Why does hope matter? When we have the intention to restart or start a spiritual journey to Allah ﷻ we feel we are unworthy of Allah’s mercy. But rather, it is not a matter of our worthiness…
We might ask ourselves, does Allah’s Mercy and bounty stop when I stop performing good deeds? No. Allah’s ﷻ Mercy for all of creation, and especially the believers is far greater than any transgression we could make, and we have been told that His ﷻ Mercy prevails over His Wrath. So how can we possibly despair, and how could we not have hope?
“If God were to take humans immediately to task for all the evil that they do, He would not leave a single creature upon the face of the Earth” (16:61)
So it is not a matter of deserving or earning Allah’s mercy, but a matter of relying on His mercy despite one’s shortcomings, which must be accompanied by repentance from mistakes — this repentance and turning back to Allah ﷻ is how we receive Allah’s ﷻ mercy and we must have hope that we will be forgiven, for how can we despair in Allah’s ﷻ when He is Al-Ghafur, Al-Rahman, Al-Afuw, and Al-Raheem? Our flaws, shortcomings and mistakes should not stop us from working, hoping and expecting Allah’s mercy in Ramadhan.
So the second step to Allah ﷻ is to strengthen your hope in His Mercy and turn your heart to Him.
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Article inspired by Shaykh Zaqir’s classes