Friday Nasiha

Quranic concept of Taubah is essentially an intimate, personal act. Indeed, it is more than an act. It reflects a moment of decision when one makes up one's mind to break with a course of action and simultaneously adopt another course.

Taubah is not merely the negation of the past; it is essentially a contract with the future. Taubah is personal in that no one else needs to know about it. You do not have to go into a confessional to make a clean breast of all your sins, nor do you have to appear in sack cloth and ashes to convince any authority that you have truly turned penitent. While punishment relates to the act of wrong and satisfies the social conscience, taubah deals with the wrongness of the act and satisfies the conscience of the individual concerned. Taubah is the result of man's understanding of the wrongness of an act and his determination not to repeat the act. Once he has come to this decision he turns to God for mercy and forgiveness.

This process of repentance and forgiveness started with Adam. When Adam violated the covenant he found himself exposed. He desperately tried to cover himself but was transfixed as it were, by a cosmic eye. In mute helplessness he turned to God for mercy.