In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The story of our mother Hawwa (Eve).
O Hawwa.
Sincere repentance is followed by guidance.
O Hawwa.
You are today in a blessed month.
And in a blessed night.
And in the last ten nights of Ramadan.
And the fact that you have reached Ramadan,
means you have attained much good.
Just as the Prophet, peace be upon him, gave glad tidings of this.
For it is narrated from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:
There were two men from the tribe of Bali,
which is a clan of the Quda'ah tribe.
They embraced Islam with the Prophet, peace be upon him.
One of them was martyred,
and the other lived for a year longer.
Talhah Ibn 'Ubayd Allah said:
I saw Paradise in a dream,
and I saw the one who lived longer
entering before the martyr.
I was amazed by that.
When I woke up, I mentioned it to the Prophet, peace be upon him,
or it was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:
"Has he not fasted Ramadan after him,
and prayed six thousand rak'ahs,
or such and such number of Sunnah prayer rak'ahs?"
Narrated by Ahmad.
The first was killed as a martyr in the cause of Allah,
and the second died in his bed,
but he remained for a year after him praying,
and he reached Ramadan,
so he surpassed him in reward,
and his rank in Paradise was elevated.
So you, O Hawwa, are today
in a state of great blessing,
which is reaching the month of Ramadan and fasting it.
This blessing requires gratitude.
And part of showing gratitude for this blessing
is repenting from sins,
and resolving to continue in righteous deeds after Ramadan,
such as reciting the Qur'an,
performing whatever is possible of the night prayer,
and other righteous deeds
that have been newly introduced into your life
because of the arrival of the month of Ramadan.
O Hawwa,
many people repent during Ramadan,
because of the means of guidance Allah has prepared for them,
such as the chaining of the devils,
the opening of the gates of Paradise,
the liberation from the Fire,
and other such causes.
But after Ramadan,
they return to what they were upon
of committing forbidden acts,
or abandoning acts of obedience,
such as forsaking the Qur'an,
delaying the prayers,
or abandoning them entirely,
or other such things.
So this repentance, O Hawwa,
which occurs in Ramadan,
if it is not sincere,
it may not be accepted.
And the sign of sincere repentance
is that you are, after the repentance,
better than you were before it.
This is what we have learned
from the story of our mother Hawwa
with our father Adam, peace be upon him.
Allah the Almighty says:
﴾Then Satan whispered to him﴿
saying, "O Adam,
shall I direct you to
the tree of eternity
and a kingdom that does not deteriorate?"
So they both ate from it,
and their private parts became apparent to them,
and they began
to fasten together
and they began
to fasten together
over themselves from the leaves of Paradise.
And Adam disobeyed
his Lord
and erred.
Then his Lord chose him,
and turned to him in forgiveness,
and guided him.
Abu Zahrah said,
may Allah have mercy on him:
The word "then" (thumma) implies
sequence and a lapse of time,
indicating the distance
between the two ranks:
the rank of disobedience and error,
and the rank of being chosen,
and guidance.
Being chosen (al-ijtiba') is selection
and purification.
He was chosen initially
by being made the first of His creation,
and he was chosen a second time
by being selected for the test.
And He accepted his repentance from this
disobedience that he committed.
So Allah the Almighty returned
to him with forgiveness,
as he returned to Him with the feeling
of his error.
And Allah the Almighty returned
to him with forgiveness,
and then with guidance thereafter.
This meaning points
to the fact that error is in the nature
of the human being, and repentance
is the character of the guided.
And Allah the Almighty is Forgiving,
Merciful.
After the sin our mother Hawwa committed,
which was eating from the tree,
the one who caused
this sin
was Satan,
for he always strives to lead
the human being astray.
But this sin also
was a cause for the repentance
of our mother Hawwa and her guidance.
Al-Sa'di said,
may Allah have mercy on him:
"He was, after the repentance, better than he was before it."
And the plot of the enemy turned
against him, and his deception failed.
Thus, the blessing was completed for him
and for his descendants,
and it became incumbent upon them to uphold it
and to acknowledge it,
and to be on guard
against this enemy who is lying in wait,
accompanying them night and day.
And Ibn Taymiyyah said,
may Allah have mercy on him:
"Adam repented and turned back to Allah,"
and he and his wife said:
﴾Our Lord, we have wronged
ourselves,
and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us,
we will surely be among the losers.﴿
So Allah accepted his repentance,
chose him, and guided him,
and sent him down to the earth
to work therein by His obedience,
so that Allah might raise
his rank thereby,
and his entry into Paradise
after this would be more perfect
than it was before.
So whoever among the children of Adam commits a sin,
and follows the example of his father Adam
in repentance, he will be successful.
And if he repents, believes, and does righteous deeds,
Allah will replace
his evil deeds with good deeds,
and he will be, after the repentance,
better than he was before the sin,
like all the allies of Allah,
the righteous.
O Hawwa,
your state after repentance
reveals the extent of the sincerity
of your repentance.
And your state after Ramadan
reveals the sincerity of your deeds,
your repentance, and your supplication.
Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"This is why you find
the sincere repentant person
more steadfast in obedience,
more desirous of it,
and more cautious of sin
than many of those
who have not been tested with a sin.
Repentance may even
result in good deeds for him
that would not be attained by one who was not
like him, repentant from sin.
And we do not say
that everyone who sins and repents
is better than one who did not commit
that sin;
rather, this varies according to
the states of people.
For among people are those who become
better after repentance,
and among them are those who return to what they were,
And among them are those who do not return
to their former state.
As for these three categories,
among them is one who is superior
to one who did not sin and repent.
Among them is one who is equal to him,
and among them is one who is inferior to him.
Ibn al-Qayyim,
may Allah have mercy on him, explains the words of his teacher,
Ibn Taymiyyah, saying:
"This depends on the strength
of the repentance and its perfection,
and what the sin has produced
in the servant in terms of humility, submissiveness,
turning back to Allah, caution,
fear of Allah,
and weeping out of fear of Allah."
For these matters may strengthen
until the repentant person
returns to a rank higher than his previous one,
and he becomes, after
his repentance, better than he was
before the sin.
Thus, the sin may be,
in his case, a mercy,
for it purged from him the disease of vanity,
and freed him from his self-reliance
and his pride
in his own deeds.
It placed his cheek of supplication, humility,
and brokenness
upon the threshold of the door of his Master
and Protector.
It made him know his own capacity,
and made him witness his need
for his Master’s protection of him,
for His pardon,
and for His forgiveness.
It cast out from his heart
the arrogance of obedience,
and humbled his pride so that he would not boast
of it, or become arrogant through it,
or see himself through it
as better than others.
It caused him to stand before his Lord
in the position of the sinful, the erring,
with head bowed
before his Lord,
ashamed and fearful of Him,
viewing his own obedience as insignificant,
and viewing his disobedience as grave.
He recognized himself
by deficiency and blameworthiness,
while his Lord is unique
in perfection, praise,
and faithfulness.
So this category, O Hawwa',
is the one that benefited from its sin
through sincere repentance,
so Allah guided him to the truth,
and his states changed
for the better,
and the signs of guidance appeared upon him.
May Allah make me and you
of this category.
We shall continue in a
future meeting, if Allah wills.
And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
The story of our mother Hawwa'.