Sometimes, failure can be a prelude to success. When you are at your lowest, things might look gloomy; but try with all your might to pick yourself up, and don’t despair. When you lift yourself up out of the darkest of places, you arise in a new shining light.
Use your failures to gain the strength to regenerate yourself. With all that energy that might be sapped out of you, you are left with a lack; but you can still fill that lack with something: hope.
Hope never dies, so let it challenge fate. Hope lies in the soul, and with it you can bring yourself out of the darkness into the light. But the key is where to put your hope in. There is in One you must put your hope in, and with one you must hope. And that is Allah (God in Arabic) through repentance.
Repentance is a way of rebirth. You ask for forgiveness, and with your hope, you are forgiven and life is quelled back into your veins. You are given another chance and you regenerate from your losses. Only Allah can do that. Indeed, He gives back to those who turn to Him.
When you sin, you burn out. You burn the good inside your heart. Like a Phoenix, you burn yourself, and you lose progress. You might die out in the greatest flame…but the key is to be reborn again. From the ashes, you can be reborn from your failures. You can rise up again by seeking forgiveness, and forgiveness will spring you back to life. Come back to life with repentance.
One form of rebirth is prayer. With it, you can find yourself every moment. The recitations you say, the movements you make, the rituals you partake all give life to you from the One you give attention to. It also wipes away all your minor sins, and cleanses you. You gain life by praying. You are rebirthing from all the bad that you have done. The fires that have burned out your progress are extinguished and you are given life once again.
The Prophet Muhammad (SWS) said, “Consider. If one you had a river passing by his house and he bathed in it five times a day, will any dirt be left on him?” His companions said, “No. No dirt will be left on him.” He said, “That is what these five daily prayers do. Allah erases thereby the sins.” He also said, “The five daily Prayers, Friday to Friday, are atonement (for what sins go in between) so long as major sins are avoided.”
Sometimes, the fire may be too strong. The phoenix might burst into flames, killing all signs of life within it. It may die in a fireball of sin. Wait!! Don’t despair. Allah has a solution for that too. It’s called the repentance prayer.
Abu Dawood (1521) narrated that Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “There is no one who commits a sin then purifies himself well and stands and prays two rak’ahs, then asks Allaah for forgiveness, but Allaah will forgive him. Then he recited this verse: ‘And those who, when they have committed Faahishah (illegal sexual intercourse) or wronged themselves with evil, remember Allaah and ask forgiveness for their sins; — and none can forgive sins but Allaah — and do not persist in what (wrong) they have done, while they know’ [Aal ‘Imraan 3:135].”
The very prelude to prayer is called ablution, which is a ritualistic purification of oneself with water. This in itself is an act of rebirth through the means of being forgiven for all minor sins. One will be forgiven and, conversely to fire, with water he is given life by being forgiven. He is purified.
`Abdullah As-Sunabihi reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
“When the believing servant performs Wudu’ and rinses his mouth, his sins come out from his mouth. When he sniffs water into his nose and blows it out, his sins come out from his nose. When he washes his face, his sins come out from his face, even from beneath his eyelashes. When he washes his hands, his sins come out from his hands, even from beneath his fingernails. When he wipes his head, his sins come out from his head, even from his ears. When washes his feet, his sins come from his feet, even from beneath his toenails. Then his walking to the Masjid and his Salah will earn extra merit for him.”
The key to coming back to life is with water, not fire. Fire makes more fire; you need to douse the fires of desire with water. The phoenix doesn’t live with fire alone; it needs water like all creatures. Like the phoenix, we too need water to cleanse us of our sins. We need water to live and perpetuate. Water nourishes our being.
When we burn out in a great flame, there is the greatest form of rebirth. One of the five pillars of Islam is the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage is travelling to the holiest site on the planet Earth: the Kabba. That is the house of Allah, in Mecca, the holiest city on Earth. There, there are multiple acts of worship one does to purify his soul. This is a form of complete rebirth because it is said one who does the pilgrimage, called ‘Hajj’ in Islam, is reborn like a new baby. Although one might be middle-aged, going to hajj makes him reborn anew, just like a phoenix. He is forgiven for all his sins.
“Whoever performs Hajj to this house - Ka'bah- and does not commit any obscenity and wrongdoing, he, or she, will come out as the day he, or she, was born - pure and free from sins." –The Prophet Muhammad (SWS)
The other greatest form of rebirth is none other than reversion. The ‘shahada’, or conversion to Islam (called reversion due to returning to the true path one is on when he is a baby), is a form of complete rebirth. When converting to Islam, one is forgiven of all previous sins. He is reborn like a baby, which is free from sin. He starts life anew, like a phoenix that is rebirth.
A man called Amr came to the Prophet Muhammad and said, “Give me your right hand so that I may give you my pledge of loyalty.” The Prophet stretched out his right hand. Amr withdrew his hand. The Prophet said: {What has happened to you, O Amr?} He replied, “I intend to lay down a condition.” The Prophet asked:{What condition do you intend to put forward?} Amr said, “That God forgive my sins.” The Prophet said: {Didn’t you know that converting to Islam erases all previous sins?}
Last but definitely not least, is the concept of forgiveness. Know that Allah is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful. That is one of his greatest of names. One should never despair of His mercy, knowing that when one commits sin, he should turn to Allah and find Him merciful. He should admit to his wrong, but know that Allah will forgive him through his sincere regret and intention to never return to it again. Indeed, Allah loves those who repent constantly.
“I am Forgiving to those who repent and believe and do good, and afterward follow right guidance.” (Qu’ran 20:82)