It’s not for no reason that we begin every prayer with the phrase, ‘Allah is the greatest!’ It serves as a constant reminder to us, that He truly is grander and more magnificent than anything we can ever conjure up. We as humans have a bad habit…well, we have lots of bad habits, but there is one in particular that I am referring to, and that is our tendency to sin. Attached to that, is a problem.

When we sin we are in a different mind frame. (Though that’s no excuse for the sin!) The problem with our mind set at the time of sin, is that we believe Allah is far, even though we know He is closer to us than our jugular veins. We also tend to undermine the greatness of Allah at the time of sin. Think about it, if we did not undermine the greatness of Allah, and we were fully aware of His Lordship over us, would we ever fall into sin in the first place? No, because we would be afraid of His Might, and motivated by His Grandeur. Allah has strategically allocated the timings for Salah as a reminder for us; that is He is the Greatest and we are in servitude to Him. Every prayer is an opportunity for repentance, and a time for us to humble ourselves before the Lord of the worlds.

Our inability to grasp the greatness of Allah may act as a barrier preventing us from repentance or hindering our repentance. We have to be aware of Allah, and get to know Him. The more we know Him, the more we comprehend His greatness, the more we will humble ourselves before Him and seek out His forgiveness and pleasure.

Repentance is a duty upon us for every sin we commit, and every ungratefulness that we exhibit. We are blessed by Allah in countless ways, and yet we are not thankful to Him. Being repentant illustrates that we submit to Allah and are subservient to Him.

Shaytaan deceives us into thinking, later…but later may never come, or one may forget, or the remorse and regret may leave the person’s conscience. Thus it is important to repent immediately. The disease of procrastination can affect you, without you even realising.

Allah says in the Qur’an, “And you were deceived by false desires, until the command of Allah comes to pass, and the chief deceiver deceived you in respect to Allah,” (Surah Hadid 57:14) Meaning you procrastinated with regards to righteous deeds, until death overtook you, and Shaytaan deceived you.

It is no wonder that the prayer of repentance can be prayed at any time of the day, even at the disallowed times. Salaat-at-Tawbah is one of the best means of repentance; it is an act of Ibadah, one of the most beloved acts to Allah, a good deed, which wipes out the bad deed, a means by which the sinner draws close to Allah, and a reminder that Allah is the greatest.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “There is no one who commits a sin, then purifies himself well, and stands and prays two rakaats, then asks Allah for forgiveness, but Allah will forgive him.” (Abu Dawud)

The doors of repentance are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a door that doesn’t shut until the soul reaches the throat, or the sun rises from the West. Whilst the door is open, turn back to Allah with humility. Crush your arrogance and remember Allah is the Greatest!