Seeking Forgiveness

Most essential for our salvation

Therefore, you shall race towards forgiveness from your Lord, and
a Paradise whose width encompasses the heaven and the earth.
It awaits those who believed in GOD and His messengers.
Such is GOD’s grace that He bestows upon whomever He wills.
GOD is Possessor of Infinite Grace.
(57:21)

God tells us in Quran that He has chosen Mercy as His attribute (6:12), though we know that all the best names and attributes belong to Him (17:110). This Most Merciful quality of His is what has allowed us to be here in the first place with a final chance to redeem ourselves (2:30, 16:61, 67:2). His being Merciful means that He always wants to forgive us if we respond appropriately (4:147), because unless God forgives us for our original sin and the things we do wrong here, we cannot be redeemed (14:10, 20:82).

Closely linked to the main theme of the Quran, which is to worship God alone, God continuously emphasizes

the idea of forgiveness (39:9, 47:19). Not only must we implore Him to forgive our original sin (43:5), we must also ask forgiveness for our mistakes on Earth and rectify (reform) all actions in our lives to do things that please Him (2:160, 46:15). If we do not do this, God will not convert our sins into credits and we will be losers in the Hereafter.

Exempted are those who repent, believe, and lead a righteous life. GOD transforms their sins into credits. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful. Those who repent and lead a righteous life, GOD redeems them; a complete redemption (25:70-71)

Being human, with fully loaded egos and a misleading Jinn sitting on our backs (7:17, 45:23), we are always prone to doing things wrong that earn us sins. This can range from poor individual submission to actions that adversely affect other people’s interests too. Often we may not even realize our mistakes, and our opinion of what we think is best may not necessarily be the best thing for the society or us (5:44, 6:114-115). Fortunately, as always, God has given us a readymade solution for everything, including how we can achieve that essential forgiveness from Him (6:155, 10:57).

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