Within the past few days both the Islamic calendar and the Hebraic calendar have reached the time of the New Year. And the New Year is celebrated, and the New Year, in many traditions, including the English tradition, is a time of making resolutions for the next year, and it’s a time of asking forgiveness for what happened in the past year. So we are in a quest for forgiveness for our past and resolving to be appropriate in the future.
In the attempt to change for the future we set an intention that we will change. We say, “Forgive us for what we have done and we will attempt not to do that again.” So true repentance involves asking for forgiveness for what happened, but setting an intention not to repeat the fault, which means we have to, one, be conscious of the fault and it’s difficult for people to be conscious of their own faults.
Jesus said, “You see the speck in somebody else’s eye but you overlook the log in your own eye.”
The ability to ask for forgiveness is an important concept within religion. In Islam, whenever we begin a Zikr, the Zikr is almost always begun with, “Astaghfirullah al azeem, astaghfirullah al azeem.” What’s that mean? What’s the translation of that? “Forgive me, may Allah forgive me.”
So we, through the formulas that we recite, are reminded that we need to be forgiven. We don’t necessarily even have to think about it, but we just have to partake in the Zikr and it automatically is there for us. And this is one of the reasons for formulaic prayer, because it brings you to places where you might not go on your own. It takes you there, so that when you begin a Zikr and you begin with, “Astaghfirullah al azeem, God forgive me,” you put yourself in a place where you humble yourself. You humble yourself before the Lord immediately as you begin the prayer, and you being by acknowledging that He is the Master and you are the slave, and in that relationship you need forgiveness from Him.
In that request for forgiveness we also have to surrender because you can’t truly ask for forgiveness unless you’ve surrendered. “Forgive me.” What’s that mean? It doesn’t mean anything because the attitude towards forgiveness is not there.
Somehow we have to realize the smallness of our own existence and the smallness of our own being. Our sheikh would tell us, “I am the smallest among all of Allah’s creations; I am the most discarded of all of Allah’s creations.” Meanwhile we’re sitting there and he’s the one we’re taking our instructions from, and he’s the one we’re trying to learn from, and we’re hearing him say, “I am the smallest of Allah’s creations.”
Well, if he’s the smallest of Allah’s creations then who are we who are sitting there listening to him? Well, we’re the ones who need to begin to understand the nature of our creation and that’s why we’re sitting there. We’re the ones without knowledge of who we truly are and that’s why we need a guide to bring perspective to our situation and to who we really are…
