The One Name That Erases All Of Your Sins | Allah’s Names | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ep. 27

The Simple Key to the Widest Mercy

And then she's seeing her husband, صلى الله عليه وسلم, who already worships like no other every ordinary night of the year. But now he's doing the extraordinary even by his standards. His tent is pitched in the masjid for the entirety of the last ten nights. He dips his head into the house for her to comb his hair and to share a quick loving moment. Can you imagine how small you would feel seeing all of that and how insufficient your worship would seem? So she asks the right question.

She says, يا رسول الله، ما أقول إذا أدركت هذه ليلة؟ What do I say if I find myself in this blessed night? And alhamdulillah, she asked, because how many billions have said this du'a just on the basis of her asking a question so many of us would have? Our mother was so wonderfully human in her curiosity and so obviously sincere. And through her single question, every believer was given the simplest key to the widest mercy. He didn't give her a list to memorize or a ladder to climb.

He gave her one name of Allah, one attribute and one ask that could make the night worth an entire lifetime.

Oh Allah, you are al-'afoo, the pardoner. You love to pardon, so pardon me.

The Beauty of Simplicity

How simple and beautiful. He didn't tell her to ask for a house in Jannah. He taught her a sentence that opens every other door. There was no need for a long complex du'a because Allah doesn't need your poetry. He wants your piety and your simplicity and your sincerity in your supplication. And Allah who has more words than ink could ever contain is pleased with just that single sentence because du'a is meant to be simple.

The best du'a in this world is:

Oh our Lord, give us the best of this life and the next and protect us from the punishment of the fire because in that single du'a it covers everything. And think about yourself in the last portion of your tawaf when you're going through your list and trying to figure out how you're going to get all your du'as in but you're also fighting through the crowds and the elbows and the distractions and the noise. And then as you come to that last wall of the Ka'bah you just seal it with that simple comprehensive du'a.

Likewise, you seal your Ramadan with this single comprehensive du'a. The best du'a for this spectacular night is so short that anyone can memorize it and keep repeating it even as you walk around or even as you're on your way to the masjid. You could say it all night and nothing else and you're good.

Understanding Al-'Afoo

But you can't internalize that du'a if you don't internalize the single name in it. So who is al-'afoo, the pardoner? And what's the difference between al-'afoo and al-ghafoor and at-tawab, the forgiver and the acceptor of repentance?

I want you to think about two applicants before an employer one of them having a clean record and another one who has a record that still lists the offense but it says pardoned. They're not the same in people's eyes and as human beings our capacity is limited because we forgive but we rarely forget.

And even when we try our best the scar remains or the label follows and the past somehow keeps coloring the present. So think about how unforgiving society is to the most reformed former criminal because he still has a record. What would you do and what would you give for a clean slate with Allah for the ability to completely start over? Allah is al-'afoo and he does not deal with you like people do.

Now maghfira is when Allah covers your sin and shields you from its consequence not exposing you in this world nor punishing you for it in the hereafter. But the trace still remains in the record as a coverable offense. Al-'afoo is even further beyond that.

It means to wipe out and remove the trace كأنه لم يكن as if it never was. The Arabs used to describe it as عفت الريح الأثر a wind that sweeps the desert so that not even a footprint remains.

Beyond Forgiveness

See if Allah was only to the level of forgiveness we've already mentioned by giving you a grace period of a few hours to repent before you sin so that it's not written down or bringing in the veil on the day of judgment so no one else hears him remind you before he forgives you anyway or changing the record in front of you so that you know that you won't be harmed anymore. All of this is beyond human capacity. But al-'afoo goes even further. عفا means سمح so he pardoned all of it altogether.

It's not even on your record anymore. You know if you can get someone to fix a speeding ticket so it doesn't even show up anymore imagine Allah fixing the sin so it's completely deleted from your record. And that's why the ulama say that this is the most comprehensive du'a and if a person achieves this level نال الخير كله that he has achieved all good because the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says that if a person has their sins wiped out رجعت كيوم ولدتك أمك that you go back to the day your mother gave birth to you.

The score of your sin is zero. Do you understand the weight of that? But he doesn't just set you back to zero. On the same night he multiplies your good deeds writes for you blessed decrees and he opens for you doors to success here and Jannah there with one night and one name that erases all that burdens you and provides all that delights you and he says يُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ he doesn't pardon begrudgingly he actually loves to pardon this way so while the angels are celebrating and clogging the heavens with salam and the believers are congregating and sending up their most sincere prayers releasing their heaviest burdens Allah loves it all more than we do just like he's more joyous over our repentance than we are even though we need him and he doesn't need us.

The Joy of Divine Pardon

What if I'm still not worthy? Unlike us, his pardoning doesn't wait for your perfection or a perfect apology and he doesn't say I need some time or I can forgive but I can't forget يُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ it's his joy to let go of what would break you to keep holding but he does call us to mirror that afwa in our own lives as well and he knows it's hard for us and that's why in the story of Abu Bakr when he found out that Mistah, his relative who he used to give money to was one of those that slandered his daughter, our mother the wife of the Prophet Aisha and the only thing Abu Bakr does is he says I'm no longer going to give him what I used to then Allah reveals:

Let them pardon and overlook don't you love when Allah pardons you? Go ahead and do it Ya Abu Bakr, not because you have to but because you love to for your Lord who loves to pardon for you so Abu Bakr not only forgave Mistah he went back to giving him everything that he used to give him as if it never happened, that's afwa erasure that not only cancels punishment but restores relationships.

Following the Sunnah of Seeking Pardon

And here's something that might surprise you, do you know that if you follow the sunnah you're not actually only asking al-'afoo for this gift in the last 10 nights of Ramadan but actually 3 times a day at least? When? Abdullah ibn Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه said that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم never abandoned this du'a every morning and every evening meaning after fajr and after asr, everyday the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would say:

(Abu Dawud)

Oh Allah I ask you for your pardon and well-being in my religious affairs and in my worldly affairs Oh Allah conceal my faults calm my fears and protect me from what is before me and behind me from what is to my right and to my left and from above me and I seek refuge in you from being taken unaware from what is beneath me.

What's the significance of asking Allah for العفو والعافية? العفو is to be pardoned from what's in the past العافية is to be spared in regards to what's to come and العفو is the single Lord who can grant you both because if you truly are pardoned then the door to everything else stays open but you're also asking for protection from anything that might pull you down again or afflict you in your health or well-being in the future so that's two times a day what's the third time that you call upon Allah for this gift?

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that whoever recites the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah at night before they sleep كفتاه those two ayahs are enough for him and the du'a ends with:

The Ascending Levels of Mercy

So let's break this down وَاعْفُ عَنَّا pardon us وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا forgive us وَارْحَمْنَا have mercy on us and then grant us worldly victory. Did you notice that you're starting with the loftiest ask first because Allah is inviting you to be ambitious in your du'a. It's just like when he tells you when you ask for Jannah, ask for Al-Firdos Al-A'la, the highest garden.

And when you ask for forgiveness don't settle for the small erasure of a single page ask for the sweeping wind that removes every trace. So the scholars of Tafsir, they break this down in a few ways. Some of them said وَاعْفُ عَنَّا means wipe the trace and open the path and if we're not worthy of that highest gift وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا cover us and shield us from consequence and if even that falls short because of who we are or what we're doing, وَارْحَمْنَا then at least let your mercy embrace us as it encompasses everything else.

Other scholars said with وَاعْفُ عَنَّا you're asking Allah to remove the distance that the sin placed between you and him. وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا you're asking him to cover it from people so it doesn't harm you in their eyes وَارْحَمْنَا you're asking that he continue to show you mercy going forward so that your future is not defined by your past. And then comes the ask for worldly victory because what stops us from true victory except for the burden of our own sins.

Victory Through Worthiness

When the companions used to face impossible odds they didn't count their numbers, they questioned their hearts. They used to say we only triumph over our enemies by obeying Allah and if we disobey him then we become like them and then their advantage over us is not by their strength but by our sins. Victory doesn't come from our weapons, it comes from our worthiness.

And one of the meanings of فَانصُرْنَا coming after وَاعْفُ عَنَّا is that what would victory mean in this world if we ended up being humiliated in the hereafter. So you ask for the loftiest first but the lowest ask is still significant. And then you count on the spectrum of الرَّحْمَن all the way to العَفُو to carry you somewhere in His all-encompassing mercy.

Living the Reality of Divine Pardon

And remember what this means for you. Settle people's rights in this world to the best of your ability. Apologize. Return. Repair. Because you don't want to meet Allah with a clean page on one side and then people's claims stacked on the other.

And as you meet this incredible mercy from this incredible Lord tonight and all other nights, something changes inside of you. You're no longer dragging your shame behind you anymore. You're not letting yesterday define you.

You stop introducing yourself to your own soul as the one who did that thing. And you start to believe that change is real. Because العَفُو already sees you as the one who returned not the one who fell.

He's not looking at the past you can't rewrite. He's looking at the present you choose. And the intention you carry. And the effort you intend to put forth for the future. And He can even lighten the burden of your memory. So that remorse becomes a door to Him rather than a prison cell that you sit in.

And if He pardons you as He loves to, then the month that you just lived won't feel like a closed loop but a blessed opening. The page clears and the path clears. You rise lighter than you thought was possible and higher than you thought was possible.

And you'll also start to discover that every time you slipped before, there was wisdom even in that. And your whole story is about to come together. But in order for you to write a new chapter, اللهم إنك عفو تحب العفو فاعف عني يا عفو erase what I've done in the mercy that only you can write.

Wipe away the traces of every sin that followed me into this night. Until I stand before you as if I'd never fallen, let my shame become the soil from which sincerity grows, and my repentance the rope that pulls me back to you. You love to pardon, so pardon me completely.

Forgive what I remember and what I've forgotten, what I've confessed and what I've concealed. Make my record as clean as the day you created me, and my heart lighter than it has ever been before. Let me walk out of this night free of what once chained me, hopeful in what awaits me, and humbled by the Lord who forgives simply because He loves to.