Answer to those who ask "Am I responsible for my previous actions after I start to live by Islam?"
According to the Qur'an, people who do not know about Islam are "ignorant" and cannot distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Once they embrace Islam, however, they obtain this knowledge, leave their former un-Islamic ways behind, ask for Allah's forgiveness, and repent. As a manifestation of
Allah's infinite mercy, He promises to accept all people's repentance and transform their wrong actions into good, provided that they sincerely turn to Him, repent for their sins, and follow the righteous path:
… Except for those who repent and believe and act rightly: Allah will transform the wrong actions of such people into good—Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful (Surat al-Furqan, 70)
But I am Ever-Forgiving to anyone who repents and has faith and acts rightly and then is guided. (Surat al-Anbiya', 82)
Repentance is an act of worship that is not unique to new Muslims. In reality, it is a lifetime worship performed by all Muslims, one that guides them to Allah's infinite mercy and forgiveness, for no believer is
immune to committing sins and making mistakes.
In Allah's presence, believers strive to maintain a balance between hope and fear. Given that they cannot know their situation until they die and face Allah on the Day of Judgment, there is no way for them to
feel secure against Allah's punishment. This aside, no matter how desperate their situation or how great their
sin, they do not despair of Allah's mercy.
One of satan's greatest tricks is to infect people with hopelessness by causing them to believe such things as: "It is too late," "No one can save you now," or "You have already immersed yourself in sin." By
insinuating such false claims, satan and his followers seek to distance people from Allah's mercy. Allah
warns people against this trap in many verses and calls them to ask for repentance and forgiveness:
Say: "My servants, you who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful." Turn to
your Lord and submit to Him before punishment comes upon you, for then you cannot be helped.
Follow the best that has been sent down to you from your Lord before the punishment comes upon you suddenly, when you are not expecting it. (Surat az-Zumar, 53-55)
Allah desires to turn toward you, but those who pursue their lower appetites desire to make you deviate completely. (Surat an-Nisa', 27)
Anyone who does evil or wrongs himself and then asks Allah's forgiveness will find Allah Ever- Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nisa', 110)
Seeing these verses, those who have true faith in the Qur'an can escape the trap of hopelessness. However, those who insist upon their sins and continue to disobey Allah's commands and
prohibitions on the grounds that "Allah forgives in any case" fall into another trap of satan. As long as they do not regret what they have done and turn to the right path, their repentance will have no worth, for Allah
makes clear in the following verse what type of repentance He accepts:
Allah only accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and then quickly repent after doing it. Allah turns toward such people. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. (Surat an-Nisa', 17)
To conclude, those who forsake their former actions and resolutely turn toward Islam are not held
responsible for what they did in the past, no matter how sinful their activities were. This assessment also holds true for believers. In other words, believers pay no attention to what people might have done before embracing Islam, for from then on, the Qur'an will regulate their days and they will be held responsible for this in Allah's sight.

Answer to the "I want to live by the religion, but I cannot find the internal strength to do so."


This sentence is truly an expression of insincerity. People who utter such words actually know that they are seeking a way to avoid complying with Islam's regulations so that they can continue to follow their selfish desires and passions. Religion does not impose a burdensome way of living upon anybody. Moreover, since Allah created humanity to serve Him, doing so is each person's main duty and is inherent in his or her very nature. In the Qur'an, Allah relates that He created humanity to serve Him, as follows:
I only created jinn and man to worship Me. (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 56)
Claiming that one does not have enough willpower, self-discipline, and self-control to live by Islam's regulations is nothing but an insincere way of evading one's obligations, for:
We do not impose on any self any more than it can stand. With Us there is a Book that speaks the truth. They will not be wronged. However, their hearts are overwhelmed by ignorance about this
matter, and they do other things as well. (surat al-Muminun, 62-63)
As for those who believe and do right actions—We impose upon no self any more than it can bear—they are the Companions of the Garden, remaining in it timelessly, forever. (Surat al-A'raf, 42)
As the verse "Struggle for Allah with the struggle due to Him. He has selected you and not placed any constraint upon you in the religion—the religion of your forefather Ibrahim…" (Surat al-Hajj, 78) stresses, Islam does not place any unbearable burden upon anyone. Its acts of worship, which are very easy to perform, pose no physical difficulties. The morality and the way of life which Allah established in the Qur'an, grant the believers the inner peace, trust, joy and comfort, enable them to experience the true love and friendship, and make them free from concerns, fears and ambitions. Accordingly, Qur'an proclaims that Allah's Messenger (pbuh) "relieves them [his followers] of their heavy loads and the chains that were around them" (Surat al-A'raf, 157). This is also apparent in the Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) words: "Make thing easy, and do not e make them difficult, and give good tidings and do not make people run away." (Bukhari)
Consequently, it is senseless to say: "I have no strength to live by the religion." Only one thing explains the state of those who, even after all of the truths explained above, still assert such weakness: Under
the influence of their selfish desires, they are looking for a pretext that will allow them to evade the Qur'an's
morality. The Qur'an points out that "those with a sickness in their hearts" make up such excuses to evade the ordeals that believers sometimes undergo.
The verse below explains the state of those who display a similar mentality:
Those who associate others with Allah will say: "If Allah had willed, we would not have associated anything with Him, nor would our fathers; nor would we have made anything unlawful." In the same way, the
people before them also lied until they felt Our violent force. Say: "Do you have some knowledge that you
can produce for us? You are following nothing but conjecture. You are only guessing." (Surat a-An'am, 148) The greatest mistake of such insincere people who offer such excuses is their assumption that they
can deceive Allah and believers. However, they can never deceive Allah, Who knows "what the hearts contain" (Surah Fatir, 38) or believers, to whom Allah grants "a standard [by which to judge between truth
and falsehood]." (Surat al-Anfal, 29)