On
Repentance and Returning to Allah
The
time has come for me to see after the darkness of ignorance
My
old age is a morning that calls me to its dawning rays
The
night of youth is short, so proceed deliberately
The
morning is the end of the road for the night traveler.
How
have I been deceived by the world and its adornment,
Building
my home on the crumbling ground, at the edge of a precipice?
A
home whose transgressions remain, but whose delights perish:
How
wretched is such a home!
The
happy one is not one who is delighted by his worldly trinkets;
Rather,
the happy one is the one saved from the torment of Hell.
I
have awakened from wickedness, fearful and trembling,
For
Allah knows my deeds, open and secret.
If
I hold my sins to be grave and they fill me with despair,
I
can only hope that they will be eradicated,
By
the One who alone can do so…
The
All Forgiving.
---(Written
by Hadhrat Abul Hasan Abdul Aziz al-Jurjani (ra). Translated from the
Arabic by Zaid Shakir)