Urging Repentance Before Death

The Shaykh : We benefit from this story, and this is what I wanted to point out now: that repentance does not benefit a person when death is near. Repentance does not benefit a person when death is near. Allah has explicitly stated this in the Qur'an, saying, Exalted and Majestic is He: There is no repentance for him. This is after he has witnessed the punishment and witnessed that he has transitioned from this world and left behind everything after it. He says, "I have repented." This does not benefit him. And I ask you: does each one of you have a document, a certificate, that he will not die until after a hundred years? Answer me. Is it not possible that he might die in his night before morning, or in his day before evening? This is possible. So why do we be negligent in repentance when we do not know when we will reach the state in which our repentance is not accepted? So we must, O brothers, and I ask Allah to make my words in accordance with my actions, and your words in accordance with your deeds, we must hasten to repent so that the time does not pass. Repentance from the rights of whom? From the rights of whom, O people? From the rights of Allah, and from the rights of the servants of Allah.
How many people have wronged a person in his wealth, denied a debt that was obligatory upon him, or cut off a span of land and incorporated it into his property? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: A span. We see one who knows it. Allah, stand up, a span, like this, here. That means if you extend your fingers, what is between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger is the span. Rest. And this is cited as an example of smallness, because the ruling of one who cuts off less than a span is like the ruling of one who cuts off a span. On the Day of Resurrection, which is witnessed by the first and the last, those of your era and those before your era, those of your ummah and those before your ummah, the angels, the jinn, mankind, and the beasts. This man is encircled with what he cut off from the land from seven earths. The point is the disgrace of this man among the worlds. Otherwise, Allah the Exalted is able to punish him with something else, but for the sake of his disgrace among the worlds, this became his punishment. So measure, O my brother, your land. Did you incorporate a span of your neighbor's into it? Remove it as long as you are in the time of respite, otherwise the one after you will be pleased with it, and it will be a calamity for you. Who among us has wronged the workers he has? How many complaints do workers have against those who employed them? He brings a worker and agrees with him that his wage is five hundred riyals a month. I am giving a real example, not an estimate, not a hypothetical estimate. He agrees with him on five hundred riyals in his country, and when he comes here, he says to him, "Are you satisfied with two hundred, or leave?" Is this from the character of a Muslim? I ask you, O people. No, by Allah, it is not from the character of a Muslim. This is treachery, betrayal, and injustice. How can you agree with him on a certain wage, and then when he comes here, you say, "So much, or go back"? Who has permitted you that? Does not Allah say: Yes. Does not Allah say: Yes. And he brings the worker with a certain wage, five hundred riyals, and then when he arrives, he says, "I have nothing for you. Go, you yourself, go work, and also pay me two hundred riyals every month. Two hundred riyals or three hundred riyals." Is this permissible? It is not permissible. This is injustice, and it does not benefit a person to repent from this. The right of a human being must be delivered to him, even on the Day of Resurrection. For this reason, the Prophet (may Allah's prayer and peace be upon him) said: The one who has nothing. He said, "No, that is not it. This is not it." By Allah, I am amazed at a man who believes in Allah and the Last Day that he would encroach upon his brothers and wrong them, while he believes in Allah and the Last Day. Rather, even if you agreed with a disbeliever on a job, and then you betrayed him and did not fulfill it, do you think that the right of this disbeliever is lost? Answer: It is not lost. Even if he is a disbeliever, we must be just to the disbelievers as they were just to us. Allah the Exalted said: So this disbeliever whom you brought to work, and then you betrayed him and changed the contract, you are accountable for him on the Day of Resurrection, even if he is a disbeliever. Therefore, I say a second time: repent to Allah before you are not able to repent. If a person has a right owed to his brothers that he is not able to fulfill today, he writes a will. He writes a will stating that I owe so-and-so such and such, and I wronged so-and-so by such and such. And it is established in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Strive, O my brother, to clear your conscience. Do not think that this world is a place of permanence. This world is a place of work and a farm for the Hereafter. So repent to Allah before the time passes.