Mistakes

Allah gives us the stories of many prophets in the Qur’an in order that we learn from their example and take lessons from their lives. A common point for many of them is that Allah put them in specific situations in order to prepare them for their tasks in the future. For example, Allah put Yusuf in the house of the Head of the Treasury, and he put Musa in the house of the Pharaoh, in order that they may have a deep understanding of what goes on so they could be leaders in the future. The prophet we will concentrate on is Dawood.
Once, when Dawood was in his place of worship and two men appeared in front of him, and asked him to judge a matter between them. One of them said that they had one sheep, and the other had 99 sheep, and the other took his one sheep away from him. Dawood immediately said that he should be given his sheep back. As soon as he made his ruling, they both disappeared. Right then, he knew that he made a mistake. He should have listened to both sides before making a ruling. Allah then told him that he made him a successor on earth, and the scholars say that Dawood was better after the mistake than before the mistake. And this, my brothers and sisters, is how we should be with our mistakes.
The Prophet (S) said that every son of Adam makes mistakes. Every single human being makes mistakes, without exception. So how do we deal with them? When you make a mistake in worldly matters, the process is simple. Recognize that you have messed up, and work to change the situation. It is never the end of the world; you always have a chance to go back and fix what needs to be fixed. So you failed your first test of the semester. Is that it? Is the next step to drop out of school? Just take a step back and see what went wrong, You went to bed too late the day before the test, you have not been attending class like you should, or you do not pay attention in class. Whatever the case may be, there is always a chance to correct any errors and move on.
So what if you make a mistake pertaining to the hereafter (also known as a sin)? The Prophet (S) said that every Son of Adam makes mistakes and the best of those who make mistakes are those who constantly repent. So this is the key to fixing a sin. Acknowledge that you did it, repent, and take the steps ensure that you do not repeat it again. And do you know what Allah does for you when you repent? Allah says that those who repent, and believe, and do good deeds, Allah will change their bad deeds into good ones. So you sinned, you committed a sin and you know it was sin. But when you repent to Allah, He will take it from the bad deed pile and put it with the good deeds. So that pile of dirt you had in your pocket is now pure gold. It does not get any better than this.
Now what if other people make a mistake? Unfortunately, when many people want to correct someone, they use the harshest tone possible. Ask yourself, do you think anyone will want to change if you correct them in a harsh manner? THAT’S HARAM!!! ASTAGHFIRULLAH!!! Really? The Prophet (S) said that Allah is kind, and he loves kindness in all matters. He also said, make things easy on people, and do not make things difficult. Many of us who are ‘practicing’ Islam, we were not always this way. It was not one day that you woke up and all of a sudden you were praying five times a day, reading Qur’an, and all these other things. It did not happen automatically for you, so do not expect this from other people. It took you some time to change, and Allah was clement, he gave you a chance to change, so give other people a chance. It took you some time to change, so give other people time to change as well. If you really want to correct someone, do so politely, and then tell them the correct thing to do.
Then what if you are not sure someone else has made a mistake? In this case, we should always try to make excuses for our brother. For example, a brother has not shown up for a few days for Fajr prayer. Maybe he got sick. Maybe he broke his leg. Maybe his alarm has been broken. Maybe another Muslim parked in his driveway. We all know how much Muslims just love to park in other people’s driveways. We should not concentrate on others *possible* mistakes as much as we should be concentrating on our own mistakes.

So in dealing with our mistakes, first, we should admit the mistake. If there is no mistake then there is no point in continuing the conversation. If it pertains to this world, make note of what went wrong and how you can change it so the same thing does not happen again. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. So if you are falling into the same mistake over and over again, you are actually getting worse. If you committed sin, always remember that it is never too late to repent to Allah. Whatever sin you have done in the past, know that Allah will forgive it if you are sincere in your repentance.
If you find someone else that has made a mistake, be kind to them, and do not be harsh, because most likely you were once in the same position at some point. If you are not even sure someone else has made a mistake, try to find an excuse for them, and you will find that many times they actually did have an excuse.
We ask Allah to help us learn from our mistakes and cause them to be a source of growth for us