A Flickering Light

Bismillah, Assalam u alaikum! 

The topic of forgiveness is a vast topic with many hadiths and many stories. Inshallah I will tackle this topic in many future posts to come. However today we will look at a Hadith from Riyad-us-saliheen page 28 Hadith number 16.
It is as follows:

Abu Musa Al ash'ari (ra) reported : The Prophet (saw) said, " Allah the exalted, will continue to stretch out His Hand in the night so that the sinners of the day may repent, and continue to stretch His Hand in the daytime so that sinners of the night may repent, until the sun rises from the west."  
[Collected by Muslim]

The Prophet (saw) said that Allah's Hands are stretched open to accept forgiveness in the night so that those who sin during the day may repent in the veil of the night, and those who sin under the cover of darkness, may repent in the confrontation of a new day, perhaps hoping for a brighter horizon.  Whatever the case, the doors or mercy are open to public till the day the horizon switches gears. 

Let's be real. We all sin. Whether it's manifest, or whether it's locked away in a room, there are times that we regret deeply. Now stop. You can only feel darkness if you have seen light. And darkness is not the absence of light. Just like peace is not the absence of war. In order to understand that you are in darkness, you must be able to SEE that darkness. That means that your heart has a grain of light. A flickering night light. It may be old and rusty, it may be broken and dirty, but it's there. 

And we are so scared to come close. Wrapped in dirty and torn rags. Mud and dirty streaks on our face. Stringy hair and a stench that swears never to be squelched. We are afraid that if we come close, our past sins may extinguish the little weak light we have. But we forget that the mere fact we are afraid, is a huge accomplishment. To have that guilt means that we are aware of our situation. 

Grab that light. Who are we to underestimate the mercy of The One Who has our soul in His Hand. 

Ya ilah, la tuzigh quloobuna ba'da ith hadaiy tana, wa hablana milla dunka rahma

Sidra k. Afzal