Seeking Forgiveness and Making Amends
📖Sahih al-Bukhari 2449
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever has oppressed another person concerning his reputation or anything else, he should beg him to forgive him before the Day of Resurrection, when there will be no money (to compensate for wrong deeds). If he has good deeds, those good deeds will be taken from him according to the level of oppression he committed. And if he has no good deeds, the sins of the oppressed person will be loaded onto him.”
Explanation:
This Hadith is a serious warning:
Oppressing someone, even with words, backbiting, slander, or insults, is not forgotten.
On the Day of Judgment, there will be no money, no lawyers, no power, only deeds.
- If you wronged someone and never made it right, your good deeds will be taken and given to them.
- If you run out of good deeds, you’ll be given their sins.
This Hadith is called “The Bankruptcy Hadith” because a person might appear religious with many good deeds, but after compensating all the people they harmed, they’ll have nothing left, This ruling does not apply to non-Muslims in the same way, because on the Day of Judgment, your deeds only transfer to Muslims you’ve wronged, If you harm a non-Muslim, your deeds may be reduced, but they will not be given to them, because they rejected Allah knowingly, They already chose Hell over guidance by denying the truth. They knew that if they die without believing in Islam, they will enter Hell. and they still chose disbelief.
So on the Day of Judgment, they cannot say,
“Why am I here?” —
Because they themselves said:
“I don’t believe in your God.”
When Allah turns out to be the true God, He will not change His word, because He is not like people who change promises.
They chose their path, and Allah fulfills what He declared.
But this does not mean we can declare that all non-Muslims will be in Hell.
People fall into different categories:
- Some were misled.
- Some never received the true message of Islam.
- Some only saw a false version of religion.
- And what is truly in their hearts, we don’t know
Only Allah knows who received the message clearly and completely, and who rejected it knowingly and arrogantly.
So the final judgment belongs to Allah alone.
But if someone knew the truth clearly, understood it, and still rejected it until death, then yes, they chose Hell for themselves.
Because Allah doesn’t wrong anyone
People choose their path knowingly, and Allah simply judges based on truth and justice.
Why is this important?
Because many people take verbal oppression lightly:
- Backbiting (ghibah)
- Slandering someone’s character
- Mocking or ruining someone’s reputation
- Arrogantly refusing to apologize
But Allah considers these real acts of oppression.
This Hadith teaches us:
Clean your record now, before your good deeds are used to pay your victims on Judgment Day.
Quranic Context:
📖Quran 49:12
Do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it! And fear Allah, surely, Allah is Most-Relenting, Most-Merciful.
📖Quran 4:85
Whoever intercedes for a good cause will have a share in it, and whoever intercedes for an evil cause will have a share in its burden. And Allah is Ever Watchful over everything.
📖Quran 99:7-8
So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.
📖Quran 24:22
Let them pardon and overlook. Do you not love that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
What does this mean?
This verse encourages believers to forgive others, but the process of forgiveness involves human effort and Allah’s mercy together.
How can a person pardon someone?
There are two main ways a person may forgive:
-
If the wrongdoer comes forward and says:
“I may have wronged you, or if I did, please forgive me.”
This act of humility often softens the heart of the victim and increases the chance of being forgiven. -
The victim may choose to forgive on their own,
even if the wrongdoer never apologizes, purely for the sake of Allah.
Does human forgiveness erase sin?
No, not by itself.
- A person’s forgiveness is not automatic removal of the sin.
- But Allah has given permission for oppressed people to pardon those who wronged them.
- When someone sincerely seeks forgiveness and the victim accepts it,
➤ Allah may accept that as full reconciliation. -
So it is Allah who forgives, but He does it through the satisfaction of the one who was wronged.