LETTER 2: REPENTANCE

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Dear brother Shamsuddin, God’s bounty be upon you! Realize that

sincere repentance is like a beautiful carpet on which you perform

your devotions. God has said: ““Turn toward God in repentance, believing that you might triumph!” (Q24:31). This verse was revealed to

the companions of the Prophet and all repented and became models

of abjuring infidelity and embracing faith in the one true God. Turning their backs on sin, they submitted themselves entirely to God,

Who has ordained repentance for all. Some of the more noted companions asked what the revelation meant. The Prophet replied that

repentance is incumbent upon all, at every hour and at every moment. Infidels should renounce their infidelity and become true believers; sinners should turn aside from their sins and observe God’s

commandments; those already doing good should progress from what

is good to what is still better; those standing still should not linger in

the courtyard but come straight up to His door; while those immersed in the affairs of this world should not sink lower into them,

but rise to the pinnacle of detachment. It would be a sin for a pilgrim

who has already ascended to a certain stage if he were to descend to a

lower one. One should turn away from all sorts of greed. There is no

room for complacency, since there is always a higher state than the

one the pilgrim happens to be in. He must always press on! There is a

command in the Law: “Walk ahead of those who travel alone.”

Moses said, “I have repented before You” (Q7:143). That is to say,

I turned from myself to You because of my passionate desire to see

Your Face.? This is an example of turning away from something good

in itself to something infinitely better. The Prophet said, “I beg for

pardon seventy times a day.” For him, seeking pardon meant advancing from what was of some merit to what was of much greater merit;

to proceed from one stage to a higher one—this is the divine command. A person in the first stage cannot hope to have the repentance

of someone in the second. “The virtues of the righteous seem to be

sins for those closest to God.” .

The actual meaning of repentance is “turning back.” There are,

however, many ways of turning back, which vary according to the

stages, the actions, and the stations of those who repent. Ordinary

people, out of fear of punishment, turn from oppressive behavior to

being sorry. The elect turn away from their evil deeds because they

have become cognizant of their obligation to revere their Master. The

elect of the elect, perceiving the insignificance and instability of all

creatures and, indeed, their nothingness in the light of the glory of

the Maker, are able to turn away from all that is not God.

Once this has been grasped it should be noted that repentance, al-

though it does not happen “once and for all,” does not thereby cease

to be genuine. If a penitent person, after resolving not to fall into a

particular sin again, through negligence actually does so, he can heed

the command to repent, consider its merit, and rejoin the ranks of the

penitent. Once a man made a resolution in this fashion but again fell.

Immediately he went to the shrine of a saint. One of the sheikhs there

told him: “By the mercy of God I repented seventy times and each

time I fell again, but after I begged pardon for the seventy-first time, I

fell no more!” He also told him of another person who had made a

similar resolve and after falling again, he hesitated to return to the

shrine. “How do I know what is my present spiritual state?’ he asked

himself. He then heard a voice within him say, “You submitted your-

self to Me and I forgave you your sins. Again you were unfaithful and

spurned Me. Now I have given you time to repent. If you wish to return, I shall receive you in peace.”

Zu'l-Nun Misri expressed the collective view of the great

Sheikhs when he said: ‘““The repentance of ordinary people is from

sinning again, the repentance of the elect, from being negligent again,

but the repentance of prophets consists in seeing clearly their own

paltriness, and in realizing that they have arrived at the state of

prophethood without having done anything to merit it.” Khwaja Suhail Tustari, with many others, is of the opinion that people should

not forget the sins of the past but keep them continually in mind so

that, despite having much to boast about, they will not grow proud.

Khwaja Junaid, along with many supporters, thinks that repentance

means forgetting entirely about sins of the past, since the penitent

person should become a lover, and for the lover the mere remembrance of an injustice is itself an injustice. If we look only at the outward expression of these two positions there is an apparent contradiction, but actually they’say the same thing, for the meaning of

“forgetting” is to expunge the attraction of sin from our hearts to

such an extent that one could say that it is as if no sin at all had been

committed! As Khwaja Junaid said, “I have read extensively but

found nothing as profitable as this couplet:

When I asked about my sins, Love replied:

“Your very existence is a sin beyond comparison to any other.”

O brother,!® the hour of death lies in ambush! Every moment of

reprieve is precious, for the angel of death will suddenly show himself. An old man came up toa saintly man and said, “O man of God, |

want to repent of the many sins that afflict my conscience.” “You

have waited too long,” replied the saint. “But I came quickly,” protested the old man. “Explain yourself,” ordered the saint. “If a man finally repents before dying, even though he has delayed for years, it is

quick [i.e., expedient],” replied the old man.

O brother, bane heart, no matter how sin-stained you may ‘be, you

can be sure that you are not more stained than Pharaoh! was with all

his magic nor more defiled than the dog of the Sleepers of the Cave,

nor harder than the stone of Mt. Sinai, nor of less value than a slat of

wood! :

Even if a slave is purchased from Abyssinia, what harm is there if

his master calls him “Snow White”!

[An anecdote about angels follows.]

You saw my faults from head to toe, but still purchased me:

How shoddy are the goods, how gracious is the buyer!

Peace!

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Dear brother Shamsuddin, God’s bounty be upon you! Realize that

sincere repentance is like a beautiful carpet on which you perform

your devotions. God has said: ““Turn toward God in repentance, believing that you might triumph!” (Q24:31). This verse was revealed to

the companions of the Prophet and all repented and became models

of abjuring infidelity and embracing faith in the one true God. Turning their backs on sin, they submitted themselves entirely to God,

Who has ordained repentance for all. Some of the more noted companions asked what the revelation meant. The Prophet replied that

repentance is incumbent upon all, at every hour and at every moment. Infidels should renounce their infidelity and become true believers; sinners should turn aside from their sins and observe God’s

commandments; those already doing good should progress from what

is good to what is still better; those standing still should not linger in

the courtyard but come straight up to His door; while those immersed in the affairs of this world should not sink lower into them,

but rise to the pinnacle of detachment. It would be a sin for a pilgrim

who has already ascended to a certain stage if he were to descend to a

lower one. One should turn away from all sorts of greed. There is no

room for complacency, since there is always a higher state than the

one the pilgrim happens to be in. He must always press on! There is a

command in the Law: “Walk ahead of those who travel alone.”

Moses said, “I have repented before You” (Q7:143). That is to say,

I turned from myself to You because of my passionate desire to see

Your Face.? This is an example of turning away from something good

in itself to something infinitely better. The Prophet said, “I beg for

pardon seventy times a day.” For him, seeking pardon meant advancing from what was of some merit to what was of much greater merit;

to proceed from one stage to a higher one—this is the divine command. A person in the first stage cannot hope to have the repentance

of someone in the second. “The virtues of the righteous seem to be

sins for those closest to God.” .

The actual meaning of repentance is “turning back.” There are,

however, many ways of turning back, which vary according to the

stages, the actions, and the stations of those who repent. Ordinary

people, out of fear of punishment, turn from oppressive behavior to

being sorry. The elect turn away from their evil deeds because they

have become cognizant of their obligation to revere their Master. The

elect of the elect, perceiving the insignificance and instability of all

creatures and, indeed, their nothingness in the light of the glory of

the Maker, are able to turn away from all that is not God.

Once this has been grasped it should be noted that repentance, al-

though it does not happen “once and for all,” does not thereby cease

to be genuine. If a penitent person, after resolving not to fall into a

particular sin again, through negligence actually does so, he can heed

the command to repent, consider its merit, and rejoin the ranks of the

penitent. Once a man made a resolution in this fashion but again fell.

Immediately he went to the shrine of a saint. One of the sheikhs there

told him: “By the mercy of God I repented seventy times and each

time I fell again, but after I begged pardon for the seventy-first time, I

fell no more!” He also told him of another person who had made a

similar resolve and after falling again, he hesitated to return to the

shrine. “How do I know what is my present spiritual state?’ he asked

himself. He then heard a voice within him say, “You submitted your-

self to Me and I forgave you your sins. Again you were unfaithful and

spurned Me. Now I have given you time to repent. If you wish to return, I shall receive you in peace.”

Zu'l-Nun Misri expressed the collective view of the great

Sheikhs when he said: ‘““The repentance of ordinary people is from

sinning again, the repentance of the elect, from being negligent again,

but the repentance of prophets consists in seeing clearly their own

paltriness, and in realizing that they have arrived at the state of

prophethood without having done anything to merit it.” Khwaja Suhail Tustari, with many others, is of the opinion that people should

not forget the sins of the past but keep them continually in mind so

that, despite having much to boast about, they will not grow proud.

Khwaja Junaid, along with many supporters, thinks that repentance

means forgetting entirely about sins of the past, since the penitent

person should become a lover, and for the lover the mere remembrance of an injustice is itself an injustice. If we look only at the outward expression of these two positions there is an apparent contradiction, but actually they’say the same thing, for the meaning of

“forgetting” is to expunge the attraction of sin from our hearts to

such an extent that one could say that it is as if no sin at all had been

committed! As Khwaja Junaid said, “I have read extensively but

found nothing as profitable as this couplet:

When I asked about my sins, Love replied:

“Your very existence is a sin beyond comparison to any other.”

O brother,!® the hour of death lies in ambush! Every moment of

reprieve is precious, for the angel of death will suddenly show himself. An old man came up toa saintly man and said, “O man of God, |

want to repent of the many sins that afflict my conscience.” “You

have waited too long,” replied the saint. “But I came quickly,” protested the old man. “Explain yourself,” ordered the saint. “If a man finally repents before dying, even though he has delayed for years, it is

quick [i.e., expedient],” replied the old man.

O brother, bane heart, no matter how sin-stained you may ‘be, you

can be sure that you are not more stained than Pharaoh! was with all

his magic nor more defiled than the dog of the Sleepers of the Cave,

nor harder than the stone of Mt. Sinai, nor of less value than a slat of

wood! :

Even if a slave is purchased from Abyssinia, what harm is there if

his master calls him “Snow White”!

[An anecdote about angels follows.]

You saw my faults from head to toe, but still purchased me:

How shoddy are the goods, how gracious is the buyer!

Peace!