 When you seek the forgiveness of Allah, اللہ سبحانہ و تعالیٰ says to his angels, look at my worshippers seeking my forgiveness. You know there is a narration of the Prophetﷺ which I derive lots of comfort from. I share it with you today. A man commits a sin, he seeks forgiveness, Allah forgives him. Now when you seek forgiveness, you have to promise Allah that you are not going to do the sin again. Say for example I was involved in a sin. We are all human, we are all commit sin. If I was involved in a sin and I say oh Allah forgive me. Well there are certain conditions Allah tells us you want my mercy. You need to do a deed known as seeking that forgiveness properly. So number one you must regret your sin, regret it. Oh Allah I regret what I did. I admit what I did. I seek your forgiveness that's number three and I promise you not to do it again. Number four. Once four conditions are met. Masha Allah you have called upon the mercy of Allah. Allah says I have forgiven you. Never ever has Allah said we reject those who seek forgiveness. Not once in the Quran or in the Sunnah. Does it say that Allah says that he will not forgive those who seek forgiveness. Never. In fact the Quran has a verse that is known as the verse which has the most mercy in it. سورت زمر اللہ says say oh Muhammedﷺ tell my worshippers. Tell my worshippers who have committed sin against themselves. Those who have wronged themselves. Tell them never lose hope in the mercy of Allah. For indeed Allah is most forgiving most merciful. He will forgive all your sins. All of them develop a relationship with Allah. You don't need to come to me to confess your sin. You don't need to go to another person to confess a sin. You need to confess it to Allah alone in the darkness of the night or in the brightness of the day. You need to make sure that you have done that deed. When you seek the forgiveness of Allah he will forgive you. So here is the man. He seeks forgiveness of Allah promising never to do it again. But somehow he fell into it again. It happens to us. We seek the forgiveness of Allah. Oh Allah I am never going to commit the sin again. After 2-3 years sometimes you find yourself committing the same sin again because you are a human being. So what happens immediately? He seeks the forgiveness of Allah again. Oh Allah forgive me. I admit I regret. I did wrong. Forgive me. I am never going to do it again. He was forgiven by Allah a second time. And after some time he commits the same sin again. Subhan Allah. And you know what? He seeks the forgiveness of Allah for a third time. Allah tells the angels. My worshiper now knows that he has a lord who can either punish him or forgive him. I want you to bear witness that I have forgiven him completely. Look at the mercy of Allah. This is a worshiper of mine. What does he recognize? He recognizes that he has a lord who can punish him. Allah says if you do bad deeds you will be punished. And Allah says if you do good deeds you will see the goodness of your deeds. So this is the mercy of Allah where he says my worshiper finally knows that he has a lord who can do this or that. I want you to bear witness that I have forgiven him completely forgiven. Subhan Allah. May Allah forgive us. So Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ says something very interesting in the Qur'an. It's one of the most important verses. He says اللہ سبحانہ و تعالیٰ will never forgive شرک. He will never forgive those who worship deities with him or besides him. He will never forgive association of partnership with him. But besides that he will forgive anything he wishes to forgive. Many of us don't understand the interpretation of that verse. Some people think it means that when you commit شرک there is no Taoba for you. There is no seeking of forgiveness for you. No my brothers, my sisters. This verse is referring to those who die upon the condition where they have not sought forgiveness from the sins they have committed. So that which is in association of partnership with Allah is in one category. It is in a category where Allah says listen this I don't want to forgive it. But anything else that was committed and you did not seek the forgiveness of Allah and you died in that condition. For as long as you did not associate partners with Allah سبحانہ و تعالیٰ the mercy of Allah may dictate. It may dictate that he wants to forgive you completely and he doesn't care and he doesn't mind. And what is the evidence of what I've just said now. The Sahabar of the Allah who themselves the bulk of those in Makkah were pure mushriqs before they accepted Islam. Remember that. They worshiped sticks and stones and idols and everything else besides Allah. What happened? Did they lose hope to say oh I committed shirk so there's no forgiveness for me. They accepted Islam. The minute they accepted Islam. الإسلام و يجب مقبلہ. Islam deletes that bad which you did before it. The good is carried forward. The bad is deleted. It's better than the day you were born. The day you were born there was no good no bad. The day you accepted Islam the good continues. The bad is deleted. The same applies when you make Hajj. The same applies when you engage in Taoba. When you seek the forgiveness of Allah. Allah says I will forgive you. How does Allah forgive you? He doesn't give you a clean slate. No. He deletes the bad but the good continues. Allah is great. So much so that sometimes he actually changes the bad into good. Allah is great. Have you ever heard that verse? سورت الفرقان Allah says Those who have sought forgiveness from their sins. You know what? If they did good deeds thereafter. If they changed their lives after seeking forgiveness. Allah says for those because of their good deeds. Because they did good deeds after they sought the forgiveness of Allah. You see when you seek the forgiveness of Allah he forgives you. But when you seek the forgiveness of Allah and change your life. Then he takes those bad deeds he says bring them here bring them here. We will convert these bad deeds into good deeds and put them on the right side of the scale. On the day of judgment let this person see that even the bad they did. If it led them to do the best of deeds thereafter. We are going to say those were actually good deeds. It's okay. It's a bonus from us. Why? Because of your deeds. That's our topic. Look at how the deeds have invoked the mercy of Allah. The deeds have brought forth the mercy of Allah. Because you did deeds after seeking the forgiveness of Allah. That's why I tell people who say if I seek the forgiveness of Allah. Will I have a clean slate? No you won't. You won't. You will have better than a clean slate. Why? When you say clean slate it means you formatted the hard drive. You know when a person has cancer. May Allah SWT cure all those who have any disease. When you do chemotherapy what does it do for you? It destroys the good and the bad. Everything is gone. It restarts. It's like when you restore factory settings on your phone. All your contacts and everything good is also gone. But there needs to be a way where you can select a few things you want to keep and the rest you formatted. Right? Allah does that for you. Some people say that Allah SWT is not merciful. How can that happen? How can we think that? How can we think that? He is the most merciful. He will give you a bonus. So much so that Allah says do you know what? When you do a deed and you can bring it with you on the day of judgment. My mercy will multiply it for you by ten and even more than ten. Whoever comes on the day of judgment notice the word جاہ. جاہ is a very very important word for me. It is the most important word in that verse is جاہ. Why جاہ? Because Allah didn't say whoever does the deed. Allah didn't say من عملہ. But he said whoever comes with the deed. It means they did it and they protected it. Those are the two things I'm talking about when you want to earn the mercy of Allah. You don't just do the Torah. You do the deeds after the Torah. Your life changed. Allah says in that case bonus for you. Mashallah you have a lot.