2nd Ashra Dua:
“Astaghfirullaha Rabbi Min Kulli Zambin Wa Atoobu Ilaih.”
I seek Allah’s forgiveness for all my sins, Who is Lord, and I ask for repentance.
In the month of Ramadan, where some people try to obtain better world hereafter by praying to Allah, there are also those people who utilize this blessed month to seek forgiveness for their sins from Allah S.W.T. Objectives related to Ramadan vary from person to person thus, the days are divided into 3 parts in this month. First 10 days are for Mercy, next 10 days are for forgiveness for sins and the last 10 days are for freedom from Hell-fire. These days are known as Ashra in Ramadan.
What we usually see at the Mosques is that there are surge of people in first few days of Ramadan. This lasts till 5th or 6th of Ramadan and then it starts to immerse. Many of the people including us have this in our minds that in the beginning of Ramadan, we have a lot of inertia but then it starts to fade in the middle of the Ramadan and then all of a sudden in the last 10 days we people have that surge again in a search of Laila tul Qadr and for iteqaaf.
What we forget that the middle 10 days which is the 2nd ashra of Ramadan are the days of forgiveness from Allah, and in actual fact we should be increasing our passion in these middle 10 days. Like the first Ashra that allow us to seek mercy of Allah Almighty, second ashra is dedicated to giving us (Muslims) a chance to try to obtain forgiveness from Allah. Furthermore, the act of seeking forgiveness from Allah S.W.T is not just an effort of human being but in fact Allah returns the favor by forgiving such a person. In Quran, He says:
“And seek forgiveness of Allah. Indeed Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”
It is necessary for Muslims to think about these elements in these days of Repentance even more than any other days and this is the time we seek forgiveness and do rectifications for our mistakes, determined not to do them again. The Muslims should do Tauba over and over again, regularly and honestly for Allah loves our Tauba, and particularly during this Ashra Allah loves to forgive and loves those who seek forgiveness.