Abū Bakr was taught to say in his prayer, “I have wronged myself greatly.” What wrong did he mean?
Ibn Taymiyyah answers.
The Explanation of the Ḥadīth of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq
The supplication
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي ظُلْمًا كَثِيرًا، وَلَا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ، فَاغْفِرْ لِي مَغْفِرَةً مِنْ عِنْدِكَ، وَارْحَمْنِي، إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
“O Allāh, I have wronged myself greatly, and none forgives sins but You. So forgive me with a forgiveness from Yourself, and have mercy upon me. You are the Oft-Forgiving, the Bestower of Mercy.”
Shaykh Ibn Bāz said it is one of the most authentic ḥadīths, and that it is recommended to make this supplication in sujūd and at the end of the tashahhud, before the salām.
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, with his rank and virtue, said: “O Allāh, I have wronged myself greatly”. What did he mean by it?
Ibn Taymiyyah answered: “It is among the supplications the Prophets make, and they are the best of creation.”
The treatise is his reasoning for that answer.
What the book answers
An earlier commentary on this ḥadīth explained the mercy Abū Bakr asked for, but said nothing about the wrong he confessed. A reader noticed, and put the question to Ibn Taymiyyah. Words addressed to Allāh, he said, are not a figure of speech. Abū Bakr was among the foremost of the believers, and the Prophet ﷺ himself taught him these words. So what wrong did he mean?
The Prophets said it too.
Ibn Taymiyyah begins with them. Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ said, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves,” and Mūsā said, “My Lord, I have wronged myself.”
What it means to wrong yourself.
To leave what does you good when you need it, or to do what harms you. So it takes in duties neglected as well as sins committed.
Only the Prophets are protected from sin.
On this the Salaf were agreed. The book shows where the sects that claimed that protection for their own imāms went wrong.
What repentance is worth.
Allāh is more delighted when His servant repents than a man in a waterless desert who has lain down to die, and wakes to find his lost camel standing there with his food and water. So how could the one who repents not be honoured by Him?
Why “a forgiveness from You”?
One meaning, Ibn Taymiyyah says, is a forgiveness Allāh grants out of His own generosity, which leaves the servant needing no creature to intercede for him or ask forgiveness on his behalf.
Look inside
- 76 verses of the Qurʾān, each printed in Arabic beside the English.
- 120 terms explained in a glossary.
- 157 notes by the Arabic editor, giving the source of every verse, ḥadīth and report.
The Explanation of the Ḥadīth of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq
£16.95 US $21.95
196 pages · ISBN 978-1-9163999-3-8