Can a Murderer Truly Repent and Change?
The Repentance of the Man Who Killed 100 Souls - Part 2: Migration for Righteousness and the Angels at Death
Summary
This lecture continues the analysis of the 20th narration from a hadith collection, specifically discussing the story of a man who murdered 100 souls and sought repentance. The scholar explains how the man was advised to leave his evil land and travel to a righteous community to reform himself, illustrating the principle that it is nearly impossible to maintain righteousness in a corrupt environment. The narration describes the man's death occurring at the midpoint of his journey, at which point angels of mercy and angels of punishment began debating whose rightful duty it was to take his soul.
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Continuing with the remainder part of the 20th narration of authored by Noi, the narration of in the chapter of repentance regarding the man who had murdered 100 souls and and sought redemption. We left off at the advice of the scholar that he went to. And this scholar as we mentioned did not just provide an answer and a solution but he provided a blueprint for this man to be able to repent. It's very easy and anybody can say this is wrong, this is right and to complain about that which is wrong. However, to replace it, to have a plan that is both practical and reasonable in order to lessen this evil or eradicate it, this is the domain of the scholarship of Islam. And so he said to him, Go to such and such land. There are people there who are worshiping Allah. Be with them and worship Allah with them and amongst them. And do not come back to your land here because it is an evil place. How does he know it's an evil place? How do we know it's an evil place? What are the indicators? Well, we've got a man that's killed a hundred souls. A serial mass murderer who has killed a hundred people and he's not in prison. He's walking around free. Free as a bird. This would articulate a very terrible place. A place where oppression is rampant and there are very little consequences, if any.
[Silence]
Why is it that he killed 100 people? It's possible that he was an executioner even for the official parties that were in charge. The point is is that it is an evil place. And it is almost impossible, not impossible, almost impossible to be good in a bad place. And a person who is in a bad place must leave that place in order to leave the actions that that place brought out of him and the bad habits that that place brought out of him. And so and so he left for this land of righteous people. And when he reached the exact middle of his way, the exact middle point between the two places, the angel of death came to say take his soul and death came for him. And then both the angels of mercy and the angels of punishment began to debate with one another and argue as to who is more rightful to take this man's soul. We understand from this narration and others that the angel of death is what ultimately comes and takes the person's soul from his or her body at the very end. However, there are angels of death. Angels of death that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned. So these messengers that Allah mentions in the Quran, they are the angels of death. The angels of death, they are either angels of mercy or angels of punishment and torment. They come and they prepare the soul to be extracted from the body and they stand around the person as far as the eye can see. As the prophet mentions in the narration of that as far as he can see and everywhere he looks he sees angels of death. They are either angels of punishment or angels of mercy. When finally the angel of death comes at the exact moment when this person was written to pass and extracts this person's soul and gives it to either the angels of torment or the angels of reward and pleasure. And so these angels began to debate with one another as to who is more rightful to this person. And we will finish this narration tomorrow inshallah. Alhamdulillah.