Don't be too late to raise your hands before your Almighty
He raised his hands with a sincerity he had never known before, with a humility he had never tasted, and as tears poured down on both cheeks he said: “O Allah, have mercy on me! O Allah, hide my sins! O Allah, forgive me!”
It was narrated that in the days that Prophet Moses (AS) wandered with the Bani Israel in the desert an intense drought befell them. Together, they raised their hands towards the heavens, praying for the blessed rain to come. Then, to the astonishment of Moses and all those watching, the few scattered clouds that were in the sky vanished, the heat poured down, and the drought intensified.
It was reveled to Moses that there was a sinner amongst the tribe of Bani Israel who had disobeyed Allah for more than forty years of his life. “Let him separate himself from the congregation,” Allah told Prophet Moses. “Only then shall I shower you all with rain.”
Moses then called out to the throngs of humanity, “There is a person amongst us who has disobeyed Allah for forty years. Let him separate himself from the congregation and only then shall we be rescued from the drought.” That man, waited, looking left right, hoping that someone else would step forward, but no one did. Sweat poured forth from his brow and he knew that he was the one.
The man knew that if he stayed amongst the congregation all would die of thirst and that if he stepped forward he would be humiliated for all eternity.
He raised his hands with a sincerity he had never known before, with a humility he had never tasted, and as tears poured down on both cheeks he said: “O Allah, have mercy on me! O Allah, hide my sins! O Allah, forgive me!”
While Prophet Moses and the people of Bani Israel awaited for the sinner to step forward, the clouds hugged the sky and the rain poured down. Moses asked Allah, “O Allah, you blessed us with rain even though the sinner did not come forward.” And Allah replied, “O Moses, it is for the repentance of that very person that I blessed all of the Bani Israel with water.”
Moses, wanting to know who this blessed man was, asked, “Show him to me O Allah!” Allah replied, “O Moses, I hide his sins for forty years, do you think that after his repentance I shall expose him?”