Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 610 [Read full issue]
Amending Wrongs
"Fasting on the day of Arafat amends the sins of two years, and [fasting] on the day of Ashura amends [the sins of] one year." [Muslim]
About this, some have asked, 'If someone always fasted on the day of Arafat and the day of Ashura, then how could three years of sins be amended every year?' To this others have responded, 'Whatever is added beyond amending his sins, raises him in rank.'
Would that it were true! If only one could make amends like this for all of one's wrongs, from first to last. But making amends is bound to certain conditions and depends on the removal of certain obstacles both within and without the action itself. If the servant could be certain that he had met every condition and eliminated every obstacle, then [certainly] such an act would atone for the sin.
But what about an action which is [itself] entirely or mostly enveloped in negligence, lacking in the sincerity which is its core and spirit, and performed without respect for its requirements or value? What can this action amend? In fact, there are countless things which invalidate or spoil devotional practice. It is not so much the action itself as the effort to keep it pure of the things that spoil and annul it.
He could hope for atonement if in undertaking a devotional act the servant were sure of its outward and inward requirements had been fulfilled; that there were no obstacles to the act's atoning quality; and that he himself did not annul it with feelings of self-importance, ostentation, or the expectation of something in return [from people].
Compiled From:
"The Invocation of God" - Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, p. 8