المغفرة

المغفرة

Divine forgiveness in the forty-second hadith — the last of al-Nawawi's Forty — is the widest promise God made His servants: 'son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and hope in Me, I forgive you whatever has issued from you, and I do not care; son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and then you sought My forgiveness, I would forgive you; son of Adam, were you to come to Me with an earthful of sins and then meet Me associating nothing with Me, I would come to you with an earthful of forgiveness' — from which Ibn Rajab drew three means by which it is won: supplication joined to hope, seeking forgiveness, and meeting God without association — so forgiveness answers sins however great, so long as they are free of shirk and met with hopeful supplication and sincere seeking of pardon (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 830–831).