Brothers and Sisters! In today’s khutbah, I wish to share with you some thoughts on the topic: “How to Stop Sinning.” What is sin? According to a hadith, “Sin is that which causes discomfort within your soul and which you dislike that people should come to know of it.” Sin consists in transgressing the bounds set by Allah (SWT).
According to Imam al-Ghazali (Rahimahullah), the instruments by which sins are committed are the seven parts of a man’s body: the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the stomach, the private parts, the hands and the feet, and one should guard one’s entire body, especially these seven parts. These body parts are in fact Allah’s gift to man, and a trust committed to him. They are created to be used for good purposes; but by making wrong use of them man commits sins.
Making mistakes and committing sins are a part of human nature and no one will be free of it. All of us fall short, commit sins, and make mistakes. We know that man is weak.
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُخَفِّفَ عَنْكُمْ وَخُلِقَ الإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفًا
“Allah wants to lighten your burden as human beings were created weak.” (an-Nisa, 4:28)
The Prophet (S) said: “Every son of Adam sins, and the best of those who sin are those who repent.” So out of His mercy, the most merciful has opened the gate of repentance for us so that we can turn to Him every time we sin.
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
“Say, O my servants, who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of Allah’s mercy. Surely Allah forgives all sins. He is truly the most forgiving, the most merciful.”(az- Zumar, 39 :53)
وَمَن يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا أَوْ يَظْلِمْ نَفْسَهُ ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرِ اللّهَ يَجِدِ اللّهَ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا
“He who does evil or wrongs himself but afterwards seeks Allah’s forgiveness; he will find Allah very forgiving and merciful.” (an-Nisa, 4:110)
And the Prophet (S) said: “Allah spreads out His hand at night to accept the repentance of the one who sinned during the day, and He spreads out His hand by day to accept the repentance of the one who sinned during the night, (and that will continue) until the sun rises from the west.” (Related by Muslim). So here’s what one can do:
- Make Sincere Taubah. It is essential that we should turn to Allah and repent to Him. We should make sincere taubah and try our best to stay away from the sin that we are committing. Sincere repentance requires some conditions in order for it to be accepted. These are: Give up the sin right away. Regret that you did it, and have firm resolve never to go back to it. If any one of these three is missing, then the repentance is not sincere.
And if the sin has to do with the rights of another person, then there is a fourth condition in addition to the three mentioned above. And that is, restoring the rights of that person or seeking his forgiveness.
- Make sincere Dua to Allah and ask Him to keep you away from whatever it is that you’re doing. Cry over your sin, beg Him for His Mercy and ask Him to guide you, to give you strength to stay away from bad deeds and set your heart right.
- Pay special attention to your obligatory deeds, especially praying the five obligatory prayers. Allah says:
وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ
“And establish the prayer. Verily, the prayer prevents from Al-Fahsha and Al-Munkar.” (al-Ankabut, 29:45).
Al-Fahsha includes every kind of indecency, lewdness, obscenities, unlawful sexual intercourse, etc. Al-Munkar includes disbelief, polytheism, and every kind of wicked deed.
- We should read the Qur’an while trying to understand its meaning. Most of us don’t understand the Qur’an. We must know what our Rabb is saying to us? How would we know what is pleasing to Allah and what is not? How would we know what is good in His eyes and what is bad? So our iman (faith) gets low, and we become an easy target for the Shaytan and thus we continue to sin. We must start reading the Qur’an with meaning, even if it is just a few verses a day. It is better for us and more pleasing to Allah if we understand whatever we read and then implement it in our lives than to keep on reading without understanding and without implementing the teachings of the Qur’an in our lives.
- We must exert ourselves to do as many good deeds as possible, the more we do the better, for Allah says:
إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّـيِّئَاتِ
“Indeed the good deeds remove the evil deeds.” (Hud, 11:114)
Also, if we are busy doing good deeds, we won’t find time to do bad deeds. Besides, by keeping ourselves busy with good deeds, we will feel happy and peaceful. This will boost our iman and we’ll bad about our sins and mistakes and think twice before try to go back to them.
- We should also make it a point to stay away from bad company. This is very important. We should stay away from people who do bad things and don’t fear Allah. Stay away from those who helped you to commit any sin. There are so many cases in which people have gone back to sin because they resumed relationships with their former companions.
The Prophet (S) said: “A man will be on the path of his close friends, so pay attention to who you make friends with.” And he (S) said: “The likeness of a righteous companion is that of the seller of musk: either he will give you a gift, or you will buy something from him, or you will smell a pleasant fragrance from him. And the likeness of an evil companion is that of the man who works the bellows: either he will burn your garment, or you will smell an unpleasant odor from him.” (Bukhaari)
Bad friends will curse one another on the Day of Resurrection and run away from each other. So we should keep away from them and break off your friendship with them before they run away from us on the Day of Judgment. Allah says:
الأَخِلاَّءُ يَوْمَئِذٍ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ إِلاَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ
“Friends on that Day will be enemies to one another except the god-fearing ones.” (az-Zukhruf, 43:67)
We should choose righteous friends who will help us against our evil desires and who will be an excellent beneficial alternative to bad company. We should try to attend the masjid regularly, join a class to increase our Islamic knowledge and try to fill our time with beneficial things. This will help us to drive away the Shaytan who keeps whispering evil thoughts.
- One should also keep away from places of sin. That’s because going to such places may remind one of the momentary pleasure of past sins and make him or her fall into that sin again.
- It is also good to seek professional help if one becomes a victim of addiction be it substance abuse, lewd music, pornography, and other addictions.
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ المُسْلِمينَ وَالمُسْلِمَاتْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
We should be making duas asking Allah’s forgiveness for our sins and our shortcomings. There are so many duas. Duas should be made with feelings and sincerity. The important thing is to understand these duas and open our hearts to Allah (SWT) while asking for His help and forgiveness. Among many other duas, some are the following:
رَبِّ اغْفِرْ وَارْحَمْ وَأَنْتَ خَيْرُ الرَّاحِمِينَ
“My Lord! Forgive and show mercy, for you are the Best of those who show mercy!”
رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَإِسْرَافَنَا فِي أَمْرِنَا
“Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and transgressions (in keeping our duties to You).”
رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَتُبْ عَلَيَّ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الْغَفُورُ
“My Lord, forgive me and accept my repentance, for You are the Acceptor or Repentance, the All-Forgiving).”
The Prophet (S) said: “The best prayer for seeking forgiveness is to say:
اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِّي لا إِلَهَ إِلا أَنْتَ خَلَقْتَنِي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ وَأَنَا عَلَى عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا صَنَعْتُ أَبُوءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَيَّ وَأَبُوءُ لَكَ بِذَنْبِي فَاغْفِرْ لِي فَإِنَّهُ لا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلا أَنْتَ
“O Allah, you are my Lord. None has the right to be worshipped but you. You created me and I am your slave, and I am faithful to my covenant and my promise (to you) as much as I can. I seek refuge with you from all the evil I have done. I acknowledge before you all the blessings you have bestowed upon me, and I confess to you all my sins. So I beg you to forgive my sins, for nobody can forgive sins except you.”
“Whoever says this during the day, having faith in it and dies before the evening comes, will be among the people of Paradise, and whoever says it during the night, having faith in it, and dies before the morning comes, will be among the people of Paradise.” (Bukhari).
