Tawwab as an identity [2:222]

We have been talking about returning to Allah [swt] by doing Tawba. The ending of this verse from Sura Baqara reminds us that Tawba is not a one time event. 

إِنَّ اللّهَ يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ 

[Shakir 2:222] surely Allah loves those who turn much (to Him), and He loves those who purify themselves.

The word Allah uses in this verse is tawwab, a grammatical form in Arabic that indicates repetition, continuity, habit. The one who keeps returning. The one for whom return is not an emergency response to exceptional failure but a regular, ongoing movement of the soul. Scholars explain that this verse is saying that Allah [swt] loves all forms of turning towards Him [and all forms of physical and spiritual purification] and He loves repeated repentence and repeated cleanliness. 

Sometimes we tend to think of tawba as something we do when we have fallen badly or when something serious has happened and we need to seek forgiveness. And of course it includes that. But the tawwabeen that Allah [swt] loves are not defined by having fallen once and recovered. They are defined by a disposition: they are people who keep coming back. Whose relationship with Allah includes regular, honest return. Whose inner compass, when it stirs, is listened to quickly and results in a realignment to the path.

Becoming beloved

This verse tells us that becoming Tawwab is to become the Beloved of God. Imam Khumayni in his commentary on the Hadith of Tawba, describes all the difficulty of tawba, all its conditions and requirements. And he ends by saying: “if he is sincere in his repentance, he becomes the beloved of God.”

The beloved of God. Not the tolerated, not the pardoned, not the one whose slate has been wiped, though of course it includes all of that. The beloved. And then he reflects: “Only God knows what spiritual resplendence and what flares of perfection make up the Hereafterly form of that love, and only God knows how He shall treat His beloved ones.”

Wowww – give me some of that Hereafterly form of Divine Love PLEASE! 

Tawbah as spiritual rhythm

Our tradition has always understood that the believer’s life is not a straight line of ascent. It is a spiral. We rise, we drift, sometimes fall, we notice, we return, we rise again. Most of us have lived experience of this right? Our level of faith and commitment tends not to be that consistent [speaking for myself]. 

The prophets in the Quran repent not because they committed sins, but because they understood their own smallness before Allah and the inevitability of human imperfection. Even the greatest among us needed to keep turning back.

Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (as), in Dua at-Tawbah (Dua #31, Sahifa Sajjadiyya), asks for something that captures this perfectly: 

“Make this repentance of mine a repentance after which I will not need a repentance, a repentance that necessitates the wiping out of what has passed, and safety in what remains.” He is not asking to never need to return again in the sense of never being human. He is asking for a tawbah so complete, so nasuha, that it transforms the direction of travel permanently. The one who makes such a tawbah does not eliminate the need to keep returning. They simply establish returning as their natural orientation.

The Prophet (saw) is reported to have said: there are four signs of the repentant: sincerity in actions, the shunning of falsehood, firm attachment to truth, and eagerness to do good. These are not descriptions of someone who has completed a process because we cannot really “complete” any of these. They are descriptions of someone who is living oriented, awake, in motion. In other words all these are daily practices rather than a one time project.

The inner compass we have been training all month through understanding fitrah, through the states of the nafs, through the recognition of moral drift, through accountability and correction and community, all of it has been building toward this. A compass that not only detects misalignment, but knows the way home. And keeps going back. Again and again and again. 

For Reflection

• Can I think of a moment this Ramadan when I drifted and then consciously returned even in a small way? Can I honour that movement rather than dismissing it? [It is very important to let positive and worthy moments be savoured so that they sink into our nervous systems]
• What would it look like for me to carry tawbah forward after Ramadan as a regular spiritual practice? 

PS: Did you know that this content is also available [in a bit more depth] as a podcast?

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/loving-and-living-the-quran/id1039955011

PPS: Here is a webpage with lots of resources for a meaningful Laylatul Qadr: https://www.livingthequran.org/blog/Resources%20for%20Laylatul%20Qadr