1) Young Muslims - The Message

then he goes astray to his own loss. No one laden with burdens canbear another's burden”, (Sura Isra: 15), “And no bearer of burdensshall bear another's burden, and if one heavily laden calls anotherto (bear) his load, nothing of it will be lifted even though he be nearof kin” (Sura Fatir: 18). Each of us is accountable before Allah, TheAll-Seeing, for our own deeds. However, if one person encouragesanother to commit a sin, both are punishable. One of themdeserves punishment for actually committing the sin; the otherdeserves punishment for encouraging it.When a person commits a sin, he or she deserves Allah’spunishment. Fortunately, Allah is The Most Compassionate and TheOft-Forgiving. Allah acts out of infinite knowledge and justice.Muslims do not believe that Jesus, the son of Mary, had to die forthe sins of mankind. Allah, The Most Compassionate, forgiveswhomever He chooses. To believe that it was necessary for Jesus tosuffer and die in order to have our sins forgiven denies Allah’sinfinite power and justice. Allah is unlimited in His mercy.Allah, the Answerer, promises us that He will forgive us if we turn toHim in sincere repentance. Repentance is a serious matter. It is theway a person can attain salvation by the mercy of Allah. Repentancecannot be taken lightly. Sincere repentance has the followingconditions:1. The person must recognize and acknowledge that he or shehas committed a sin and must truly regret having done so.2. The person must humbly turn to Allah for forgiveness.3. The person must have a sincere resolve not to commit thesin again.4. If the sin caused harm to someone else, the person mustmake every possible attempt to remedy the harm.This does not mean that if the person returns to the same sin in thefuture, his or her former repentance is annulled. What is needed isa serious commitment in the heart not to sin again. Because we doYoung Muslims, What they should know about Islam Page - 198