Explanation of the Hadith: "O Allah, distance me from my sins . . . "

The Shaykh : There is a difference between these phrases. You ask Allah the Exalted to keep you away from sins and to distance them from you so that you do not fall into them. This is a supplication regarding a matter before it occurs, because if a matter is far from you, it will not happen to you. If it does occur, he says: meaning, remove them from me. Then he gave an example of this removal by saying, "as a white garment is cleaned from dirt." He specified the white garment because white is the most susceptible to dirt. A black garment does not show dirt, and even if it becomes dirty, it is not apparent on it, but on a white garment, even a little dirt is visible. For this reason, he said, "as a white garment is cleaned from dirt." After the cleaning comes the washing. If, for example, dirt fell on your garment and you rubbed it with your fingernail until it was clean, we would ask: what is this? Washing or cleaning? It is cleaning. After that, the stage of washing comes. But why did he say "with water, snow, and cold"? There is no doubt that water purifies, but it is known that hot water is more effective in removing dirt than cold water. So why did he say "and snow and cold"? We say that because the punishment for sins is the Fire, and the Fire is hot. It is appropriate that a thing be removed by its opposite, which is snow and cold, so that the effect of the punishment is removed entirely. Thus, this opening supplication became a comprehensive one: it includes distancing from sin before it occurs, and purifying oneself from it after it occurs, by removing its effect entirely through washing with water, snow, and cold.