God Loves to Forgive
Linguistically speaking and concerning such variation of word-forms, God’s name “Al-Ghaffar” denotes differences in quantity, quality and frequency of occurrence, for He is “Ghaffar” in the sense that He is both Oft-Forgiving and All-Forgiving.
In other words, whatever sins mankind commit, regardless of quality or quantity or time or place of their occurrence, God forgives such sins, except for one unforgivable sin, namely associating other gods with Him in worship. He says:
{Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him, but He forgives other (sins) than that to whom He wills. And whoever sets up partners with Allah has indeed invented a tremendous (unforgivable) sin.} (4: 48)
In this context, God also says:
{Whosoever does deeds of righteousness, it is for (the benefit of) his own self; and whosoever does evil, it is against his own self. And your Lord is by no means unjust to His slaves.} (41: 46)
If a man willingly turns to God in repentance, he guarantees His protection, honor and support to himself. But if he refuses and fails to respond, he will be afflicted by torment from where he does not reckon. That is why God says:
{O you who believe! What is the matter with you?! When you are asked to march forth in the Cause of Allah, you cling heavily to the earth! Are you pleased with the life of this present world rather than the Hereafter?! But little is the enjoyment of the life of this world as compared to the Hereafter. If you march not forth, He punishes you with a painful torment and replaces you by another people; and you can not harm Him at all, and Allah is Powerful over all things.} (9: 38-39)
In this context Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) says:
“Your Lord is amazed at some people who are driven to Paradise with chains. All of the children of Adam will enter Paradise except those who refuse to do so.”
They asked, “And who refuses (to enter Paradise), o Messenger of Allah?!”
“Those who obey me enter Paradise, but those who disobey me refuse to do so.” (Al-Bukhari)
The Arabic word “Ghafara” linguistically means “to cover or hide”, hence God is “Al-Ghaffar” in the sense that He keeps your innermost thoughts and intentions hidden from other fellow humans. Therefore, your innermost feelings, intentions, thoughts and ambitions are well-protected and well-covered.
Another meaning of God’s name “Al-Ghaffar” is that He covers man’s ugly inner body with a nice-looking skin. Without an outer skin man’s body would look very ugly. In other words, man’s inner muscles and innermost parts would look horrible if they were on the surface of his body. But by Allah’s Grace, the outer skin makes man’s face and body look beautiful.
By “ugly” He means a man’s evil thoughts as lots of ugly thoughts visit his mind: thoughts of evil things, thoughts of committing sins.
This is also the meaning of Prophet Muhammad’s invocation:
“O you (Allah), Who unveils that which is beautiful and veils that which is ugly!”.
Allah Also unveils man’s face, which is beautiful and veils his private parts, which are ugly.
God is “Al-Ghaffar” that He veils a believer’s sins and misdeeds and does not show them. For that, if a believer were to see the evil things that he formerly did when he was ignorant and heedless, he would get burnt of regret. When a believer turns to God with repentance, He forgives him and his sins. But if he were to remember the evil things that he did in times of ignorance, he would bite his fingers of regret.
Therefore, due to His infinite divine mercy upon believers in Paradise, God veils all their sins and misdeeds, so that neither they nor anyone else can see any of such sins or misdeeds.
God’s name “Al-Ghafir”, some scholars said, means that He loves to forgive your sin in the sense that He obliterates it from the Scrolls of your deeds, His name “Al-Ghafour” means that He obliterates your sins from the Records of the Scribes (Angels who record man’s deeds), and His name “Al-Ghaffar” means that He makes you forget such sins altogether.
Thus, on the Day of Judgment, you find that all your sins and misdeeds have been obliterated altogether: from the Scrolls of your deeds, from the Records of the Angels, and from your own mind. That is why you are made to live in utmost never-ending bliss in God’s Paradise, the breadth of which is the heavens and the earth.
Abridged from http://www.muhammad-pbuh.com