What if I Fail Delaying Commitment Due to Self-Doubt
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-05T20:34:53.479664+00:00 | Topic: Iman
What if I Fail? Delaying Commitment Due to Self-Doubt
Virtual Khutbah by Omar Suleiman
Opening
By bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon Him, His family, His companions and those that follow until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to allow these lessons that we are learning from Ramadan, from these moments in worship to elevate us to the highest level of Jannatul Firdaus and the companionship of our beloved Prophet and all of the Prophets and the righteous and those that are closest to Allah, the martyrs. Allahumma Ameen.
Condolences and Du'a Requests
Dear brothers and sisters, before I start InshaAllah Ta'ala today, I actually wanted to start off by requesting all of your dua for the father of Dr. Suhail Lahir in Boston. Some of you might remember a few months ago, it's only been I believe two months, SubhanAllah, I posted about Sheikh Suhail Lahir in Boston who had a stroke. And SubhanAllah, afterwards his mother passed away. May Allah have mercy on her. And as he is on the road InshaAllah Ta'ala to a full recovery, his father also passed away this morning, Justice Lahir. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala have mercy on him and accept him as a Shaheed.
SubhanAllah, Ramadan, Friday morning after Fajr, a noble man, we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to have mercy on him and to join him with his recently deceased wife in Jannatul Firdaus. And to comfort the family and to join them as well InshaAllah Ta'ala in Jannatul Firdaus with their family members. So please keep the Lahir family in your dua.
And also of course, Brother Suhaib, Imam Suhaib Sultan from Princeton who is fighting off the stage four cancers has been writing very movingly about his struggles in these last days. Please make dua for him and for his wife and their young daughter and their family as well. Please ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to have mercy on them and to cover them in tranquility and to ease them during these difficult times.
And we pray for all of those that are struggling and all of those that are going through hardship. Allahumma ameen. So InshaAllah Ta'ala, I'm gonna go ahead and start with the virtual khutbah, reminding you once again to please pray your dhuhr prayer and that this is just a reflection.
Introduction to the Topic: Self-Doubt and Commitment
But this one is meant to be a little bit more personal and InshaAllah Ta'ala it speaks to people that are struggling with doubt in a different way. And the doubt that I'm talking about here is not the doubt in
terms of doubt of faith, but it's really self-doubt and the nature of self-doubt and what it does to our journey to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and what we can do to overcome it and especially make use of this time in Ramadan where we have a great sense of urgency, asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to get us over InshaAllah Ta'ala those hurdles so that we can make better progress in our ultimate journey to Him and in achieving and attaining His pleasure in this life and the next.
Historical Context: The People of Mecca
And I wanna sort of take you back to Mecca and Alhamdulillah we've been doing Quran 30 for 30 and reflecting on the Quran on a regular basis. I want you to think about how many people were in Mecca when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) made the call and they were not amongst those that showed hostility to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) nor were they amongst those that joined the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him and suffered alongside of him, but they were people that decided to sort of wait on the sidelines. There are people that said, you know what, he makes sense, but we're not willing to undergo the persecution that he's undergoing and that his followers are undergoing. So let's wait this out a bit or I can see both sides of this and some points are being made.
I'm comfortable where I am. I'm gonna stick to my comfort level and sometime forward, if this thing really takes root and it becomes a thing, then maybe I'll make that change then. Maybe I'll believe then and I'll make that change then.
There are certainly people that waited and Allah gave them the ability to wait almost two decades, right? There are a lot of people that died fighting the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him. A lot of people that died sort of being dragged to the battlefield to go and persecute the Muslims after the hijrah, after the migration and died there. A lot of people that maybe just died in between.
How many people passed away in Mecca between the time the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him was forced out and the time of Fateh Mecca and the time of the opening of Mecca and we don't even hear about them, right? They were your average Meccans that just waited on the sidelines, right? And said, I'm going to see how this all goes because not now. It's just, it's too much and I don't know if I can handle this package. I don't know if I can deal with all this, right?
Analyzing the Culture of the Sahabah
And so that's one of the things that we find when we're looking at the culture of the sahabahs that you often have the prominent personalities from the sahabah that rise and you have the prominent villains, the Abu Lahabs of the world and the Abu Jahabs of the world that rise on the other side and a lot of people are lost in between. You're not able to really distinguish and say, well, what about all of those people in between that were different, right? And that had very unique struggles with this idea of iman and with making a commitment to this call which seemed to be so consequential with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - salallahu alayhi wasalam).
The Psychology of Delaying Commitment
So let's bring this to a personal level and let's talk about self-doubt and hesitation. Let's talk about the trick of the shaitan in causing us to delay commitment because we don't feel like we're going to be able to stay committed.
So you delay commitment for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that you say, you know what, I don't know if I can handle the difficulties that come with that commitment. And by the way, this generation of people, if you read all the social studies about our generation, particularly millennials, fear of commitment in relationship, fear of commitments in long-term investment, fear of commitment is a prominent hallmark of this generation in terms of delaying things because I don't know if I can commit to it.
And obviously that's going to tie into our relationship with God as well. I don't know if I can really commit to this and make this change and deal with what comes with it in terms of the package. So sometimes we put off commitment because we're afraid of the hardship that's going to come with that commitment.
Fear of Hardship and Circumstances
And we don't know if we're going to be able to handle that hardship. And because of that, we either wait till we feel like we're in a position of strength to be able to handle the consequences of commitment, or we wait for the circumstances to be a little bit less detrimental, to be easier for us to make that commitment. And so what that looks like is that, again, if you take it back to that person that was sitting in Mecca, if they didn't hate the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) so much, and if they didn't fight him so much, then maybe I'll join him if Abu Jahl tones it down a bit.
So if the climate becomes easier to be a Muslim and to commit, then maybe I'll do it then. So I'm either waiting for myself to develop this strength, or I'm waiting for the environment to be less weakening. So I'm putting this all off into the future.
And obviously, the most faulty assumption of it all is that I'm making the assumption that I'm going to live to see the time when I develop this strength, or when the circumstances become easier to make these commitments. So that's one level of putting off commitment.
Fear of People's Judgment
Another reason why people put off commitments is because they're afraid of giving a false impression to others, or they consider what people will say if they make that commitment and they fail. If they make that commitment and they fail. So let's say that I start doing this, and then if I start doing this, and I find it weak, and then I move back on my commitment, if I take it back, then people are going to say, oh, there you go, and what a shame, and you were making progress, and then you went back. So I might as well
just kind of stay out of it, because I don't want to create a false impression that I'm making change that I'm not so certain that I'm going to be able to hold on to.
And subhanAllah, the faulty assumption there, who cares what people think? Who cares what people think? You know, who cares if people think that you're making progress or not making progress? Who cares if people are saying mashallah or astaghfirullah with you? Who cares? Right? You should be thinking about your journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And if you're going to put off an effort that you should be making for Him because you're afraid of people misjudging where you're at in that journey, that's a serious issue, right? That means that you're considering their sights a little bit too much. A little bit too much.
The Mountain Climbing Analogy
Who cares what they think? Instead, focusing on my journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So if I'm going to make an upward climb, I'm going to fall. I'm going to trip. I'm going to have times where I'm going to lose my footing. Think about climbing a mountain, right? I'm going to have times that I'm going to lose my footing. I'm going to have times that I'm going to feel like I need to take a break.
Those are natural things that come with journey. But you don't do that with worldly success. You don't say, well, I'm not going to start because I don't think I'm going to get there. You need to make that first step and go through the difficulty of the climb and it doesn't matter if people see you stumble. You have to stumble in order to get up there, right?
Shaytan's Tricks with Sincerity
So sometimes people are like, well, I don't want to start doing this and then people will say this or one of the easiest tricks of shaytan subhanAllah, and I see it happen with so many people and it's heartbreaking and I should say I see it happen with myself too sometimes, okay? It's not just people. Let's think about how shaytan attacks all of us.
One of the things that often happens when it comes to making toga or making change, I don't want people to say that I only did this because of this, this, this and that. You know, oh, you know, I went through this journey. Oh, so now this is happening and now that's happening. And so I'm going to put it off until I feel like it's a sincere commitment to change, right?
And you got to realize shaytan wants to disconnect you from intention or action. So if he can't disconnect you from intention, he's going to disconnect you from action, right? He's going to find a way to put it off. The point is shaytan wants to delay you.
The Priority of Abandoning Sin
How do we know this? And I'm going to get to, inshallah, those who fear commitment to good deeds or those who let self-doubt plague them when it comes to good deeds, so they put off good deeds. But I'm starting with tawbah for a reason. I'm starting with repentance for a reason because if you were to shed off one sin that you've been continuing in this Ramadan, that is far more beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than picking up a hundred good habits, okay? To relinquish sin.
Taqwa is to abandon sin. The goal of fasting, the first goal of fasting is taqwa. If that God consciousness caused you to abandon a sin, then that is far greater than picking up a hundred habits of ihsan, of excellence, right?
The Quranic Passage: Surah Al-Hadeed
So I want to start with this for a moment, and I want to go to this ayah in surah al-hadeed, which is the second page, I believe it's verse 14, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, well it's a section, second page of surah al-hadeed. Allah's talking about the conversation between the believers and the hypocrites on the day of judgment, okay? The hypocrites that are being referred to here are not the hypocrites that we've been talking about in Quran 30 for 30 that were the hypocrites that were plotting within the Muslims and not sincere. These are people that had hypocrisy but that were still Muslims. So these weren't the hypocrite disbelievers, these were hypocrites that counted themselves amongst the believers that were amongst the believers, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala starts talking about this conversation.
The Separation of Light
And Allah talks about the believers running off with the light. Running off with the light. So they're in this state where they all have their lights. Right? And you know, they don't realize if you're sitting in a room and you don't realize where the light's coming from as long as the room is well lit. So you have a group of people that they're all together, but the light is only coming from some of them. The light is only coming from some of them.
And as the light is only coming from some of them, it doesn't show that some people don't have any light until those believers are separated. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about this moment where those that actually have light emanating from them. Right? From in front of them and behind them in their right hands, they go forth, and then as they're going forth, those that don't have any light for themselves are getting left behind and they're calling out and they're saying:
Right? Wait a minute, weren't we with you?
فَضْرِبَ بَيْنَهُم بِسُورٍ لَّهُ بَابٌ
Quran 57:13
And subhanAllah and a wall, a barrier gets enacted between them. And those believers go forth and then those others are left behind and they don't have any light anymore because the ones that had the light went forward. And they call out and they say, wait a minute:
Weren't we with you? You know, we were with you. Right? What happened? And the next ayah is:
Quran 57:14
Okay? So they say, yes, (بَلّیٰ - balā) you were with us, we were all together:
But you held back first of all You afflicted yourselves with what? You afflicted yourselves with your desires. Okay? So the scholars mention here (فَتَنتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ - fatantum anfusakum) You afflicted yourselves. And it's really important here that the word that's used here (فَتَنتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ - fatantum anfusakum) You afflicted yourselves does not put the putting of test the affliction on Allah because there are tests that happen that are beyond our power and have nothing we just have to deal with them and respond to those tests in a way that's pleasing to Allah.
Self-Inflicted Trials
And then there are the things that we inflict on ourselves. We afflict ourselves with. And that is when the desires build up and when we allow our desires to guide us rather than the revelation to guide us. So we start following those desires. And so what happens is we make those desires those (شَهَوَات - shahawat) our priorities and then we try to interpret everything from guidance to our course of action in light of how much access they're going to give us to our desires. And that's where the fault is.
You put the lens of (شَهَوَات - shahawat) the lens of desires on (فَتَنتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ - fatantum anfusakum) You afflicted yourselves. I did that to myself. We don't put that on Allah. That's I did that to myself.
Delaying and Doubting
And then what happens as a result of that (تَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبْتُمْ - tarabbastum wartabtum) And then you awaited and you doubted. Now these two things if you're reading the English translation they seem identical.
So I actually want to break them down in the way that the scholars break them down. (تَرَبَّصْتُمْ - tarabbastum) means:
(أَخَرْتُمُ التَّوْبَةَ مِنْ وَقْتِ إِلَى وَقْتِ - akhartum at-tawbata min waqtin ila waqt)
means you waited in that you delayed your repentance. You kept saying when this time comes when this time comes. When this Ramadan comes. When I go to Hajj, I'm going to do this. When I get married, I'm going to do this. When I have a kid, I'm going to do this. You put these benchmarks, you put these timelines on yourself and that's what's being spoken about here. You put these timelines and these milestones and as you achieve those milestones, you delay your Tawbah again.
You delay your repentance again. So you say you know what, I'm going to start doing this when this happens. And when that happens you get complacent and you say I'm not ready yet. I'm going to delay it again. Let me put it off to the next one. Let me put it off to the next one. The next Ramadan. The next Friday. The next time this happens. The next life. The next major blessing that Allah gives me in life. I'm not ready to do this once this happens. Once this happens. Once this happens. And it keeps on happening and you keep on delaying it.
The Pattern of Delay
So that's the first crime that's being mentioned here to those that get left behind. Why do you keep on delaying your Tawbah to time periods that might never come? What makes you so certain that you're going to have that time period? That you're going to get to that place in the first place? What makes you so certain you'll make it to that time? And even if you make it to that time, if there's a pattern of pushing it off, pushing it off, pushing it off, pushing it off, then what's going to happen? So, means:
(أَخَّرْتُمُ التَّوْبَةَ مِنْ وَقْتِ إِلَى وَقْتِ - akhartum at-tawbata min waqtin ila waqt)
That you put off your Tawbah. You put off your repentance from time to time. You kept on saying this will come and then I'll start doing this. This will come and then I'll start doing this. This will come and then I'll start doing this. And subhanAllah, that kills the heart. That kills the heart.
The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - salallahu alayhi wa sallam) told us that the insistence upon minor sins kill the heart. We're not even talking about major sins, but the insistence upon sin kills the heart because you get used to living in a place of disobedience and you're comfortable there. You're okay with it.
Shaytan's Strategy of False Hope
And you tell yourself one day, one day, one day, one day. And that is music to the shaytan's ears. That that's what your approach becomes because I don't have to worry about that person because they're under the delusion that they one day might make that change to Allah subhanAllah that turn to Allah. But the day might not ever come and in the process of waiting till that day, they're going to get more and more comfortable in the place that they're in. And so they're just going to leave it there. And so I don't even need to whisper anymore because I don't need to convince them that the sin is good. They already know that the sin is bad, that the place of disobedience that they're in is bad, but they're fooling
themselves in the thinking that one day, right, I'll make that change when the time comes and they keep on pushing it off to that time.
So that's the, that's a major trick of shaytan. It makes his waswas, it makes his whispering very easy because he doesn't have to convince you about the sin. You know it's bad, you know that you should be doing something different. But hey, I'll put it off. When that day comes, inshaAllah, inshaAllah when that day comes.
And there were a lot of inshaAllah's in Mecca by the way. There were a lot of people that said inshaAllah when that day comes. Right, and they never got to see that day. And there are a lot of inshaAllah's in our time as well. When it comes, when it comes, when it comes.
The Second Type of Doubt
And then the second type of doubt (وَارْتَبْتُمْ - wartabtum). The second type of doubt here is the doubt about you know that which comes in the hereafter. So it's the doubt about the resurrection. So that's the type of doubt where you start thinking to yourself, well is it really all true? You know, is there really a hereafter? Am I really going to have to meet Allah? You know, I don't know anymore. Right?
And you know, what would cause those doubts to come? The scholars point to the fact that self doubt or the delay of your tawbah, the delay of your tawbah is put before this type of doubt. Why? Because your heart keeps on dying and dying and dying and dying. And when your heart you know, keeps on dying, then you put it then the thoughts start to be corrupted as well. It's like, well, is it really all there anyway? And you think about the excuses that we start to make and those types of things.
So, you know, the first type of doubt here (تَأْخِيرُ التَّوْبَةِ، أَخَرْتُمُ التَّوْبَةِ - takhir at-tawbah, akhartum at-tawbah). That you keep on putting these milestones for your repentance (مِنْ وَقْتِ إِلَى وَقْتِ - min waqtin ila waqt). When this Ramadan comes, when this Hajj comes, when I get married, when I have kids, when I move on, when I turn this age, making those assumptions that you're going to get there. And then the second type is when I start thinking, I don't know if this is all true anymore. You know, I'm starting to have doubts now about the whole thing, about the entire you know, basis that I should be making that tawbah anyway.
The Lens of Desire
Remember, Allah says because the because the lens that's put on us is shahwat, right? It's (فَتَنتُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ - fatantum anfusakum) it's desire. So it's convenient for me to say, well, I don't know if it's worth it anyway. I don't know if I need to be doing this anyway.
So (وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ. وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ - wagharatkum al-amaniyyu. wagharatkum al-amaniyyu). And you know what it comes to last Allah says (وَارْتَبْتُمْ، وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ - wartabtum, wagharatkum al-amaniyyu). And then you deluded yourselves or you allowed yourselves to be deluded by wishful thinking. What is the wishful thinking here? The delusion, the wishful thinking that's spoken about here is, as the scholars say:
(سَيَغْفِرُ لَنَا اللهُ - sayaghfiru lana-Allahu)
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will forgive us anyway. You know what? And by the way, Allah is forgiving and Allah is merciful. And I need to emphasize that because Allah emphasizes that. But, when a person takes Allah's forgiveness and mercy for granted, then they can transition from a place of hope to a place of delusion. We should be hopeful that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will accept our best effort.
False Hopes and Delusions
We should be hopeful that Allah will accept our sincere repentance despite our persistence, our persistent sinning that just comes as part of our nature. We should have hope in Allah with that. But (وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ - wagharatkum al-amaniyyu) is when you start to have delusions and some of those delusions are, and al-Hassan al-Basri rahim Allah mentions, if you read about these delusions (وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ - wagharatkum al-amaniyyu) well, you know:
You know, I'll eventually get to Jannah. Maybe I'll have to go through some punishment before I get there. So I'll just go ahead and I'll take that punishment. You know, I'll go ahead and I'll take that punishment. SubhanAllah, you should be aiming for entering Jannah without any adhab and any hisab, without any punishment, without any questioning. But, you know, I'll go ahead and I'll take a little bit of punishment. I'll take a few days, even if I go through it, you know, it's okay. I'll get there. And besides, I do all these good things, and surely that's good enough. Right? So Allah will overlook how I'm insisting on this particular sin because I do these good things, and at least I'm not doing those bad things that other people are doing. Right? The point is, it becomes delusion. And you start to make excuses for holding back. Excuses for failure. Excuses for lack of commitment. Right?
When Death Comes
And then finally, after all of this, this conversation between the believers, between those that go ahead with the light and those that stay back, finally, what it comes to at the end:
Until the command of Allah came. The command of Allah that's being spoken about here is (الْمَوْتُ - almawt) is death. Then death comes. And then what happens? Right? Now, subhanAllah, when people are about to pass, like when someone gets struck with something, and then they're told, or they know that they have just a few days to live, then they start trying to fix it all in those last few days.
And they often can't do that. And most people that die don't have that opportunity to fix it all at the end of their lives. How can you assure that death won't come to you suddenly? So Allah says (حَتَّى جَاءَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ - hatta ja'a amru Allahi) and then death comes. Right? And then it just boom! The door is shut. So the time that you were putting off, that milestone that you had set for yourself, that when next Ramadan comes, when Hajj comes, when I get married, when I have kids, when I get turned this age, that's gone. And then the doubts about whether post-death is real, that's gone.
But it's too late because I'm already experiencing it, and there's no (عمل - 'amal) anymore. There's no action anymore. And you know, all the rationalizing. Well, you know, at this point now, it's reckoning. I can't rationalize. I'm being reckoned right now. I mean, it's part of my reckoning now. So it's too late for me to rationalize anything. And so what does Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَیٰ - subhanahu wa ta'ala) say?
And the one who deluded you in all this was the chief deceiver. The one who was the chief deceiver was Shaytan. He just kept poisoning you with tomorrow, tomorrow, is it really that bad? Well, you can wait a little bit.
Practical Application: If Not This Ramadan, When?
Well, that is the chief deception of the chief deceiver of Shaytan is to put things out there and to say that, you know, you've got time. You can wait. You can change this later on because you don't know if you'll actually be able to change it. And you don't know if later on will actually come. And it'll plague you for a very long time. So my question to you, brothers and sisters, and this is a question to myself as well.
Before I get to the good deeds, and then inshallah, I'll wrap up. My question is, if not this Ramadan, when there is a global pandemic, you know, where death has become so prominent and so many people, you know, did not even know that they would live to see this Ramadan. If not this Ramadan, when? Right? When am I going to take that next step with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And if I'm thinking to myself, well, what if I fail? What if I start doing this and then I'm not going to be able to keep it up?
The Hadith About Repeated Repentance
The Hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - salallahu alaihi wasalam), which applies because tawbah, by the way, replies to or tawbah relates to, repentance relates to two things, fulfilling an obligation that you were not fulfilling or leaving a sin that you were committing. So fulfilling an obligation that you were not fulfilling or leaving a sin that you were committing. Okay?
The man who came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - salallahu alaihi wasalam) and said:
Ahmad 7070
Ya Rasulullah, I'm an alcoholic. I have a problem. If I drink, will Allah punish me? The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, well, yeah, it'll be written down as a sin and you'll be punished. He said, but then if I seek forgiveness, will Allah forgive me? He said, yes. He said, but what if after I seek forgiveness, after I give it up, I go back to it? The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said then it's a sin.
He said, then what if I seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala again? The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, Allah will forgive you again. And they said, well, what if I go back to it again? I make the commitment two times and the third time happens and then I go back to it again. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, well, it'll be a sin.
And by the way, the third time will not be that it opens up all three sins. The third time here would mean it's as if you committed the sin for the first time because the first two are already dealt with. Okay, with sincere repentance. If you were sincere at the time and you said I'm not going to go back to this, those two are already dealt with. But here now, this third time, right, it's like the first time. So it's a sin.
And then what? What if I seek forgiveness? The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, then you'll be forgiven. Allah will forgive you. Then what if I go back to it again? So he did this with the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam over and over and over again, just kept on playing out the scenarios.
Allah's Infinite Forgiveness
What if I fail? What if I fail? What if I fail? Right? Because, you know, what the shaitan tells you is you're probably going to fail, so why even try? What Allah is telling you is try, and if you fail, if you're sincere in your repentance, try again. Right? Those are the two messagings that you're going to get. So he keeps on painting the scenario to the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam.
What if I fail again? What if I fail again? What if I fail again? What if I fail again? But I keep on seeking repentance, and I mean it every time that this time is going to be different. The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said:
Muslim 2758
Allah does not tire of forgiving you until you tire of seeking His forgiveness. Allah does not tire of forgiving you until you tire of seeking His forgiveness.
Just keep on seeking His forgiveness, and be real when you make that repentance, when you make that commitment, be serious about it. And if you're waiting, you know, subhanAllah, there's a saying, if you're
waiting to make a commitment, or if you wait to make a commitment when you're free of doubts, it will never happen. The doubts here are referring to self-doubt more than anything else.
If you wait to make a commitment when you are free of doubts, it will never happen. So try, right? Well, what if people say, you know, oh, there she goes again, there he goes again, right? They were making this change and then there they go again. Who cares what people say? I'm worried about that meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because there won't be people in that interview on the day of judgment.
Commitment to Good Deeds
So that's the commitment. Don't let yourself get plagued by self-doubt to where you put off the commitment to an imaginary time and you reduce the inevitable reality to an imagination as well, only to be woken up by death. Don't do that, right? Do it now.
The second thing though, when it comes to good deeds, and this is the last type of self-doubt I want to talk about inshaAllah ta'ala because this is an important one. When it comes to good deeds, what do you have to lose by making a commitment to a greater level of good deeds except that if you fall short all you're asked to do is readjust them to where you're more blessed inshaAllah ta'ala and you're back in that position with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So what is it, you know, what's going to happen if you fall short when you make a commitment to qiyamah? You say, you know what I'm going to start reading half a juz of Quran every day after Ramadan and if I fall short of that, Allah will not punish you because you fell short of a good deed that you put in front of you, but you will grow yourself and grow closer in your sincerity and your pursuit of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you adjust that good deed and you say, you know what, fine I'm going to make it, I can't do this much, I'm going to make it this much, I can't do this much, I'm going to make it this much and that's far more beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Gradual vs. Immediate Approach
and so I'll end on this note because it's a very important note and you probably heard me say it before and inshallah ta'ala you'll hear me say it again, when it comes to building good habits be gradual, when it comes to forsaking sin be immediate right, do it right away, when it comes to building good habits, do it gradually, when it comes to forsaking bad habits and sin do it right away, you know be immediate, it can't wait it can't wait, with good deeds I'm going to build slowly and surely and I can count on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being forgiving in both senses and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgiving me if I fall short and I go back to what I committed to say that I would never go back to and if I fall short, if I don't live up to the good standard that I set for myself but I keep on trying to reach that standard by adjusting and adjusting and adjusting and adjusting.
Closing Du'a
and so I want to make a du'a at the end of all this inshallah ta'ala because I know that some of you are struggling with things and you've been struggling with them for years and I've been struggling, all of us are struggling, but may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us this Ramadan to overcome those struggles may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to finally commit to those obligations we know our obligations but we put off, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to finally quit those sins, that we know our sins and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to develop the sincerity, the courage, the resilience to be met by his mercy and his grace and his generosity to have those things put behind us.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to turn that page with him. May Allah never allow us to delay ourselves into delusion. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow this Ramadan to be the best Ramadan of our lives as we are on the brink of the last ten nights and Laylatul Qadr awaits us.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to live to see Laylatul Qadr. May Allah accept us in Laylatul Qadr. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala forgive us because he loves to forgive and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala pardon us because he loves to pardon.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide us and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to put back, to put behind us all types of sinful addictions. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to be purified from the flaws of the tongue and the flaws of the eyes, the flaws that we're aware of and the flaws that we're unaware of. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to develop good habits that take the place of those bad habits.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala not make us a people that are driven by desire but those that are driven by the pursuit of his divine pleasure. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow the lens that we have on us to be a lens of gratitude that allows us to make the most of the blessings that he's given us to unlock the ultimate blessing of his pleasure and to be amongst those that are elevated in the hereafter. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make it easy for all of us that are struggling and that are trying so hard to get over addictions and to get over you know self-doubt and all of these things that are plaguing us.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala help our young people, our youth in particular that are struggling with so many things with an environment that's becoming even more difficult to practice in. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow them to develop the strength to be able to overcome those environments and then meet that with an increased reward as well. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to be forgiven this Ramadan and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to take habits that will that will keep us within his mercy and his forgiveness after this Ramadan and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow the best of our moments to be the last of them.
Conclusion
Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllah khayran. I want to thank you all for tuning in today and inshallah just a reminder tonight inshallah ta'ala we'll be continuing with Quran 30 for 30.
The last 10 nights of Ramadan inshallah ta'ala we're going to be having khatira every night. We're gonna be talking about Ibadur Rahman, the servants of the Most Merciful, the qualities of the servants of the Most Merciful in Suratul Furqan. Every one of the last 10 nights at 2 a.m. Eastern inshallah ta'ala.
We'll be having a short reflection on that inshallah ta'ala. Also on May 13th inshallah ta'ala which is next week we're gonna have a finish strong telethon which is going to be a five hour you know program inshallah ta'ala that you can tune in throughout the day inshallah giving us messages inshallah ta'ala about how to get ourselves ready for the last 10 nights inshallah to make sure that the best of our Ramadan is the last of our Ramadan inshallah ta'ala and I want to remind you all inshallah ta'ala to to make sure that you catch the last 10 nights with sadaqa as well. If you go to the link inshallah ta'ala in the status then there is an option for you to divide your sadaqa over all 10 nights inshallah ta'ala from now so that inshallah you would catch the reward of it regardless of whatever night Laylatul Qadr is in and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to catch it.
جَزَاكُمُ اللهُ خَيْرًا
Once again inshallah ta'ala see you all tonight for Quran 30 for 30.
وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ