Question:
Asalam ulakum,
Some months ago a non-Muslim man who works with me came to me asking about Islam. I am a Muslimah. Nearly every other day he comes to my office in front the department wants to know certain things about Islam I calmly answer and then he walks away to come back again to know more.
He has admitted today, 24 years ago when he was with girl of a different colour, his parents didn’t accept that she was pregnant with his child as she was of a different race. He then asked her to terminate it as he didn’t want the child to suffer abuse from his parents all her life. He has regretted his decision and asks for forgiveness everyday for the past 24 years and does not believe he will ever forgive himself let alone Allah or the child forgiving him.
Please can you advise?
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Sayyidina `Umar (r), the second Caliph of Rasulullah (s), used to weep remembering how he buried one of his daughters in his days before entering Islam. Yet he was given glad tidings of Paradise, for his heart so changed upon entering Islam, that our Holy Prophet (s) said of him, “if there were to be another Prophet after me it would have been`Umar.” So let him not be overwrought for a sin, for as our Shuyukh teach, al-Islam yajib ma qablaha, entering Islam clears all sins, and entering Islam will clear that one and he will be as if a newborn child, insha-Allah. Allah said:
{Say: “O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.} (Surat az-Zumar, 39:53)
Taher Siddiqui
