Hope And Ask For Forgiveness From Sin

حَدَّثَنَا أَنَسُ بْنُ مَالِكٍ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ قَالَ اللَّهُ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ مَا دَعَوْتَنِي وَرَجَوْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ عَلَى مَا كَانَ فِيكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ لَوْ بَلَغَتْ ذُنُوبُكَ عَنَانَ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ اسْتَغْفَرْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ لَوْ أَتَيْتَنِي بِقُرَابِ الْأَرْضِ خَطَايَا ثُمَّ لَقِيتَنِي لَا تُشْرِكُ بِي شَيْئًا لَأَتَيْتُكَ بِقُرَابِهَا مَغْفِرَةً 

Has narrated to us Anas bin Malik RA he said;  I heard Rasulullah SAW said: "Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala said: "O son of Adam, if you hope and pray to Me, I will surely erase your past sins. I will not care about it anymore. O son of Adam, if your sins had reached as high as the sky and then you asked Me for forgiveness, I would have forgiven you, and I don't care. O son of Adam, if you come to Me with the guilt of the whole earth and then you meet Me without associating Me with anything, I will surely come to you with the forgiveness of the whole earth."

(HR Tirmizi NO: 3463)

Status: Hadith Hasan 

Learnings:

1. Allah SWT is Forgiving to His servants. 

2. As servants, we should always hope and pray to be forgiven for all our sins, whether small or big, sins that we are aware of or not. 

3. Allah SWT will forgive the sins of his servants except the sin of polytheism. 

وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا أَوْ يَظْلِمْ نَفْسَهُ ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرِ اللَّهَ يَجِدِ اللَّهَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا 

"And whoever does evil and wrongs himself, then he asks Allah for forgiveness, he will find Allah Most Forgiving and Most Merciful."

(QS. An Nisa': 110). 

4. Giving up on Allah's mercy and forgiveness is a major sin. Based on the Hadith narrated by Abdurrazaq: 

عن بن مسعود قال أكبر الكبائر الإشراك بالله والأمن من مكر الله والقنوط من رحمة الله واليأس من روح الله 

"On the part of Ibn Mas'ud, he said that among the greatest sins is committing shirk to Allah, feeling safe from Allah's wrath and feeling hopeless and despairing of Allah's forgiveness."

(HR. Abdurrozaq, 10: 460, also issued by Ath Thobroni. See Kitab Tawhid with tahqiq Shaykh Abdul Qodir Al Arnauth, p. 128). 

Try hard to ask for forgiveness from past sins and always hope for Allah's mercy and love.