Sin of Losing Hope
This is according to seminary scholar Hojat-ol-Islam Javad Mohadesi, speaking at a session on the Shaabaniyah Supplication. Here are excerpts from his remarks at the session:
The Shaabaniyah Supplication is a supplication narrated from Imam Ali (AS). We read in this supplication: “My Lord, it is Your magnanimity that expanded my hope.” One does not expect a stingy person to fulfil his need but God’s unlimited generosity and bounty makes one ask for a lot.
“…and surely Your pardon is superior to my deeds.” God’s mercy and pardon is much greater than one’s deed. It has been narrated in Hadiths that if a person imagines his sins are so big that he will not be pardoned, it will mean he considers his sins to be greater than God’s pardon and that would be an insult to God because God’s pardon is greater than the sins of all people in all times.
“My Lord, therefore gladden my heart when I meet You on the day when You shall judge between Your servants. My Lord, I submit to You the apology of one who cannot dispense with the acceptance of his excuse.”
Sometimes we want to apologize to someone for something wrong we have done and we do not know whether it will be accepted or not. We say if he does not accept the apology, it would not be very important. But we cannot say that with God because God is the most beneficent, the most merciful and the most magnanimous. So God “(please) accept my excuse, O most Magnanimous of all those before whom the guilty make an apology.”
“My Lord, (please) do not reject my request, do not dissapoint my hope for You, and do not cut off from You my hope and expectations from You. My Lord, had You wanted to humiliate me, You would not have guided me (to You). Had You decided to humiliate me, You would not have excused me. My Lord, I do not expect You to reject my request that I spent my whole lifetime asking for it from You. My Lord, all praise be to You, forever, forever, perpetually, everlastingly, increasingly, and imperishably, as exactly as You like and please.”
