**Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi said,
“A moment of heedlessness (guflah) for a Gnostic is a major sin; while a moment of witnessing Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) for a common (person) is a miracle.”
Imam ibn Ata’ illah al-Sakandari (Radi allahu anhu) (Shadhili) **tackles the issue of committing sins in his marvellous work ‘Taj al Arus’. He (r.a) says a sin (Masiya in Arabic) comes from Asa- to disobey.
You need to repent, not only from committing that actual sin, but you need to repent from disobeying Allah (swt). This is one point of why repentance doesn’t sometimes work for people, because they repent from the actual sin, they don’t repent from disobedience. What caused a person to commit a sin, apart from temptations/weakness/whispering of Shay’taan?
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What caused it is not having awe of Allah (swt) which causes you not to obey. That’s the major issue.
If you have awe, which stems from your love of Allah (swt) then you would not dare disobey. All of your temptations and desires in the sin disappear because of the awe and the love you have for Him (swt). **
Shaykh Imam Ahmad Zarruq (Radi allahu anhu)** Eminent Maliki and Shaykh of the Shadhili tariqa, speaks on the psychology of sin and our state of it.
A lot of people are stuck with one sin that they commit and they cannot get rid of it for the rest of their lives. You’re supposed to feel guilty a little bit enough to repent, a motive to come back to Allah (swt). The moment you come to Allah (swt), you should be overwhelmed by His (swt) bounty. The bounty of Allah (swt) is forgiveness, it should make you forget and get you out of the prison of your own sins. It should move you into understanding the beauties of the future. Thanking Allah (swt) for opening the door of forgiveness. This is very important to understand; sins may bring and take the right direction when you do tawbah from Allah (swt). There is a common Wird for people who commit sins and do tawbah but they think they cannot attain the tawbah, as they experience that they do the same sin again. If they cannot maintain the tawbah, they should repeat the recitation 500 times every day of ‘Ya Tawaab’ (It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes). Calling upon Allah (swt) and beseeching Him (swt) by this name, this attribute should help you maintain the state of tawbah.
After repentance saying:
‘I seek forgiveness of the Great (Al Adheem), from every great sin, from every sin we committed (min kulli dhanbin Adheem).’
We should then back up ourselves through the following:
When we see sinners commit something har’aam, thank Allah (swt) that we did not do it. A lot of people do this with arrogance; you should do it with humility.
We should recite;* ‘Praise be to Allah (swt) who kept me safe from this calamity’ afflicted upon this person and made me better than many He (swt) created’ [Dua also recited in Arabic].
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Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Berelwi (Radi allahu anhu)* practiced the above dua and wrote towards the end of his life, that he never had to go through what people went through when he recited this dua.