The Forgiving - Al-Ghaffār
Al-Ghaffār, The Repeatedly Forgiving, The Perpetual Forgiver
These Names comes from the same root: gh-f-r (غ-ف-ر), which linguistically means to cover and protect. When we say “Rabby ighfir-ly”—which is usually translated to “My Lord, forgive me”—what we are actually asking God Almighty for is to cover our sin and protect us from it. Sometimes we may feel that we have committed too many sins and made too many mistakes for God to forgive us. But God has a response to that, and that is that He is Al-Ghaffār. Ghaffār is an intense form of forgiveness that applies to the worst of deeds. God Almighty forgives the gravest of sins. So God Almighty is telling us that He has covered all the bases. No matter how many sins or even the type of sin, God will protect you from it. The Prophet (pbuh) tells us that God says: “O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it.” (Tirmidhi)