The Roadmap to Return [66:8]

^{Today let us turn to Sura Tahrim, verse 8 where Allah addresses the believers at the beginning of a longer verse and says:}

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ تَوْبَةً نَّصُوحًا عَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُكَفِّرَ عَنكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَيُدْخِلَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ  

[66:8] O you who believe! turn to Allah a sincere turning; maybe your Lord will remove from you your evil and cause you to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow

Today’s verse for reflection is a command addressed to believers meaning those who are already in relationship with Allah [swt]. It invites them to turn in Tawba. While the verse does not describe tawbah in detail, it describes its quality. Tawbatan nasuha. Sincere, pure, wholehearted repentance. 

What Does Nasuha Mean?

The scholars offer several meanings of nasuha, and each one illuminates a different facet of what genuine tawbah requires. One meaning is a tawbah that is done purely (khalis) for God’s sake i.e not for fear of hellfire alone, but as a result of recognizing the ugliness of sin itself and because wrongdoing goes against the pleasure of One who has been nothing but generous to us.

Another meaning offered is tailoring: nasuha comes from nasabah, the act of sewing. Tawbah sews together the fabric of faith that sin has torn. It rejoins the penitent to the community of those who are close to Allah,  just as separate pieces of cloth are made whole by careful needlework.

And a third: the repenter admonishes himself to accomplish tawbah as perfectly as it deserves, until the effects of sins are totally purged from the heart. Thorough, wholehearted inner work as opposed to a  quick verbal exercise or a momentary feeling. 

Imam Ali[as]’s roadmap to tawba

How do we know if our tawba is nasuha? Imam Ali (as) answers this in Nahj al-Balagha (Saying #417) through a story. When someone said Astaghfirullah in his presence, the Imam stopped him: "Do you know what istighfar is? It is a degree of the 'illiyyun — the people of high station — and it is a word that means six things."

The six conditions he laid out form a roadmap, moving from the interior outward, and from the spiritual to the physical. They begin where all real change begins: with genuine remorse. From remorse comes a firm resolution and a true turning of the will. From there, the work moves outward: addressing what we owe to others and what we have neglected of our obligations to Allah [swt], so that we can meet Him in a state where no one has a claim against us. And finally, Imam Ali (as) speaks to the body itself  and replacing the habits of indulgence with the discipline of obedience, so that prayer, fasting, and restraint become an active counterweight to what came before.

Only then, he says, say: Astaghfirullah.

This is a high bar. Let’s remind ourselves that the Imam was speaking to people who wanted to clear every debt. We may not reach all six conditions at once and what matters is that we know the direction of travel and that we are moving.

Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (as), in Dua at-Tawbah (Dua #31, Sahifa Sajjadiyya), expresses this completeness in his supplication: 

“I repent to You in this station from the major sins and the minor, the hidden evil acts and the manifest, the past slips and the recent the repentance of one who does not talk to himself of an act of disobedience and does not hide the intention to return to an error.” 

Imam Zayn al-'Abidin (as) is describing what a complete repentance looks like. He is saying: I am sorry for the big, obvious things I did wrong and I am sorry for the small things too, the things I did openly and the things I hid, the old mistakes and the recent ones. He is covering every angle and leaving nothing out.

He is telling Allah [swt] and showing us that this is the repentance of someone who is not secretly planning to go back. Not someone who says "I repent" while a little voice in the back of their mind is thinking, well, maybe just one more time. Not someone who is expressing remorse with the tongue while holding on to the sin on the inside.

In other words, true tawbah is not just about what you say with your mouth or even what you feel in the moment. It requires that your intention is clean, that you are genuinely done, not just taking a break. [This does NOT mean that you will actually never go back but that the intention at the time of Tawba is sincere]

The Imam [as] is essentially asking Allah to accept from him a repentance with no loopholes in it. This is tawbatan nasuha in lived form with nothing held back and nothing reserved.

The promise

The verse continues: “Maybe your Lord will remove from you your evil and admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow.” (66:8) The word ‘maybe’ here “‘asa” is not expressing doubt. Classical scholars explain that when Allah uses this word, it carries the weight of near-certainty. It is the language of a generous host who says “perhaps you will have some more” while already reaching for the dish. The outcome of nasuha tawbah is not in question [more about this tomorrow Inshallah]

For Reflection

• Is there a resolution I have made before that I have allowed to soften? What would it mean to renew it today, with full intention?
• Is there a right of another person that I am avoiding addressing? What is one small step I could take?

PS: Did you know that this content is also available [in a bit more depth] as a podcast?

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/loving-and-living-the-quran/id1039955011

PPS: Here is a webpage with lots of resources for a meaningful Laylatul Qadr: https://www.livingthequran.org/blog/Resources%20for%20Laylatul%20Qadr