Al Afu - The Eraser of Sins

Al Afu is the One who forgives our sins and erases them with His kindness.

He overlooks our disobedience and continues His bounties on us. He pardons our lazy and neglected acts of worship and inattentive hearts despite His right to get full focus. He does all this out of His majestic mercy although He has all kinds of authority over us.

ALLAH Al Afu gives us chances to get better and get on the right track again and again. Just by asking Him and returning to Him with an honest heart, He erases our sins and even replaces them with goodness on our little sincere efforts.

There are two aspects of the name ‘Al Afu’:

1) The kind forgiveness of ALLAH subhanahu wa ta’ala to all mankind generally. This includes everyone even those who don't know, don't accept ALLAH, and those who know Him but disobey by carelessness, ego, or by their bad choices. ALLAH doesn't block from them His abundance of bounties. The world is full of blessings for them as well and it is because ALLAH is Al Afu.

2) The extra kind and fond forgiveness of ALLAH for the believing people who look towards Him, and ask only Him for His kind blessings. Those hearts that are filled with His obedience & aim for His nearness by doing good deeds. For sure, they may get the most loving forgiveness from Al Afu.

The human share in this name has two obvious sides. Let us understand them as both are essential for a better life.

One side of this share is to keep on asking ALLAH for goodness and His kind forgiveness. All of us are aware of these beautiful words of dua from the hadith of our beloved Prophet ﷺ.

The other and equally important side of this name’s share is forgiving our fellow humans. The act of forgiveness towards people for the sake of ALLAH is very much appreciated. This will give us the sweetness of reward twice. One is the pleasure of ALLAH's love and the second is strong and respectful relationships that are not possible without kindness and generosity of the heart.