-Sin-

"If sins had an odour, no one would come near me because of my stench."

I just learned that the word “sin” is an archery term for missing the target.

When an archer fires his arrow and misses the bull’s eye, the score keeper would yell, “YOU SINNED”

In Arabic, sin is translated to be Khata’.

Khata’ literally means mistake.

Khata’ is also used to indicate that an archer has missed his target.

Just as how I had explained here that the Arabic word “Sabar” is a word that is derived from the action of holding your horses from running astray... It is then used to describe the action that we must have to control our nafs and anger, just like a wild horse.

Back to the word “sin”.  

Why is sin used to indicate that we have missed the bull’s eye? It is because if you don’t sin, you are on spot on. You target and goal is clear and you can reach it. It means that you want to do something right but you are swayed off tangent until you miss your original mark.

And Islam came to teach you that mark. It sets out the boundaries in life so that you know your mark and if you step out of the boundary, you are off the mark... you have sinned.

Here’s another eye opener. Notice that the word sin is never used in television anymore? It’s like a word we all know but is never used in the media.

Have you ever done something wrong and then repent and during that short period of time you repent continuously and it continues for a couple of months. And then you get bored of repenting and you start to thank Allah for all the blessings that you have been enjoying from Him. This goes on for another couple of months.

Then you start to think and feel as though you are in the safe zone under Allah's full protection that you get lazy to wake up in the middle of the night to thank Him. Slowly you start to drift away from Him and WHAM!!! You start sinning the same old shit all over again.

You missed your mark again.

And if you are lucky to still be alive and have the opportunity, you repent and the cycle goes on.

If you are unlucky, you start to feel as though you are just cheating God and that your repentance is not sincere because you keep sinning the same sin again. How could your repentance be accepted if you do the same thing again?

Be careful my friend. Iblis has this manipulative way of pulling you astray from the straight path. He’s been doing it from Prophet Adam AS’s time and he ain’t gonna stop till its the end of the world (read here and here.) Then when the Day of Judgment comes and we all blame him for our sin, he would say, “No no no, I just whispered. You were the one who did that sin. Don’t blame me man!”

My advice is to never stop repenting.

It doesn’t matter if you keep on repeating the same mistake over and over and over again. Because your repentance is for a past action. It may become a tool to remind you not to do the same mistake in the future but it is meant to be for your past action.

It would be unfair to tawbah if you use it as an indicator for future action when it’s primary task is to eliminate previous sin.

And after making that repentance, remember:

Stop sinning, Big or Small,

That for you is piety,

And be like he, who walks on a land full of thorns,

Watching everything he sees,

Walking carefully.

Don’t belittle a small sin,

Surely mountains are made of specs of dust...

(the poem above was first mention in IMC here.)

May Allah forgive us all and protect us from missing the bull’s eye.

Blog adjourned.