Nawawi Hadith 42: Boundless Forgiveness

Part One: The Ocean of Allah’s Mercy

Brothers,

Today’s khutbah is based on the 42nd and final hadith in Imam Nawawi’s 40 Hadith, and it is fitting that the collection closes on this note:

On the authority of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say that Allah the Almighty has said: 'O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and then you were to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it.' (Tirmidhi (hasan))

This hadith is graded hasan by Imam al-Tirmidhi, and it is a hadith Qudsi, meaning the words themselves are Allah’s own words, related by the Prophet ﷺ but not part of the Quran’s recitation. Anas ibn Malik, who served the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for ten years and witnessed his character up close, is the one who preserved this promise for us.

Brothers, read these words again slowly. This is Allah speaking directly to the son of Adam, to you, by name of your origin. Let us walk through what He is telling us.

Part 1: “So Long As You Call Upon Me”, the Condition of Return

The first sentence is a condition and a promise together: so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you, and I shall not mind. The condition is not perfection. It is not even a fixed number of good deeds to outweigh the bad. The condition is that you keep returning, keep calling, keep asking.

Say, ˹O Prophet, that Allah says,˺ 'O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah's mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.' (Az-Zumar, 39:53)

Notice the phrasing again: My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls. Not a small number of sinners, but those who have gone too far, again and again. Allah does not say to them, “there is a limit to how many times I will forgive you.” He says, do not lose hope.

The one thing that closes this door is not the size of the sin. It is giving up on calling upon Allah altogether. A man who stops making du’a, stops asking forgiveness, stops turning back, is the one who has actually shut himself out, not Allah.

Part 2: Sins Reaching the Clouds

The second sentence raises the stakes: were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky, and then you asked forgiveness, I would forgive you. This is not a small accumulation. This is a lifetime of sin piled up so high it reaches the clouds, and still, one sincere istighfar reaching Allah brings His forgiveness down.

And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself but then seeks forgiveness of Allah will find Allah Forgiving and Merciful. (An-Nisaa, 4:110)

This verse uses the same structure: wrongdoing, followed by seeking forgiveness, followed by finding Allah exactly as He describes Himself, Forgiving and Merciful. The size of the wrong is not the deciding factor. The sincerity of the turning back is.

Allah's mercy is vaster than any sin a servant could commit, so long as the servant does not despair of it or persist without repentance. (Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Jami' al-'Ulum wal-Hikam)

Part 3: Sins Nearly as Great as the Earth, and the Only Real Barrier

The final sentence is the most striking of all: were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth, and were you then to face Me ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it.

Here Allah names the one condition that actually matters: ascribing no partner to Him. Shirk. Everything else, however great, is described as forgivable through sincere turning. Shirk is the one matter the Quran singles out as unforgiven if a person dies upon it, unrepentant.

Indeed, Allah does not forgive associating others with Him ˹in worship˺, but forgives anything else, for whoever He wills. Whoever associates others with Allah has indeed committed a grave sin. (An-Nisaa, 4:48)

This tells us where the real danger lies. It is not in the sin of anger, theft, immorality, or even violence, as severe as these are. The gravest danger is in the state of the heart toward Allah Himself: does it worship Him alone, or has it set up something else beside Him, whether an idol, a desire, or a false hope in someone other than Allah to save it.

Part Two: Living the Promise of Tawbah

Brothers,

Part 4: Hope Behind These Walls

Brothers, I know some of you carry the weight of things you have done that you cannot undo. A life taken, a family broken, years lost, harm caused that no apology can fully repair. That weight is real, and it should never be treated lightly. But this hadith was placed at the very end of Imam Nawawi’s forty for a reason: after all the commands, all the prohibitions, all the standards of character, the final word is mercy for the one who turns back.

Whatever brought you here, whatever sits on your record, whatever the state you were in before Allah guided you to this masjid, this hadith says to you directly: so long as you call upon Me, I will forgive you, and I will not mind. Not “I might forgive you if the sin is small enough.” Not “there is a ceiling on My mercy.” He says the sin could reach the clouds, could be as great as the earth, and forgiveness still follows sincere return.

Except those who repent, believe, and do good deeds, for Allah will replace their bad deeds with good deeds. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Al-Furqaan, 25:70)

This is not only erasure. It is replacement. The very sins that weigh on a man’s record can, through sincere tawbah, become good deeds in their place. This is a promise unique to Allah’s mercy, and it is available to every man in this room regardless of what walls surround him.

Part 5: What Real Tawbah Requires

But brothers, we must be honest about what “calling upon Him” means here. It is not a word said once and forgotten. The scholars outline the conditions of sincere tawbah: stopping the sin, feeling genuine regret over having done it, resolving firmly not to return to it, and where the sin involved another person’s right, returning that right or seeking their forgiveness as well.

The one who repents from sin is like the one who has no sin. (Ibn Majah)

This is an extraordinary status, but it is earned through the real work of tawbah, not merely the feeling of guilt. Guilt alone changes nothing. Guilt that produces a change of direction, a change of company, a change of habit, and a return to Allah in worship, that is what this hadith is describing.

Tawbah is turning from a state hated by Allah to a state loved by Allah, and every servant is in need of it every hour. (Ibn al-Qayyim, Madarij al-Salikin)

Part 6: Turning This Into Daily Worship

How do we live this hadith practically, in here and everywhere?

Never let a day pass without istighfar. Make it a habit at the end of salah, before sleeping, in moments of quiet. The Prophet ﷺ himself, sinless, sought forgiveness over seventy times a day. What does that tell us about our own need for it?

Do not treat despair as humility. Some men think refusing to hope for Allah’s forgiveness is a sign of taking their sins seriously. It is the opposite. Despair of Allah’s mercy is itself condemned in the Quran as a trait of those who reject Him. Taking sin seriously means working to leave it, not giving up on the One who can forgive it.

He replied, 'Who would despair of the mercy of their Lord except those who are astray?' (Al-Hijr, 15:56)

Guard the one thing that cannot be forgiven if unrepented: shirk. Keep your worship, your hope, your fear, and your reliance directed to Allah alone. Nothing else, no person, no system, no idol of the heart, deserves that place.

Renew your calling upon Him constantly, not once. This hadith does not describe a single transaction. It describes a relationship of ongoing return: so long as you call upon Me.

Pair tawbah with righteous action, not only regret. A man who repents from theft but does not seek honest means to support himself has not completed the turning. A man who repents from violence but does not train himself in patience has not completed it either. Tawbah asks for a new direction, not only a new feeling.

Brothers, remember also that this hadith closes the entire book of forty. Imam Nawawi could have ended with a hadith about the signs of the Hour, or the virtues of jihad, or the details of the afterlife. He chose to end with mercy, because every command before it, every prohibition, every standard of character, is only made bearable by the certainty that Allah forgives the one who returns to Him. That is the note this collection wants to leave ringing in your heart: not fear that paralyzes, but hope that moves you to return again and again.

O Allah, You are Al-Ghafur, the Ever-Forgiving, so forgive us for what we have done.

O Allah, do not let the size of our sins cause us to lose hope in the vastness of Your mercy.

O Allah, make us among those who turn to You constantly, not only when we remember, but as a way of life.

O Allah, remove shirk from our hearts in every form, hidden and apparent.

O Allah, grant true tawbah to every man carrying regret in this place, and replace our bad deeds with good ones.

O Allah, do not let despair take root in our hearts, for You alone are the Source of hope.

O Allah, accept our istighfar, our du’a, and our return to You, and forgive us as You have promised.

O Allah, let this final hadith of the forty be the door through which we enter Your mercy for the rest of our lives.