Guilt and the ways of curing it

“O men! There has come to you indeed an admonition from your Lord and a healing for what is in the breasts and a guidance and a mercy for the believers.” Qur'an 10:57

The key of peace

When man recognizes the important fact that he has spent all his previous age in adversity and away from knowing Allah the Almighty, and His blessings (both apparent and hidden) which Allah has created and put at man’s hand totally and freely; when he recognizes that these great blessings bring him happiness and lead to goodness in this life and the afterlife; when he recognizes that these blessings are the key that opens the doors of the great mercy of Allah ; when he recognizes that he has spent most of these blessings of Allah in other than the right path, and consequently he has been afflicted with different minor and major sins, and he has suffered a manifest loss and tasted the meanness of servitude to bad tendencies and lusts and has been prevailed upon by Satan from outside and inside; when he understands this well, he must repair his degrading past and previous sins that were due to his ignorance, inadvertence and disobedience, and he must repair his bad deeds, his corrupted soul, and bad morals. He must repent and return to Allah so that the sun of moral life, which is full of purity and happiness, rises in his soul.

Yes! Man, in order to receive the wide mercy of Allah, must get power from His special care, and gain Divine blessing, must follow the way of repentance and return to Allah. He must walk in the Way with the feet of his heart, the light of his mind, pure and sincere intention, determination and continuous jihad. He must walk in this way with love and knowledge to purify his heart and soul from vices, abominable deeds, transgression, debauchery, evil and bad manners. Then he will be fit to join the caravan of the pure believers, the benevolent, the lovers, the worshippers, the followers of the Way of the Truth and the neighbors of the Divine sanctum. Instead of straying into the circle of mutiny and the darkness of the Divine wrath, he will live in the station suitable for him to enjoy the Divine mercy and care.

This wakefulness and attentiveness to one’s past, coming to repent, and trying to purify one’s soul from apparent and hidden sins is considered as the key of peace with Allah the Almighty and the return to the field of His mercy. Since repentance and returning to Allah are among the greatest worship, and the states which best show the firm relationship between man and his Creator (as it has been declared by many Qur’anic verses and traditions of Ahlul Bayt (s)); therefore, a repentant person has to pay attention to these concerns in order that he can realize this great worship and to make use of its many benefits and blessings.

Guilt is a disease

Every human being comes to this world pure and sound in mind and soul.

Stinginess, envy, hypocrisy, transgression and debauchery are not natural aspects of man, they are accidentals, coming to man because of a series of educational and social factors or because of the effects of friendships or the like.

The Prophet (s) said, “Everyone is born with (human) nature, but his parents either make him Jewish or Christian (change his natural beliefs).”[1]

A teacher, a friend or a deviant society has a great effect on making one deviant.

Because of these effects, one may get involved in intellectual mistakes, vices and bad deeds. This group of mistakes and sins is a series of diseases, but there is a cure. The Holy Qur'an confirms this meaning, and it declares that there is a way of recovery for these diseases and states of tension that result from latent dregs in the unconscious. The Holy Qur'an prescribes an effective cure by saying:

“O men, there has come to you indeed an admonition from your Lord and a healing for what is in the breasts, and it is a guidance and a mercy for the believers.” (10:57)

According to the Holy Qur'an, this disease may be a cause for the Divine forgiveness and mercy. Allah says:

“Except those who repent after that and amend, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (3:89)

Despair is disbelief

It is made clear by studying the Qur’anic verses and the traditions of Ahlul Bayt (s) that the apparent and hidden sins are a psychological disease and this disease is curable by the forgiveness and mercy of Allah. Sinful ones must try to rescue themselves from this dangerous impasse and deadly hole; they must try to cure this disease. Therefore, they must have hope and expect the forgiveness and mercy of Allah. They must rely on Allah and depend on this positive hope to reach the actual repentance and the true return. Then they must make peace with the Beloved. Finally, they must repair the damage that resulted from all previous sins and remove obstacles that stand in the way of repentance. Man is able to do these things, and turning to Allah and repairing the previous sins are legal obligations, whereas laziness, weak determination and keeping to the satanic motto “all that has passed has passed, and all that will come will come” is prohibited and equal to disbelief.

Allah says:

“…and despair not of Allah's mercy; surely none despairs of Allah's mercy except the unbelieving people.” Qur’an 12:87

Of course, sinful ones, who want to get the forgiveness and mercy of Allah, have to have hope and expectation. Hope is fostered by serious repentance, giving up disobedience, repairing the previous sins, paying back to people what is owed to them, offering missed obligations and reforming conduct, deeds and morals. Then hope and expectation become possible. For example, the correct hope of a farmer is to plow his fields in autumn to remove obstacles and dregs, and then he sows seeds in the spring, waters the crop in the summer and hopes that his seeds will grow, until, again in the autumn, a rich harvest is his reward.

If hope and expectation are not actively fostered, they will be just empty hope and unfruitful expectation, like a farmer who expects to get a yield without working his farm by plowing, seeding and watering. Such illusory and unfruitful hope is talked about in a very important tradition. Someone said to Abu Abdullah as-Sadiq (s), “Some people commit sins and say ‘we expect (the mercy of Allah)”. Abu Abdullah (s) said, “These people sway with wishes. They just tell lies. They do not hope. He who hopes for something tries to get it, and he who fears something runs away from it.”[2]

According to this tradition, expecting the mercy of Allah must be accompanied with abstaining from sins, avoiding vices and doing good deeds so that one can be fit to get the forgiveness and mercy of Allah. In order to be safe from the torment of hell, you must first pluck out the causes for deserving torment that lie deep within you.