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wa-lladhīna jāʾū min baʿdihim yaqūlūna rabbanā ghfir lanā wa-li-ʾikhwāninā lladhīna sabaqūnā bi-l-ʾīmāni wa-lā tajʿal fī qulūbinā ghillan li-lladhīna ʾāmanū rabbanā ʾinnaka raʾūfun raḥīmun
And [also for] those who came in after them, who say, ‘Our Lord, forgive us and our brethren who were our forerunners in the faith, and do not put any rancour in our hearts toward the faithful. Our Lord, You are indeed most kind and merciful.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Hashr - Verse 10
Qur’anic attestations of forgiveness and the related vocabulary exceed two hundred in number. It is incumbent upon us to invoke Allah for forgiveness and also ask Allah's friends to pray for our forgiveness. The blessed Verse treats of another group of early Muslims designated as Successors (tabi‘un) after the Qur’anic designation. Next to the Emigrants and the Helpers, they form the third largest group of Muslims. They are also praised by the enumeration of their virtues and merits. Firstly, they invoke God Almighty for forgiveness not only for themselves but also for their brethren. It alludes to the fact that true faith may not be tinged by self-conceit as a true believer wishes for himself what he does for others.
Secondly, another virtue of the believers is that all their virtuous attributes springs from their pure heart unadulterated by hatred and enmity against believers. It was in the same vein that believers in the early days of Islam invoked God Almighty to bestow purity upon their hearts and their prayer was seemingly answered such that they could united and defeat the enemies and raise the banner of the Islamic faith.
Today, we are indebted to them. Had we been treading the path of our ancestors, we would be pure in heart and our hearts would be unadulterated by covetousness, miserliness, hatred, envy, self-conceit, and other vices. Thus, we were even able to exceed our ancestors in making the Muslim community more prosperous and rid ourselves of the tyranny, disbelief, and bondage to unbelievers and cooperate with each other to add further glory to the Islamic faith and Muslims.
It is also worthy of note that the antecedent of
is seemingly
reflecting that the booties do not solely fall into the share of the Emigrants and the Helpers, but the Muslims in need down the centuries should have their own shares. The word
and invoking Allah, the Compassionate, the Most-Gracious reflects the spirit of love, purity, and brotherhood that should prevail over the Muslim community such that it is incumbent upon believers to wish all good things for themselves and others and all members of the Muslim community are supposed to cooperate for the good of the community. The Arabic word ghill denotes hatred, enmity, and covetousness.