22 Ramadan 1442 // 5 May 2021
I was reciting the verses from Surah Baqarah (2:127-128) —
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَاعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيم
And when (was) raising Ibrahim the foundations of the House and Ismail, (saying), “Our Lord! Accept from us. Indeed You! [You] (are) the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.
رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُّسْلِمَةً لَّكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا إِنَّكَ أَنتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيم
Our Lord! [and] Make us both submissive to You. And from our offspring a community submissive to You. And show us our ways of worship and turn to us. Indeed You! [You] (are) the Oft-returning, the Most Merciful.
— and one thing I noticed was the usage of two pairs of Allah’s names back to back. It prompted me to figure out what connections I could make out of this (of course, within what’s permissible in sha Allah).
In the first aforementioned verse, we see how Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail عليهم السلام were beseeching Allah to accept their good deed of raising the foundation of the Ka’bah. In Ibn Kathir’s tafseer, it is said, “This is the behaviour of the sincere believers…they give away voluntary charity and perform the acts of worship yet…afraif that these good deeds might not be accepted of them.”
The reason this immediately caught my eye was due to something I once hear, which is this idea of istigfar after performing a good deed can be found elsewhere in the Qur’an, in surah Nasr. Allah says that when the victory comes (V1), which is the conquest of Makkah,
فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ تَوَّابً
Then glorify with (the) praises (of) your Lord and ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is Oft-Returning.
Moreover, if you think about it, one of the sunan of post-salah is to make istigfar thrice.
So, why make istigfar after good deeds? It’s because we don’t know if it’s accepted. We don’t know if there was something deficient in what we did, if we were insincere, etc.
Hence, the action plan based off of this reflection: Make istigfar after good deeds.
Tarbiyah by Ilm 