The Noble Quran came to the believers as a guide, leading them out of the darkness of misguidance and deviation, illuminating their path amidst the shadows of ignorance. It leads them to the way of repentance and recovering from sins and misdeeds. To achieve this, there is an essential matter that Allah's Book urges us to do, which is to reflect upon the ayahs of Allah. By doing so, we can find solutions to all the material and spiritual problems we face as we walk towards Allah in this world.

In light of this, we wanted to pause and contemplate a single ayah from Allah's Book as a practical lesson in the exercise of reflecting on the Quran, unveiling the treasures and precious gems it contains. Our diligent effort to extract these gems will allow us to reap the rewards offered by Allah to His sincere servants who genuinely seek the Hereafter and its bliss, which Allah has prepared for His pious servants.

To make our lesson today both practical and scholarly, we have chosen to reflect upon an ayah that speaks of seeking forgiveness and declaring sincere repentance to Allah. This is to ensure we gain Allah's forgiveness in the Hereafter and avoid exposing ourselves to His wrath at a time when regret will no longer be of any use. The selected ayah may be memorized by many, but perhaps only a few truly grasp its precious gems.

Allah the Almighty says in His Noble Book, “And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself but then seeks forgiveness of Allah will find Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” (An-Nisa: 110) This ayah, though comprised of few words, offers numerous and abundant rewards to those who comprehend it. The etiquettes, rulings, and benefits of this ayah for the believers are as follows:

1. An invitation to all sinners on earth to repent, including disbelievers and hypocrites.
2. Assurance that Allah forgives the sin of His servant, no matter how great, and that nothing can prevent this.
3. A confirmed promise from Allah to accept the repentance of His servants, provided it is sincere.
4. Notification of Allah's boundless generosity in granting the repentant broad mercy after forgiveness.
5. Acknowledgment of the greatness of the Creator of this universe, who responds to wrongdoing with forgiveness and to self-oppression with mercy and acceptance of repentance.
6. The vast difference between sinning and seeking forgiveness, as indicated by the expression “then.”
7. The information that Allah's beautiful names and supreme attributes have meanings and effects in this worldly life.
8. The indication that repentance is valid even if the sin recurs repeatedly, as implied by the use of the verbs “does” and “wrongs” in the present tense, denoting continuity and renewal.
9. The acknowledgment that despite being distinguished from other creatures by intellect, a human can still be an enemy and oppressor to himself.
10. The indication that it is possible for the sinner to recover lost goodness and blessings due to committing sins, and that he can achieve perfection after shortcomings.

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