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qul yā-ʿibādiya lladhīna ʾasrafū ʿalā ʾanfusihim lā taqnaṭū min raḥmati llāhi ʾinna llāha yaghfiru dh-dhunūba jamīʿan ʾinnahū huwa l-ghafūru r-raḥīmu
Say [that Allah declares,] ‘O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed Allah will forgive all sins. Indeed, He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Zumar - Verse 53
53. Say “O My servants who have transgressed against [and wronged] yourselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: verily, Allah forgives all sins, since He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Gracious.”
Pursuant to the recurrent warning to polytheists and wrong doers mentioned in the preceding Verses, the blessed Verse in question provides all sinners with the hope of turning to Allah Almighty, since the main goal behind all them is to guide man toward Him rather than hostility and vengeance. Proclaiming His Boundless Mercy, Forgiving, and Love to all, He says:
He is Oft-Forgiving and Most Compassionate. Reflection on the meaning of the Verse indicates that It is the most promising Verse addressed to all sinners. According to a tradition narrated from the Commander of the Faithful, Imam ‘Ali (as), the extent of its implication is such that
“No Verse may be found throughout the Holy Qur’an to be more inclusive than this one.” 28
The reason is crystal clear since:
1. The phrase:
is a beacon of Divine Favor.
2. The employment of the word:
in the senses of “wrong, sin, and crime” is another Divine Favor.
3. The phrase:
designates that man is the source of all his sins. It also makes a reference to Divine Love, since it may be likened to a father addressing his child and saying unto them: “Do not inflict so many wrongs on yourself!”
4. The negative imperative verbal form
is also worthy of note since
is originally employed in the sense of despair of good but connotes that sinners are not supposed to despair of Divine Favor.
5. The phrase:
following the clause:
lays further emphasis on good and love.
6. The clause:
opened with the emphatic particle inna and taking into account the plural definite noun al-dhunub (“the sins) which includes all sins, the Promise reaches its zenith and the sea of Divine Mercy becomes full of waves.
7. Hopefulness reaches its climax with the adverb of manner
8 and 9. The two promising Divine Beautiful Names:
and
at the close of the Verse leave no room for the least despair and hopelessness. Taking the above into consideration, we notice that it is the most inclusive Qur’anic Verse encompassing Divine Forgiveness of all sins as a consequence of which it is considered as the most promising Qur’anic Verses. One may not expect otherwise from God Almighty Whose Ocean of Mercy is Boundless. His Graciousness exceeds His Wrath and has created His servants to bestow His Mercy upon them rather than subject them to His Wrath and Torment. God Almighty is the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, and the Most Loving.
Man may not expect otherwise. Two questions have preoccupied exegets that their solutions lie in the Verse in question and the following One. Firstly, does the Verse include all sins, even polytheism and grave sins as well? If so, what is the reason behind the exclusion of the sin of polytheism among those to be forgiven by God Almighty according to which:
The other question concerns whether the Divine Promise as to Forgiving is conditional upon repentance and the like. However, the two questions are interrelated and the response may be found the following Verses, since the latter contain three illuminating injunctions:
and
The three injunctions inform us that the gates of Divine Forgiving and Mercy are open to all servants provided that following committing sins, they perceive that they have sinned and change their course toward Divine Threshold, submit to His Command, show their sincerity in their repentance through doing righteous good deeds. Thus, it becomes known that neither polytheism nor any other sin is excluded and its conditionality upon Divine All-Embracing Mercy is indubitable.
Regarding the aforementioned Verse30 as to the exclusion of polytheists from Divine Mercy it is worthy of note that the exclusion is applicable to those passing away as polytheists rather than those who wake up and tread of the Path of Truth since almost all Muslims in the first days of Islam used to be polytheists. Taking into account the state of many a sinner who following committing sins turn so grieved and regretful that they may never assume that there might be a path of return for them and consider themselves to be too impure to be absolved from their impurities, inquiring whether their sins might be forgiven and if there might be a path of return toward God Almighty, we may well comprehend the meaning of the Verse.
They are willing to repent in any way but consider their sins as unforgivable, particularly when they repented many a time but broke their repentance. The Verse in question serves as a source of hope to them all. It is reported that upon his conversion to the Islamic faith, Wahshi, the notorious criminal in the history of Islam and the slayer of Hamza, the Chief of the Martyrs, was afraid that his repentance may not be accepted since his sin was too grave; however some exegets maintain that the blessed Verse in question was sent down opening the gates of Divine Mercy Wahshi and the like.
Footnotes