A Tonne of Sins

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

A funny thing happened to me one day.

I have this love-hate relationship with the digital weighing scale in my office. On days I see a nice number displayed, I would love the scale to bits but on days I see a not so nice number displayed, I vow never to set foot on it ever again. It's a vicious cycle that continues till today.

Anyway, that day, I stepped on the scale right before I took wudhu for my zuhr prayers. Needless to say, I was quite upset with the number displayed. Feeling disgruntled, I went to take my wudhu and promptly performed my prayers.

After I finished my prayers, I stepped on the scale again. This time, I was 2 kg lighter. Eh! How is that possible?  I stepped on the scale for the 2nd time and again, it showed that I was 2 kg lighter than before.

Being someone with a vivid imagination, the first thing that came to mind was, "boy! I sure did had a lot of sins! All 2 kg of them".

Alas, as much as I want to believe my prayer removed 2 kg of my sins,  I know it's impossible. We can't physically weigh our sins. Explanation ; the scale must be spoilt.

But, what if we could physically weigh our sins and rewards? Wouldn't that be awesome?  We can have a proper check and balance of our lives.

"And if Allah were to impose blame on the people for their wrongdoing, He would not have left upon the earth any creature, but He defers them for a specified term. And when their term has come, they will not remain behind an hour, nor will they precede [it]."

Quran 16:61

If we had that then chances are that we will be too complacent. We will take things for granted and would not be scrambling for rewards. If we can weigh our sins, there might be a possibility that we'll perform good deeds just enough to balance or slighty outweigh our sins. Once we reached our 'quota', we'll stop. Then, the act of performing good deeds will become just a means to an end and no longer because of the sincerity of our hearts.

Anyhow, despite us not being able to keep track of our sins and rewards, God Almighty still tells how we can erase our sins.

"Uthman reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say, “No Muslim attends a prescribed prayer and performs its ablution, reverence, and bowing in the best manner, except that it will be an expiation for his previous sins as long as he did not commit a major sin, and this applies for all time.”
Hadith Muslim

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever declares there is no god but Allah, one without partner, unto him is the sovereignty and praise and he is powerful over everything one hundred times a day, then he will have the reward of emancipating ten slaves, a hundred good deeds will be recorded for him, a hundred sins will be erased from his record, and he will be guarded from the devil during the day until evening. No one will exceed him except one who recited these words more often.”
Hadith Bukhari & Muslim

Moral of the story is, do not believe everything that the weighing scale tells you and even though we can't see our sins,  we must strive hard to collect rewards as if our sins are as high as Mount Everest.

“Conduct yourself in this world, as if you are here to stay forever; prepare for eternity as if you have to die tomorrow.” (Bukhari)