Continuation of the interpretation of the verse: “Those who say, ‘Our Lord, indeed we have believed, so forgive us our sins and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.’”

The fā’ here indicates causality, meaning that the cause of our faith is that You forgive us, because faith is undoubtedly a means to forgiveness. The stronger the faith, the stronger the causes of forgiveness, until if a person’s faith is pure, his good deeds erase his bad deeds. For this reason, he said: meaning, because of the faith, forgive us. This is from the category of seeking nearness to Allah through obedience to have the supplication accepted. And his saying: Yes, Yes, “Forgive” is a verb of supplication, not a verb of command. Why? Brother? We do not say this is a verb of command because Allah is not commanded. The servant does not command Allah, but he supplicates to Him. So, every verb in the form of a command directed to Allah is called a verb of supplication, not a verb of command. And “forgiveness” (al-maghfirah) is derived from “covering” (al-ghufr), which is covering with protection. From this comes the helmet (al-mighfar) that a warrior wears on his head to cover the head and protect it from arrows. So, forgiveness is not merely covering, but it is covering and protection. For this reason, we say: The forgiveness of sins is covering them from people and pardoning their punishments. And evidence for this is: أن الله سبحانه وتعالى يخلوا يوم القيمة بعبده المؤمن ويقرره بذنوبه يقول: عملت كذا وعملت كذا وعملت كذا حتى يقر فيقول الله عز وجل: قد سترتها عليك في الدنيا وأنا أغفرها لك اليوم يعني لا أجازيك عليه ، والحمد لله رب العالمين أن الله عزوجل يستر الذنوب على عباده والله لو لا هذا لا فتضح كثير من الناس، يقال: إن بني إسرائيل كان واحد منهم إذا أذنب ذنبا أصبح وذنبه مكتوب على بابه ـ والعياذ بالله ـ فضيحة، أما هذه الأمة فستر عليها ولله الحمد ـ ولكن فتح عليها أبواب التوبة على كما يقولون قل يا عبادي الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم لا تقنطوا من رحمة الله إن الله يغفر الذنوب جميعا فالله عز وجل يمهل الإنسان يمهل له ويحلم عليه وإذا وفق اتعظ من نفسه بنفسه، هو نفسه يفكر ماذا عملت، ويش أنا فعلت فيستحيي من الله عزوجل ويخشى أن يفضحه الله لأن الإنسان إذا تجرأ على ربه في السر فربما يفضحه بالعلانية إذا لم يتب ، إذا لم يتب إلى الله عز وجل ، فإن تاب تاب الله عليه وأبدل سيئاته حسنات . فاغفر لنا ذنوبنا الذنوب هي المعاصي ، وهي إما قبائح وإما دون ذلك وكلها تحتاج إلى مغفرة كلها يستغفر الإنسان منها ولا تظن أن الصغائر إذا كفرت بالحسنات لا تظن أنها كما لو كفرت بالتوبة ، لأن بينهما فرقا عظيما ، إذا كفرت بالتوبة أبدلت السيئات بالحسنات، إذا كفرت بالطاعات فإنها تمحى فقط لكنها ما تبدل بالحسنات لا، الله يقول: إن الحسنات يذهبن السيئات ويقول: إلا من تاب وآمن وعمل عملا صالحا فأولئك يبدل الله سيئاتهم حسنات وفرق بين أمرين، فرق بين أن تذهب السيئة بالحسنة وبين أن تبدل السيئة حسنة، أليس كذلك؟ إذا لا تعتمد على تكفير الحسنات السيئات فتقول: إن سيئاتي مكفرة بحسناتي لا، ثم إننا في الحقيقة حسناتنا نرجو أن تبرئ ذممنا يعني لا تقوى على أن تكفر، لا تظن أن أي صلاة تكفر لا، قد تكون صلاة لا تبرئ بها الذمة إلا كما يقولون: بالدف نعم ؟ لأنها صلاة يفعلها الإنسان عادة ثم إذا دخل فيها بدأ يضارب بماله إن كان تاجرا، وبدأ يقلب دفاتره إن كان طالبا نعم ؟ وبدأ ينظر إلى قدومه ومنشاره إذا كان نجارا وهكذا، ولا تكثر الوساوس إلا إذا دخل في الصلاة وإذا سلم طارت الوساوس هذه وصار قلبه حاضرا للذكر الذي بعد الصلاة، أما الصلاة نفسها فهو يتجول في كل مكان ، وإذا سد بابا وإذا بالشيطان يفتح بابا بعيدا ما كان يطلع على باله أبدا، فإذا حاول سده وإذا بابا آخر مفتوح وهكذا من أجل أن يحول الشيطان بين الإنسان وبين ربه، لأن الشيطان يعلم أن هذه الصلة التي بين الله وبين العبد وهي صلته بالله في الصلاة لها شأن عظيم ودور كبير في إصلاح العبد قال الله عز وجل: إن الصلاة تنهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر أتريدون أعظم من هذا؟ أن يكون في نفسك رادع ينهاك عن الفحشاء والمنكر هذا هو الذي يغيض الشيطان فيريد الشيطان أن يحول بينك وبين هذا بإلقاء الوساوس في صلاتك حتى تخرج من صلاتك بقلب يابس جاف كما دخلت كذلك في صلاتك، ولهذا أسأل الله أن يعينني وإياكم على إصلاح هذه العبادة العظيمة ، لأنها إذا صلحت صلحت العبادات كلها كل العبادات، ولكن إذا كانت جافة فمن أين تسقى شجرات العمل، لا تسقى إلا بماء نعم . That Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will be alone with His believing servant on the Day of Resurrection and will confront him with his sins, saying: “You did such and such, and you did such and such, and you did such and such,” until he admits them. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: “I have covered them over you in this world, and I am forgiving them for you today,” meaning I will not reward you for them. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, covers the sins of His servants. And if it were not for this, many people would be exposed. It is said that among the Children of Israel, when one of them committed a sin, he would wake up and find his sin written on his door—seeking refuge in Allah—exposed. But this Ummah has been covered, praise be to Allah, but the doors of repentance have been opened for it, as they say: “Say, ‘O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins.’” So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, gives the person respite, grants him respite, and is forbearing with him. And if he is guided, he takes a lesson from himself, from himself. He himself thinks about what he did, and what I did, and he is ashamed of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and fears that Allah will expose him. Because if a person is bold with his Lord in secret, perhaps He will expose him in public if he does not repent. If he does not repent to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, then if he repents, Allah will accept his repentance and replace his bad deeds with good deeds. “So forgive us our sins.” The sins are the disobediences, and they are either abominations or less than that, and all of them need forgiveness. A person seeks forgiveness for all of them. Do not think that if the minor sins are expiated by good deeds, it is as if they were expiated by repentance, because there is a great difference between the two. If they are expiated by repentance, the bad deeds are replaced with good deeds. If they are expiated by acts of obedience, they are merely erased, but they are not replaced with good deeds. No, Allah says: “Indeed, good deeds remove bad deeds,” and He says: “Except for those who repent and believe and do righteous work. For those, Allah will replace their bad deeds with good ones.” He distinguished between two things: He distinguished between the bad deed being removed by the good deed and the bad deed being replaced by a good deed. Is that not so? So do not rely on the expiation of bad deeds by good deeds and say: “My bad deeds are expiated by my good deeds.” No. And in reality, we hope that our good deeds will clear our consciences, meaning they are not strong enough to expiate them. Do not think that any prayer expiates them. No, a prayer may be one that does not clear the conscience, except as they say: with the hand drum. Yes? Because it is a prayer that a person does out of habit, and then when he enters into it, he starts beating with his wealth if he is a merchant, and starts flipping through his books if he is a student. Yes? And he starts looking at his arrival and his saw if he is a carpenter, and so on. And do not have many intrusive thoughts except when he enters into the prayer. And when he finishes the prayer, these intrusive thoughts fly away, and his heart is present for the remembrance after the prayer. As for the prayer itself, he is wandering everywhere. And if he blocks one door, the Shaytan opens a far door that he never thought of. And if he tries to block it, another door is open, and so on, in order for the Shaytan to prevent the person from his Lord. Because the Shaytan knows that this connection between Allah and the servant, which is his connection to Allah in prayer, has a great status and a major role in reforming the servant. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: “Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing.” Do you want something greater than this? That there is a deterrent in your soul that prevents you from immorality and wrongdoing. This is what angers the Shaytan. The Shaytan wants to prevent you from this by casting intrusive thoughts into your prayer so that you come out of your prayer with a dry, arid heart, just as you entered your prayer. For this reason, I ask Allah to help me and you to reform this great act of worship, because if it is reformed, all acts of worship are reformed, all acts of worship. But if it is dry, where will the trees of deeds be watered? They are not watered except with water. Yes.