اَللّهُمَّ اَنَّانَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ اَنْ نُشْرِكَ شَيْءًا نَعْلَمُهُ
وَنَسْتَغْفِرُكَ لِمَا لاَ نَعْلَمُهُ
وَنَسْتَغْفِرُكَ لِمَا لاَ نَعْلَمُهُ
Allahumma, kami berlindung pada Mu dari mensyirikkan ( i.e. menyekutukan) Engkau dengan sesuatu yang kami ketahui, dan kami memohon ampun dari (menyekutukan) dengan sesuatu yang tidak kami ketahui.
On a side note, What's the difference between istighfar and taubah?
The verb ghafara does not linguistically mean “to forgive”; rather, it means to shield, to protect, to conceal, and to cover. Like a helmet, which is called a “mighfaar.” From the root word ghafara comes istighfar and two of Allah swt's names, Allah al-Ghaffur wal-Ghaffar.
In a talk, Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim once said, (from my understanding coupled with extra reading, mafhumnya) like a mighfaar, which the Arabs used in fights to cover their heads from injuries and dust, - dust that creeps up into their eyes, blinding them from an otherwise easy victory, we ask Allah to forgive us and along with that forgiveness,
1. cover up our sins from being publicly exposed, ( e.g. due to us mencari2 ke'aiban org lain " .. maka barangsiapa yg mengintip ke'aiban saudaranya, nescaya Allah akan mengintip ke'aibannya, dan siapa yang diintip Allah akan ke'aibannya, maka Allah akan membuka ke'aibannya walaupun dirahsiakan di lubang kenderaannya" as in HR Tirmizi )
2. protect us from being held accountable down till the nth degree level of sins ( e.g the fitnah we create from our negative akhlak or wrong words of advice as in HR Ibnu Majah; " .. sesiapa yang merintis kepada kejahatan lalu diikuti maka dia menanggung dosanya dengan sepenuhnya dan dosa-dosa mereka yang mengikutinya tanpa dikurangi dosa mereka itu sedikitpun.), and
3. protect us from the sins that creeps up unbeknownst to us (e.g. syirik kecil and riya' as in the HR Ahmad: "Shirku'l-Khafi in the Muslim nation is more inconspicuous than the creeping of a black ant on a black stone in the darkness of the night." ).
In a shorter version, a scholar Barmawi explains in a commentary of Imam Bukhari that it is protecting man from the commission of sin or protecting him from the punishment of a sin that he has committed. There's also an opinion that it includes asking for strength and Allah's protection from the hawa' that had led us to sin and to avoid repeating, especially since " Seorang mu'min tidak akan jatuh ke dalam satu lubang dua kali" (HR Bukhari wal Muslim).
On the other hand, Taubah, is "returning". Syarat2 dia are menyesal, meninggalkan, berazam x buat lagi, selesaikan hutang manusia, but those are simply the rules untuk taubat diterima, it is not the taubat itself. Taubat is kembali kepada Allah - its an action. Literally. Whether you actually change your action/course/attention or not.
You can't say, saya bertaubat, without action. Okay, stopping the sin is an action by itelf iA, but you have to 'kembali' jugak. It's like, if you rebelled and ran away from home, then you menyesal and decided to come back again. It's whether you actually do make the effort to come back. Or is it just a decision without action, where you simply sit down at the place you stopped and cry hoping your parents will miraculously find you. So when you make a U-turn towards your house, that U-turn is the taubat.
InsyaAllah, Allah melihat pada usaha, bukan hasilnya.
When we say, astaghfirullah al Azhim wa atubu ilaih, we're asking (begging) for Allah's forgiveness and saying (declaring to Allah) that we are returning to Him and His orders. Dengarkanlah Ya Allah, I'm returning to You.. Those words are nothing unless accompanied by the heart and limbs. You can't say I'm returning I'm returning 100x a day without actually doing it. Moga kita tak termasuk dalam golongan munafik.
Allah at-Tawwab means, Allah the Oft-Returning, scholars say it means that when we turn to Allah swt with a sincere heart, Allah swt turns even more to us, like in HR Bukhari where Allah swt says " .. and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running." Allah is at-Tawwab.
Dalam al Qur'an, ada ayat Allah suruh istighfar, ada ayat Allah suruh bertaubat. Let's tadabbur and contemplate on the meaning of those orders every time we read them.
Wallahu a'lam
