We learned that Ramadan has three phases to it the first is Allah’s mercy, the second is Allah’s forgiveness, and the third is to be freed from the fire of hell.
And so in this month of mercy, and the month of forgiveness and the month of being saved from the fire of hell, it is important for all of us to perfect our repentance to Allah, because this is the month of repentance.
The Prophet linked so many actions of this month to having our sins forgiven, to having our repentance accepted:
Whoever fast the days of Ramadan with Iman and expecting Allah’s reward, will have all of his sins forgiven.
And:
Whoever prays at night throughout the nights of Ramadan with Iman expecting Allah’s reward, will have all of his sins forgiven.
And:
Whoever prays on Laylatul Qadr with Iman expecting Allah’s reward, will have all of his sins forgiven.
Notice he repeatedly says, “All of the sins forgiven.”
In the famous hadith in Sahih Bukhari, our Prophet is climbing the minbar and every time, he says:
Ameen.
And they asked him: “Why did you say ameen o Messenger of Allah?”
So he said:
Jibreel came to me and told me a certain phrase and told me to say ‘ameen’ to that phrase.
And the phrases were interesting. One of them is that:
Oh Muhammad any one of your Ummah who catches the month of Ramadan and is not able to have his sins forgiven, then may he perish! Say ‘ameen’.
So the Prophet said:
Ameen.
The Golden Opportunity
Meaning, the month of Ramadan is the month of forgiveness of sins. And even the average, mediocre, below average person who is not that practicing has the ability to have all of his sins forgiven in this month.
In fact the only person that doesn’t have that ability is somebody who is doomed to perish anyway.
And the Prophet never made dua against a good person. So the fact that he’s making dua against somebody who doesn’t manage to have his sins forgiven in Ramadan shows that this person has no hope whatsoever.
If you don’t get your act together in Ramadan, if you’re not able to get Allah’s forgiveness in Ramadan, then really you have no hope whatsoever of Allah’s forgiveness.
That is the message that is being given. Now, that’s a scary message, but there’s also a positive light. And the positive light is what?
That therefore the bar has been lowered so much, that everybody who puts in the effort, everybody who tries and attempts to have his sins forgiven will indeed have his sins forgiven. That is the beauty and the blessedness of this month.
So, we need to realize, appreciate, and be aware of the concept of repentance, and forgiveness and how do we attain Allah’s forgiveness.
When Adam committed his sin, what did Adam do? He recognized his mistake and he realized he had made a mistake, and he asked Allah to forgive him with genuine grief, regret, remorse, and repentance.
Our Lord we have wronged ourselves, and if you don’t forgive us and have mercy on us we will be of those who are completely destroyed. (Quran 7:23)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jljJ78HxAQM&pbjreload=10