The Sunday Guardian

Repentance is a means of mercy

- By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

The Creator has placed a special feature in human psyche—and that is what is called ‘repentance’. This special feature is particular­ly prominent in people of firm faith in God. Repentance is a wonderful means of mercy for human beings. This is referred to in the Quran (25:70) in these words: “God will change their evil deeds into good deeds.”

The transforma­tion that this Quranic verse refers to takes place because of the sincere repentance that wells up inside a person after he does something wrong.

A positive aspect of repentance is that it engenders a strong determinat­ion in a person to reform himself, and, after having done something wrong, to firmly walk on the path of goodness thereafter. It is this positive enthusiasm that follows from repentance that, in line with law of nature, changes an evil deed into a good one.

After doing an evil deed, one can choose to continue in the same path. In this case, this deed makes a person even more inclined to evil.

On the other hand, after committing an evil act, a person can choose another alternativ­e. He can engage in introspect­ion and then make up his mind not to engage in evil again.

He can decide that he will determined­ly walk on the path of goodness henceforth. If he does this, the evil deed that he has done becomes a factor that leads him to goodness.

It is this quality that converts the evil committed by a person of faith into something good.

The humble admission of one’s mistakes is very important in the process of one’s character developmen­t. Whena person is at fault andinstead of admitting his mistake, he tries to cover it up, he is creating obstacles in his moral growth. www.cpsglobal.org

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