The Meaning of (And We Seek His Forgiveness)

The Shaykh : We seek His forgiveness, and the meaning of "We seek His forgiveness" is that we ask Him for forgiveness. Forgiveness is: covering the sin along with passing over it. This forgiveness is that Allah covers your sin from His servants and that He pardons you for this sin. It is known that a person has sins between him and Allah: hidden sins in the heart and hidden sins in the limbs, but people do not know about them. Have you seen what would have happened if Allah had exposed them? It would have been a trial. But, by the praise of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), He has covered them from the servants. So you ask Allah to forgive you, meaning that He covers your sins and passes over them. So pay attention to this meaning. When you say, "I seek the forgiveness of Allah," you are asking Allah for two things: what are they? Covering the sin, and secondly, passing over it such that Allah does not punish you for it. For this reason, on the Day of Resurrection, Allah will be alone with His believing servant and say, "You did such and such, you did such and such," until he acknowledges it. Then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says:
"And We seek His forgiveness and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls." We find that in the books of the scholars who begin with this sermon, it is "We seek His forgiveness and we turn to Him in repentance." But after investigation, we did not find in the hadith "and we turn to Him in repentance," but rather "We seek His forgiveness" and after that "and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls."