The ethical issue of repentance as a prompt duty in Islam is adopted from the quranic verses, tradition and specially the manner and behavior of our innocents. Professor Hossein Ansarian in his book “ Repentance, The cradle of mercy” exemplifies and interprets the views and sayings of Imam Sadiq in a very good writing. see the following text.
Imam as-Sadiq (s), in a wonderful article as a “letter of repentance”, talked about the sins that must be repented of promptly as a moral and legal obligation; the sins that if had not been repaired by true repentance, they would not be removed or omitted from the book of the soul and heart and they would trouble man’s life in this world and subject him to the Divine torment on the Day of Resurrection.
Imam as-Sadiq (s) said, ‘O Allah, I beg You to forgive me any sin that has been related to You and then I committed it again. I beg You to forgive me what I have wasted of Your obligations and rights of prayer, zakat, fasting, jihad, hajj, minor hajj, perfecting wudu’ and ghusl, worshipping at night, glorifying You quite often, expiation for (breaking) oaths, returning to disobedience and every obligation I have neglected. I pray You to forgive me that and all what I have committed of major sins, minor sins, disobediences, bad deeds and lusts intendedly or by mistake, openly or secretly! I repent of that and of shedding blood, disobeying the parents, cutting the relation with the kin, fleeing from jihad, accusing honorable women, eating the monies of the orphans wrongfully, committing perjury, concealing true witnesses, buying Your covenant for a little price, usury, ill-gotten properties, magic, divination, pessimism, polytheism, hypocrisy, thieving, drinking wines, giving short measure and short weight, dissension, breaking covenants, fabrication, treason, breaking protection, (false) swearing, backbiting, talebearing, slandering, defaming, traducing, harming neighbors, insulting one another by nicknames, entering houses without permission, pride, haughtiness, stubbornness, exultancy, injustice in judgment, oppression when angry, fanaticism, supporting the unjust, helping others in sin and transgression, (littleness of family and of wealth and children), suspicion, following lusts, enjoining the wrong, forbidding the right, corruption, denying the truth, flattering the rulers, cheating, stinginess, talking about what I do not know, eating meat of dead animals, drinking blood, eating pork and any meat over which any other name than (that of) You has been invoked, envy, aggression, inviting to debauchery, wishing what You have granted to the others, self-deceit, reminding when gifting, intending to wrong, harming the orphans, chiding the beggars, breaking oaths, wronging any of Your people in his wealth, body and honor, what my eyes have seen, what my ears have heard, what my tongue has uttered, what I have stretched my hands to, what I have moved my feet to, what my skin has touched, what I have talked to myself which is disobedience to You and every false oath.’[1]
In this tradition, Imam as-Sadiq (s) has mentioned different sins that one should repent of and turn sincerely to Allah.
The bad results of sins
There are many bad results of sins in this life and the afterlife as mentioned by the Qur’anic verses and the traditions of Ahlul Bayt (s), that if a sinner does not repent of his sins, he will, definitely, be involved in these bad effects.
Allah has said,
“Yea, whoever earns evil and his sins beset him on every side, those are the inmates of the fire; in it they shall abide.” Qur'an, 2:81
“Say: Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in (their) deeds. Those whose effort goeth astray in the life of the world, and yet they reckon that they do good work. Those are they who disbelieve in the revelations of their Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefore, their works are vain, and on the Day of Resurrection, We assign no weight to them.” Qur'an, 18:103-105
The scale will be set to the persons, whose deeds can be weighed, but the resisting disobeyers and unbelievers will have no any weight on the Day of Resurrection because their deeds will become as scattered dust and so they will have no deed to be weighed.
“There is a disease in their hearts, so Allah added to their disease and they shall have a painful chastisement.” Qur'an, 2:10
“But you will see those in whose hearts is a disease hastening towards them…” Qur'an, 5:52
It means that the hypocrites hasten towards the enemies of Allah from among the Jews and the Christians.
“And as for those in whose hearts is a disease, it adds uncleanness to their uncleanness and they die while they are unbelievers.” Qur'an, 9:125
“(As for) those who swallow the property of the orphans unjustly, surely they only swallow fire into their bellies and they shall enter burning fire.” Qur'an, 4:10
Some scholars think, according to this holy verse and other verses, that these criminals, on the Day of Resurrection, will be punished by their sins. It means that their sins will become on the Day of Resurrection as painful torment and their crimes as chains and fires by which they will be tortured severely.
“Surely those who conceal any part of the Book that Allah has revealed and take for it a small price, they eat nothing but fire into their bellies, and Allah will not speak to them on the day of resurrection, nor will He purify them, and they shall have a painful chastisement. These are they who buy error for the right direction and chastisement for forgiveness; how bold they are to encounter fire!” Qur'an, 2:174-175
“The parable of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their actions are like ashes on which the wind blows hard on a stormy day; they shall not have power over any thing out of what they have earned; this is the great error.” Qur'an, 14:18
It is understood from the previous verses that the bad results of sins are much more than what has been mentioned before. They are as following:
Entering into Hell on the Day of Resurrection, being in torment forever, losing the worldly life and the afterlife, loss of one’s efforts and deeds, vanity of one’s deeds on the Day of Judgment, (sinners) not being given any weight, increase of disobedience because of not repenting, hastening towards the enemies of Allah, cutting the connection with Allah, not being purified on the Day of Resurrection, changing guidance into deviation and changing forgiveness into torment.
Imam Zaynol Aabideen (s)[2] has talked about the bad results of sins by saying, ‘The sins that remove blessings are: oppressing people, giving up doing good and favor, being ungrateful for blessings and giving up thanking Allah. The sins that cause regret are: killing innocent ones, breaking off relations with the kin until they feel in no need of each other, not offering prayer until its time elapses, being inadvertent to wills and to wronged people, not giving zakat until death comes. The sins that bring calamities are: disobedience of a knowing one by oppressing people, being rude to them and mocking them. The sins that keep blessings away are: pretending poverty, sleeping until after dawn and until the time of Fajr Prayer elapses, scorning blessings and complaining against Allah the Almighty. The sins that disgrace honors are: drinking wine, gambling, joking and talking nonsense, mentioning the defects of people and accompanying sinful and bad people. The sins that bring calamities are: refraining from helping needy people, refraining from supporting oppressed people, not enjoining what is right and not forbidding what is wrong. The sins that cause the enemies to prevail are: doing injustice openly, spreading debauchery, violating prohibited matters, disobeying good people and submitting to evil people. The sins that hasten perishment are: cutting communications with one’s kin, false oath, lying, adultery, blocking the ways of the Muslims and pretending to be an imam falsely. The sins that dispel hope are: being desperate of the mercy of Allah, relying on other than Allah and disbelieving in the Promise of Allah. The sins that darken the space are: magic, divination, believing in stars, disbelieving in fate and being undutiful to one’s parents. The sins that uncover the curtain (of the unseen) are: borrowing with no intention of repaying, exceeding in spending on impermissible things, being stingy with one’s family, children and relatives, impoliteness, impatience, laziness and making little of religious people. The sins that reject supplication are: malevolence, ill-intention, hypocrisy with brothers, disbelieving in responding to supplication, delaying obligatory prayers until their prescribed times elapse, giving up approaching Allah via doing good and paying charities, and using bad and obscene sayings. The sins that prevent the rain of the heaven are: the injustice of rulers in judgments, perjury, concealing true witnesses, preventing zakat, preventing loan and helping the needy, hard-heartedness towards the poor and the needy, being unjust to orphans and widows, chiding the beggars and turning away from them.’[3]
Imam Ali (s), concerning sins, says, ‘Even if Allah had not threatened for disobeying Him, people must not disobey Him in order to be grateful to His blessings.’[4]
Therefore, we have to avoid any kind of sins as a matter of being grateful to Allah for His blessings and gifts, which can never be counted. In addition, we have to repent and regret the sins we have committed before. We have to apologize to Allah for our previous sins in order to gain His mercy, forgiveness, care and generosity.
Refrence: Repentance, The cradle of mercy by professor Hossein Ansarian
source : Repentance, The cradle of mercy by professor Hossein Ansarian
