Divine Names Retreat: Ya Ghaffar, Ya Ghaffur, Ya Afuw

Bismillahirahmanirahim 

Peace to your hearts beloved Companions of the Divine Names Retreat,

I would like to remain with the beautiful Names of Forgiveness for another week, at least until the beginning of the Ramadan which is the month of forgiveness. 

Ya Ghaffar, Ya Ghaffur, Ya Afuw.

From the wisdom of the Physicians of the Heart we learn that Ya Ghaffar is the forgiveness of Allah which is given again and again, no matter how many times the person commits errors.

Ya Ghaffur is the forgiveness which goes deep, reaching the depths and root of wrongdoing.

Ya Afuw is the erasing of all traces of error as though it never occurred.

In the Wirds we pray:

O Source of all Generosity, erase from our hearts every trace of error and transgression.

The first three steps of the Wirds are:

Taking refuge in Allah from the enemy of humanity

Affirming one's root in the All Compassionate and Loving

Asking for forgiveness for oneself and humanity

Good comes flowing after forgiveness

The effect of forgiveness is having the veils over one’s heart removed.

The heart is the place of seeing and knowing and feeling – therefore Divine forgiveness removes blindness and ignorance and hardness of heart. It opens the channels of love.

 Basic ignorance is being unaware of one’s Creator and Sustainer and being harsh toward others

… thinking that one has an independent existence

… acting like a god on earth

Even the most spiritually evolved persons have their own level of neglect and error for which they need to ask for forgiveness.   Every level of maturity has its own level of erring. It is said that the virtues of the immature are the sins of the mature.

Forgiveness brings one to the root of our existence in Allah the Beloved, to the open space of Love and the eternal blossoming of Love.

We can repeat 11 times each day: Ya Ghaffar, Ya Ghaffur, Ya Afuw