By
Ælfwine Mischler
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The
$10 billion will just not be worth it come Judgment Day
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OK,
let’s say you’ve just committed the perfect bank heist. I mean perfect.
You’re going to be rolling in dough the rest of your life and Sherlock Holmes,
Hercule Poirot, and Kojak put together couldn’t solve the crime. As long as
you don’t spend the money too freely and make the neighbors suspicious,
you’ve got it made.
Ah,
but then you get that little prick of conscience. A little voice in you tells
you that there is One Person Who knows “whodunit” and there’s no escape
from Him. So what are you going to do?
There
are some who would try to silence that little voice. They just delve deeper and
deeper into sin (yes, robbing a bank is a sin, folks), enjoying every pleasure
they can of this life until that little voice is just drowned.
Some
would just try to justify their actions to themselves until they’ve convinced
themselves that they didn’t do anything wrong. Or they’ll try to “turn
over a new leaf” while still living off the results of their sins. (“Well,
I’ll just live off the $10 billion for the rest of my life and never do
another wrong thing.”)
But
you know what, folks? It doesn’t work that way! There really is no escape from
Allah, and the way to escape from His wrath is to repent. But to repent, you
can’t just feel sorry for what you did. You’ve got to stop the sin and make
amends. You’ve got to give that $10 billion back to the bank!
Well,
OK, maybe you don’t do anything as big as robbing banks. So you’re more of
an average Joe or Jane. But the point is, to repent properly you’ve got to
repair the damage you’ve done. You’ve got to repay the rights of others that
you’ve usurped. If you’ve stolen something, you’ve got to return it or its
value to the owner. If you’ve backbitten someone, you’ve got to tell
everyone that what you said was wrong and tell the truth about the person
(unless it was worse than what you first said!) If you’ve hurt someone’s
feelings, you’ve got to apologize to him or her. Whatever you’ve done wrong,
you have to find a way to make it right. Only then can Allah accept your
repentance.
So,
to repent means more than just to regret what you’ve done. It also means to
repair the wrong and (yes, there’s more) to resolve not to do that same thing
again. (But, by the way, if your sin was just against the rights of Allah, you
only have to regret and resolve not to repeat it; there’s nothing to pay
back.)
And
what if you’ve made such a resolution but find yourself repeating the sin?
Then you’ve got to repent again. And you’ve got to examine yourself to see
what is leading you to repeat that sin. Maybe you need to change your circle of
friends. Maybe you need to find a constructive activity to take up some of your
free time (studying Arabic, reading Qur’an, or working — paid or volunteer
— instead of loitering on the streets). And if you’re still having trouble,
you can always ask Allah to help you keep your resolution. I’ve learned
through experience (yes, folks, I admit it, I have sinned occasionally) that if
you ask Allah for help on this one, He’s sure to grant your request.
And
always keep in mind that Allah loves to forgive the sinner who repents. And He
is The All-Merciful, The Ever-Merciful. Some people despair of Allah’s
forgiveness, even after they’ve done all they need to do to repent—stop,
regret, repay and resolve. But that is only the devil’s way of keeping them
away from Allah, of keeping them away from repenting. If you truly regret the
wrong you did and make a sincere effort to stop, if you repay others their
rights, if you firmly resolve not to sin again and change your ways so that
you’re not tempted to repeat your sin, you should fully expect Allah to
forgive you.
And
on Judgment Day you will be happier than if you had kept the $10 billion.
