordance with his sin. However, it is possible that Allah may forgive his sins or he may receive salvation through the salvation of the purified intercession of Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and the Progeny of Muhammad (a.s.).

Certainly, there is punishment only if one dies without repenting for ones sins. Therefore if a person gets Tawfeeq (divine assistance) to do Tawbah (repentance) in the proper manner and he repeats the deeds that he had wasted due to Riyakari and he corrects his mistakes, there shall be no punishment on him. As we have stated before, if the person is stubborn on his Riyakari it would be difficult for him to leave the world with belief. The same is the case of all those sins that create hypocrisy in the hearts.

We must also mention that the least form of hypocrisy is that man displays utmost humility and baseness in his posture while these things are not of the same intensity in his heart. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) is reported to have said,

“We consider it hypocrisy even if the humility of body is more than the humility of the heart.”

(Kitab Imam wa Kufr – Usoole Kafi).

Verbal Repentance

Hypocrisy with Allah with regard to the necessities of faith also has various grades. However, it would be very to go into its details. So we shall mention only some grades of hypocrisy with regard to repentance.

When a person says: “I am regretful of my sins and I repent for them,” he is saying this with his tongue but there is no remorse in his heart. Yet he has not further abstained from those sins and he is even happy at them. Such a person is the worst hypocrite with regard to repentance.

Imam Ali ar-Rida (a.s.) says,

“One who repents for a sin but remains steadfast in committing the sin has in fact ridiculed his Lord.”

(Usoole Kafi Book of Dua Chapter of Repentance)

Heartfelt Regret

The next grade is of a person who although has given up the sin but he is not remorseful for it with his heart. If this person verbally says: “I have repented”, it shall be a lie. The correct tawbah is man should feel the regret and he should be dejected in the presence of the Lord. If a person regrets doing a sin because it caused him physical or material harm or it earned him degradation or he was punished by the government, imprisoned etc. it shall not amount to be tawbah. Rather, it is hypocrisy. If he says ‘Astaghfirullah’ (I seek Allah’s forgiveness), it would be a lie.

After this the next grade is of a person who his given up the sin, he is also deeply regretful of his deed but his regret is not due to his disobedience to a divine command. It is due to the fear of the punishment in the Hereafter. He is infact regretful due to the loss of divine rewards.

Such a person can be compared to an oppressor who is about to be arrested. The government intends to put him in the prison and the only way be can be saved is if the oppressed one forgivens him. Thus he is compelled to approach one forgives him. Thus he is compelled to approach the oppressed person and by for forgiveness so that he may avoid the legal penalty. If there had been no fear of imprisonment and loss of freedom and comfort, he would never have begged forgiveness. This is not a sincere regret. And the repentance is not sincere repentance. It is a sort of deceit and a kind of hypocrisy.

These topics have been dicussed in by Allamah Hilli and Muhaqqiq Tusi in their books Sharh Tajreed and Tajreedeul Kalam etc. The girt of their discussion is as follows:

One who has committed a sin must feel remorseful of it because he has disobeyed Allah. Otherwise it shall not amount to be tawbah. (Just like one who forgoes a sin to save his honour or because it is harmful to his body). It is not repentance even if there is fear of hell fire. Similarly if one regrets omitting an obligatory act and he regrets it because he has lost the divine rewards or became eligible for divine punishment, it is not tawbah. Thus tawbah is only correct when one regrets because he has disobeyed the Almighty and he also strives to compensate for his mistake.

Divine Mercy

Though such repentance is not sufficient we must repose hope in divine mercy. Those who repent due to the fear of retribution or loss of rewards and they give up the sin and also intend to compensate for it, it is possible that Allah by his unlimited mercy may consider their regret as proper repentance. They may be saved from Hell fire and sent to Paradise instead.

We have already discussed hypocrisy with people in the chapter of Deceit in the book Greater sins. In brief, we should know that the more is the harm caused by hypocrisy, the more shall be its punishment. Now the most important things are finding the cure of hypocrisy. How we can root out this disease from the heart?

Cure of Hypocrisy with Allah

A Hypocrite, that is a person who apparently seems to be pious and religious but in his heart remains a disbeliever, should know that this kind of behaviour is not going to provide any benefit. It is going to be very harmul to him. The Almighty Lord is aware of both the apparent and the hidden aspect. You cannot deceive Allah. The Almighty will not consider you truthful on the basis of your outward appearance. He will send you to the lowest level of Hell due to your hidden self. Actually this person has lied to himself and deceived himself:

يُخَادِعُونَ اللّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلاَّ أَنفُسَهُم وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ

“They desire to deceive Allah and those who believe, and they deceive only themselves and they do not perceive.”

(Surah Baqarah 2:9)

Deceiving Oneself

If the hypocrites do not make a show of belief they shall be deprived of certain facilities in the Muslim society. For example, they shall not be considered ‘paak’ (ritually pure). They will not be able to intermarry with the Muslims and they will not become eligible for inheritance. The hypocrites think that if the Hereafter is like this world, there too they shall be considered believers. They shall be respected because of the show off they made of worship acts in this world and they shall be rewarded for them in the Hereafter too such a notion is absolutely wrong. They consider themselves clever but they are in deception. The state of the Hereafter will be the state of the emergence of sealities and the removal of curtains from the unseen (internal aspects). In the state the hypocrite will not be able to see anything except the gloom of his disbelief and polytheism. He shall see his good deeds that he did to show off, his charities, prayers etc that all of them are included among the sins, because a good deed is considered good only if it is accompanied with pure intention. Such on intention is only for Allah, to achieve the satisfaction of Allah.

Respite

Some hypocrites pretend to be Muslims and obtain some worldly benefits. They are able to marry and become eligible to inherit. These are the bounties of their outward Islam. The consequences of hypocrisy and deceit are not very favourable. The one who framed the Islamic Shariat (All) and the one who announced it (The Prophet) have also kept some rules for hypocrites based on hidden wisdom. One who makes a verbal acceptance of Islam is considered a Muslim. Till his falsehood is not proved he is to be considered ritually pure and he also shares all the facilities of a Muslim society, even though he may be lying and the Muslims may be unaware of it.

Another benefit of professing Islam by hypocrites is that they are able to collect a greater quantity of wealth. Rather, they can acquire government posts and even occupy thrones. But they should know that falsehood is easily exposed and the liar does not recognize his own intention.

For example let us consider the case of the hypocrites of Kufa. They wrote letters to Imam Husain (a.s.) inviting him to Kufa. Their messangers conveyed their invitations to Imam (a.s.). They used to write: “There is no Imam and guide for us except you. If you do not come we shall complain to your grandfather on the day of Judgement.” But in reality they had no concern for religion in their hearts. Their intention was to gain independence from Yazeed and the Syrians and to make Kufa the seat of the Caliphate. In this way they could gather material wealth and obtain coveted posts. However, when Ibne Ziyad became the governor of Kufa he purchased the loyalties of the people with wealth. He made false promises to enable the Kufans to reach their actual aims. They became certain that they should not be able to fulfill their material desires under the leadership of Imam Husain (a.s.). So they withdrew their support from Imam (a.s.). Rather, some of them were so much selfish they joined the army to fight against the Imam (a.s.). They proved their falsehood. However, they failed to achieve even their material desires.

Another thing is that the heart of the peoples is in Allah’s control. As far as Allah does not permit no person can deceive others.

If there is divine wisdom in allowing people to be deceived by a hypocrite he should know that actually Allah is giving him respite so that he could achieve some of his worldly desires. This is a sort of Allah’s deception in reply to the deception of the hypocrite. The hypocrite considers this respite to a windfall. While, this is finally going to harm more.