Does Repentance Remain Mere Words? Making Amends, Surrender, and Seeing Blessings

22 December 2021

Question: Are admitting that we have done wrong and correcting that wrong the same thing?

Often, they are not.

Saying “I was mistaken” is a beginning.

But if we continue the same behavior after those words, what has changed?

Verses 160–164 of Surah Al-Baqarah give us the opportunity to reflect on repentance, making the truth clear, Allah’s oneness, and the signs in creation.

Let us not keep these reminders separate from our own lives.

Because repentance is not only looking at the past; it is turning toward behaving differently in the future.

Revealing the Truth Instead of Concealing It

Verse 160 of Surah Al-Baqarah speaks of people who repent, make amends, and clarify the truth.

Let us consider these expressions together.

There is repentance. There is correction. There is clarification.

There is a call to change that consists of more than merely feeling sorrow.

Question: When I recognize my mistake, do I truly try to correct it?

We may have spoken unjustly to someone.

Let us think of the Prophet Adam’s supplication.

After his mistake, we see a turning that accepts his own responsibility instead of placing the blame entirely on someone else.

Recognizing one’s own wrong also holds an important place in the Prophet Yunus’s supplication.

When reading these examples, let us not discuss only events that happened in the past.

Question: When I do wrong, whose mistakes do I list first?

In an argument, we may remember all the other person’s faults.

But we may not want to see where our own words have struck.

When we make a wrong decision at work, we may attribute the result solely to market conditions.

Sometimes we blame ourselves excessively and become unable to take any step.

There is a more rightful path between these two extremes.

Accepting our mistake, correcting it, and asking Allah for forgiveness.

Repentance requires both taking responsibility and turning again toward what is right.

Let regret not stop us; let it direct us toward repair.

Then we may feel regret within.

But if we carry on ignoring the wound caused by those words, our change remains incomplete.

We may have shared incorrect information in a business matter.

Others may have made decisions based on that information.

Then making the correct information clear is as important as acknowledging our mistake.

A similar situation may occur in a family.

When we wrong our child, let us not settle for feeling sad only within ourselves.

If necessary, let us be able to tell them we did wrong.

Apologizing sometimes weighs very heavily on an adult’s ego.

But this weight does not diminish the apology’s value.

Someone’s concealing a truth they know may affect more than themselves.

It may also influence the decisions of those around them.

That is why we should value honesty about knowledge.

Let us not speak definitively about a subject we do not know.

And when we recognize a mistake, let us not produce new excuses to defend it.

Speaking the truth sometimes means openly stating our own mistake as well.

Surrender to Allah, Human Responsibility

Verses 161–162 of Surah Al-Baqarah recall the consequences of disbelief and the weight of the reckoning.

Let us not read these expressions merely to judge others.

Let us think about the account of our own lives.

Which truth do we turn away from when we encounter it?

Being grateful may seem easy when a blessing comes.

But do we continue turning to Allah when the result we expect does not happen?

When we see a person in distress, we do not know their entire past.

We cannot understand why a family experiences poverty by looking from outside.

Nor can we place responsibility for a child’s hunger on the child.

Question: Is it right for me to judge the person before me without understanding their pain?

Let us not use other people’s suffering to confirm our own thinking.

Grave situations such as war, deprivation, and injustice can occur in the world.

At such times, the responsibility of those able to help should be considered more.

If we want to pray, let us pray. If there is concrete help we can give, let us not neglect that either.

Sometimes even a little support for someone close to us can carry great meaning.

Before someone else’s test, let us not forget our own.

Perhaps the question asked of us is not whether we know all the causes of that suffering, but what we do in response to the need we see.

Question: Does what we call surrender exist only when our life is comfortable?

Let us think about the tests experienced by the Prophet Ibrahim.

His not abandoning the path he knew to be right in the face of difficulty reminds us that surrender is not merely words.

When thinking of the hardships experienced by Hajar, we return to the same question.

Difficulty can show people both their fear and the support toward which they turn.

But there is an important balance here.

We cannot immediately blame someone in hardship.

We cannot say that we know with certainty the cause of another person’s suffering.

Let us think of families struggling with hunger in Yemen and children waiting for help.

We cannot easily explain their hardship from our own comfortable lives.

When we see a person’s pain, our first duty is not to judge them but to consider the help we can give.

Both praying and helping can belong within this responsibility.

When we encounter someone in need, let us not judge without knowing why they are in that situation.

If we can, let us lighten their burden.

We do not know all the unseen causes of every event that occurs in this world.

But it is within our power to consider whether our own behavior is right.

Instead of explaining other people’s tests, let us try to fulfill our own responsibility.

Our Lord Is One; the Blessings Are Many

Verse 163 of Surah Al-Baqarah recalls Allah’s oneness.

Then verse 164 lists the creation of the heavens and earth, the alternation of night and day, and other signs.

Let us consider this sequence.

On one side is Allah, who is One.

On the other are countless different blessings before our eyes.

We look at the sky. Rain falls.

We have become accustomed to ships traveling across the sea.

But let us think for a moment: People have learned the properties of water and built enormous vessels using this knowledge.

We have also become accustomed to rain bringing the earth to life.

We may find the changing landscape ordinary as we pass from one season to another.

Question: Should the existence of an order I know prevent me from reflecting on that order?

It is possible to learn scientific explanations. But learning does not have to remove wonder.

People’s ability to learn is itself a capacity worth reflecting on.

A plant growing, a ship traveling, and clouds moving are different events.

Verse 164 of Surah Al-Baqarah recalls all this variety together.

Blessings that we think have become ordinary when viewed individually show, when considered together, how many resources life depends on.

Gratitude calls us to recognize their value instead of becoming accustomed to these resources and forgetting them.

The earth comes to life with water. Plants grow.

Ships travel across the sea.

Winds blow, and clouds move.

We have become so accustomed to many of these things that we do not pause over them.

Yet the verse recalls that there are signs for people who use their reason.

Question: Do I truly notice what I see every day?

We are accustomed to water. But when deprived of it, we feel its value again.

We consider a morsel of bread ordinary. But when thinking of someone who cannot find food, we recognize something else.

We say we work and earn. But we do not always remember the health, opportunity, and time we have to work.

Seeing blessings can direct a person toward gratitude.

Gratitude, however, should not remain merely a word.

Not wasting food and using our resources with regard for someone else’s need also matter.

We acquire knowledge to understand how a ship can travel on water.

But we do not have to think an event we understand is no longer worth wondering at.

Knowledge and admiration are not enemies.

While learning how an event occurs, we can also reflect on the order that makes it possible.

Reading the Signs in Our Own Lives

Sometimes people see someone else’s success and feel sad, asking, “Why am I not like them?”

Sometimes they think of their own loss and forget all their blessings.

Yet we cannot measure our lives solely by what we do not possess.

Question: Which blessing have I forgotten to notice today?

It may be a family member. It may be our health.

It may be the opportunity to work or a person’s trust.

Let these blessings not distance us from responsibility.

Sometimes we approach someone who makes a mistake very harshly.

We want to define their entire future by a single action.

But when we do wrong ourselves, we expect another chance.

Question: Can I also consider for someone else the opportunity to make amends that I want for myself?

This does not mean considering everyone’s behavior right.

Nor does it mean ignoring the consequences of injustice.

But if someone acknowledges their mistake and works to make amends, this is worth noticing.

The idea of repentance and reform calls us not only to list our past wrongs but also to consider the direction in which we will turn today.

On the contrary, let them help us better understand the value of what we possess.

Believing in Allah’s oneness and tying the direction of our own life to a single worldly desire are not the same thing.

Money may matter. Work may matter.

But when we live our entire life solely to earn money, we may forget other values.

When hardship befalls someone, let us not immediately blame them.

When difficulty befalls us, let us not settle merely for complaining either.

Let us seek the right thing we can do.

Let us correct a mistake. Let us listen to someone’s troubles.

While praying, let us ask for good not only for ourselves but also for those around us.

Question: Through what behavior can I show today that I remember our Lord’s blessings?

Let us not look for the answer in grand words.

We can begin by clarifying a truth, turning away from a wrong, or helping someone.

May our Lord grant us the ability to repent, put our condition right, and recognize blessings.

Repentance that changes a person is not merely seeing yesterday’s mistake, but taking today’s step rightly.