Who is the guilty one?
It is 7 pm and you are finishing up a project and you know that instead you should be home enjoying a warm home-made dinner with family/friends. How many of us have experienced such guilts in our lives or something similar? I am sure that we can all relate to different moments and events in our lives where we made some decisions at the expense of feeling guilty about something. Ah… the sense of guilt or misery that plagues us because of our own doings. (42:30 “Now whatever calamity may befall you will be an outcome of what your own hands have wrought, although He pardons much.”)
When we make a decision and choose to follow it, the result gets created. Most of the times, we are quick to blame others (the situations or the events) for feeling miserable. The situations or events are just means presented before us as a set of options to choose from, nothing more nothing less. So, how can we blame the events and the objects in it to be responsible for our inner state? Our feelings reflect our inner state of being, which has an independent existence from the existence of the external situations that we face. However, anything in existence is dependent on a Source of Existence to give it existence. Hence, all the events and our feelings then become correlated through this One Source of Existence and that is how we are related with everything in this universe.
So, who is the guilty one then at the end of the day? Yup, I am the guilty one. I choose to make a certain decision and the feeling is created. The feeling is a sign from the Source of your existence letting you know that if you choose this way, you face the consequences. However, what is important here is to use this ability to choose or freewill in the right way. That is taking responsibility for your actions and knowing your reality, what you are as far as your status before the Source of your Existence is concerned.
If one does not take responsibility for their actions, then that is similar to doing a crime and pleading not-guilty before the judge. Human beings love to justify themselves, specially the side of human beings (i.e. ego) which does not accept or admit its fault. Justifying yourself is like hiring a lawyer to speak on your behalf saying that other things are guilty. Since things are transient, they dissipate. People in your life come and go. When all else fail, we then look for recourse. When nothing is left to plead guilty because of their transient nature, then we are bound to surrender. That is how the order of the universe is set in a way to make us realize our true position before the Supreme Judge, the Owner of the universe.
If you think about it, everything in the universe serves its purpose. The sense of guilt is created in order to make conscious beings realize how vulnerable they are in their creation. None of us can give existence to the feelings that impart on us at a given moment. We are all needy and totally dependent for a content inner state of being to be achieved.
- How can such content inner state of being be achieved? By attributing your whole self to the Source of your Existence for you belong whole-heartedly to It and nothing of this universe.
After realizing your wrongdoings, the Owner of the sense of guilt and your position in your endeavors before the Owner of the universe, not only will you make sure of not repeating the same mistake but also you will feel the need to express your concerns to the Source of your Existence. Do not delay this action, go and express yourself pronto at the Court of the Owner of the universe: “I feel guilty for my crime, I admit my shortcomings and mistake for I am the guilty one!” That is repentance dear friends, asking for forgiveness and intending of not repeating the same mistake again is nothing more than acknowledging the Owner of your whole state of being! Hence, the sense of guilt that was imparted on you served its purpose.
“God loves those people who repent” (Qur’an, 2:222)
