I first heard this hadith from my mom, may Allah bless her. It is sooo beautiful and a great reminder for anyone who has forgotten that we human beings were never meant to be angels, and that Allah loves us greatly. When you read this, your heart fills with joy and you get tears in your eyes. But aside from it being hopeful, one of my favorite things about it is how Allah actually has a sense of humor, how He isn’t the way some people portray Him (only the scary parts - don’t get me wrong, He is awesome and worthy of our fear - but it’s not the ONLY side of Him!) - how it is so matter-of-factly mentioned the slip-up of the human at the end, how He has so much Compassion and understanding for us (lol imagine a Muslim saying such a thing in front of most of the people nowadays - he’d have his head cut off in 2 seconds!). So to all of you who have lost all hope in your lives, who spend your time reflecting on evil and crying, read this and smile. :)

Imagine you are traveling through the desert with your horse, which has the only food and water for miles around. It is very hot and you are sweaty, dusty, and thirsty in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden, it seems your horse has run away. Imagine how upset you would be - most of us freak out if we lost our car keys or our passports - but in this situation,  it is CERTAIN DEATH. You frantically search for hours and finally feel hopeless and give up, but find unexpected relief! And so overwhelmed are you at your salvation you unintentionally say something blasphemous.

Now imagine God, who is Free of All Want, Who needs nothing, but is the Source of Everything, who does not have any weakness or dependency - is it really possible for Him to be happier than when you, who are weak and needy, finally get saved from a wretched death? This is how much your repentance, your return to Him, means. How many of us lowly creatures cannot forgive the petty slights of others while God is Above everything, Most Magnanimous. You are the runaway horse, the defiant and sinful slave, and when you decide to come back, God is there, pleased and welcoming. All Praise is for God, the Ever-Merciful!

Here is the original narration from the compilation by Imam Muslim:

“Allah has greater joy at the repentance of one His slaves when he turns towards Him than one of you would have over his mount, which, having escaped from him with his food and drink in the middle of the desert so that he has despaired of finding it and gone to a tree to lie down in its shade, suddenly appears standing by him while he is in that state, so that he takes its reins and then says out of the intensity of his joy, ‘O Allah, You are my slave and I am Your Lord!’ getting confused because of his intense joy.’”

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am and is filed under Islam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.