Our theme discussion for the month of Ramadaan is about Gratitude, so last week we took a look at the various `Deeni` or `Islamic` bounties of Allah which we need to be grateful for, so we covered Imaan, being amongst the Ummah of Nabi ﷺ, the Sunnah, the Maktabs and the Ulama, the Masaajid and the Athan, and the Holy Quraan and Salaah.

Now we take a look at a very special bounty of Allah, and that is the fact that Allah covers our faults.

It is a common trait that whenever someone hurts us, or does us down or courses us some pain and difficulty, we often threaten them, “You will see, I am going to expose you, I will show you!” The bigger problem is that we then go ahead and do just as we threatened.

But did we ever consider that what if Allah exposed our sins every time we sinned against Him? What if Allah revealed our sins to the world? Where would we hide our heads in shame? How would we face society? Who would be spared?

And that is why a pious saint once said, “Know that if people are impressed by you, it is actually Allahs favour upon you, because if Allah exposed your faults, what honour would you have?”

From among the noble teachings of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, is to keep sins a secret matter. If someone commits a sinful act, which is against the Commandments of Allah, or is against the moral character, or is such an act that may cause harm to one’s honour, then he should keep it a secret and seek forgiveness from Allah in the darkness of night.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

كل أمتي معافى إلا المجاهرين، وإن من المجاهرة أن يعمل الرجل بالليل عملا، ثم يصبح وقد ستره الله عليه فيقول: يا فلان، عملت البارحة كذا وكذا، وقد بات يستره ربه، ويصبح يكشف ستر الله عنه

“My entire nation is safe, except Al-Mujahirin (those who boast of their sins). Among the Mujaharah is that a man commits an (evil) act, and wakes up in the morning while Allah has kept his (sin) a secret, he says: “O Fulan! Last night I did this and that.” He goes to sleep while Allah has kept his (sin) a secret but he wakes up in the morning and uncovers what Allah has kept a secret!” [Saheeh Al-Bukhari]

So if someone reveals our faults and exposes our sins there is still a lot that we can do. We can look for various ways to cover it up, we can claim that the facts are not true or that the exposer is unreliable or that there is another side to the story and the person was not informed, or we can wait and hope that after some time the matter will just be put to rest or we can even skip the country and migrate to another distant land where we are unknown.

But what if Allah were to reveal our faults? Would we say Allah is an unreliable source? Would we claim that Allah was not properly informed? Wil-iyathu-billah! Where would we run and where would we hide?

Another point to consider is that we should not allow this favour of Allah, of concealing our faults, to embolden us to commit more sins. So sometimes we abstain from a crime because we fear, “what if I get caught, I will be humiliated and I met even get thrown into prison!” But we sin against Allah and we tell ourselves, “Its ok, nobody will know!” There is no fear of getting exposed and this emboldens us to sin more knowing that Allah will always keep our sins a secret.

So at all costs we should endeavour never to sin, but when we do slip-up and make a mistake, let us immediately resort to taubah and repentance, and silently in our hearts let us thank Allah that He did not expose the fault for everyone to see!