penalty for it equal in size and kind, he will certainly fear his Lord and remain alert regarding
his wishes and desires for fear of falling into transgression.
- "Al-`Afuww"
Allah has said, It may be that Allah will pardon them, and Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving.
(4:99)
"Al-Afuww" is derived from the root word "afuw" and permits several meanings: When used
as a verb, it means to go somewhere to receive something, to give without being asked, to
increase, to wipe out something. As a noun, it means the wiping out of sins in their entirety.
One may supplicate and say, "Lord! I implore You to grant me afuw andfiya," that is, not to
punish me for my sins, and to make me safe and secure with regard to Your torment. As an
adjective, it means what is halal, lawful.
Al-`Afuww has removed, by His Mercy, from the souls the darkness of slipping away from the
right path, and of the loneliness of forgetfulness from the hearts through His Greatness. It is
also said that He removes the sins from the records and replaces loneliness with beautiful
things from Him.
Al-`Afuww wipes out the traces of sins, removing them by the winds of His forgiveness. He
wipes out the sins from the records kept by His guardian angels. He even wipes them out
from their (angels') memory and the memory of those who committed them. He abandons
punishing the sinners, Who does not remind you of your shortcomings; He is Gracious when
He forgives. He protects the heart of the doer of evil against loneliness, sparing him the
feeling of shame, and He does not remind him of the evil of what he had done.
We notice that in the text of the Holy Qura'n, the Attribute [indeed a Most Beautiful one] al-
`Afuww occurs side by side with another Attribute which is al-Ghafoor as many as four times,
and once side by side with the Attribute "al-Qadeer" as the following verses demonstrate:
... surely Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving. (4:43) It may be that Allah will pardon them, and
Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving. (4:99) ... most surely Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving. (22:60,
58:2) If you do good openly or secretly or pardon an evil act, then surely Allah is Pardoning,
Powerful. (4:149)
The Messenger of Allah has always enjoined us to wipe out our evil deeds with good ones,
saying, "Fear Allah wherever you may be, and follow your evil deed with a good one in order
to wipe out the first, and treat people in the best conduct." He addressed one of his uncles
once saying, "O Abbas, uncle of the Messenger of Allah! Plead to Allah forafuw and fiya in the life of this world and in the life to come." The Commander of the Faithful ImamAli
ibn Abu Talib called upon one of his slaves once but he did not respond. He repeated his call,