Learning to Acknowledge Mistakes

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – “Every human being makes mistakes, and the best of those who make mistakes are those who repent” (HR Tirmidhi).

Umar bin Khattab was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who was said to be someone that the devil feared to tempt. He was a strong, firm, and resolute man, but he was still human.

One day, Umar was offended by something Abu Bakar said. His heart was hurt, so he went home.

He left Abu Bakar to protect his hurt feelings from getting worse.

What he didn’t know at the time was that Abu Bakar actually regretted what had happened. Eventually, this man, known as ash-Shiddiq, went to Umar’s house to apologize.

He didn’t want the bad feelings to continue to haunt him, because conscience is always honest; he acknowledged his mistakes and errors, even if his tongue denied them.

However, Abu Bakar felt even more pain in his heart, because when he apologized to Umar, Umar refused to forgive him.

He couldn’t bear the pain in his heart because his good intentions were not accepted by Umar. Then, he went to see the Prophet Muhammad to ease the burden on his heart.

Umar also regretted what he had done, namely closing the door when Abu Bakar came to apologize.

Therefore, he went to Abu Bakar’s house, but Abu Bakar was not at home. Then he went to the Prophet’s house.

There, these two companions met; there they did not count their merits and did not defend themselves so that they were the ones who were right while the other was wrong. Instead, the opposite happened.