IN the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
The Qur’an says, “Rally to Allah in repentance, O faithful, so that you may be felicitous.” (Qur’an – 24:31)
Islam stresses that in order to gain the bountiful grace of Allah SWT, in addition to performing good deeds, one must avoid sin and because of the inclination of humanity towards sin, the believers are constantly commanded to seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent.
“Seek forgiveness from your Lord then repent to Him. My Lord is indeed all-merciful, all-affectionate.” (Qur’an- 11:90)
Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of believing in Allah SWT. The Qur’an teaches that if one made any mistakes during his journey and had problems in self-monitoring he should not despair but should get help throw repentance. The Qur’an in many verses encourages people to repent, and as it says, all the Prophets were involved in clearly communicating to others to repent. For example, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said,
“Plead with your Lord for forgiveness, and then turn to Him penitently. He will provide you with a good provision for a specified term and grant His grace to every meritorious person.” (Qur’an- 11:3)
The first words of Prophet Hud (AS) were this, “My people seek forgiveness from your Lord, and then repent to Him.” (Qur’an- 11:52)
Prophet Salih (AS) also made the same words as the basis of his mission and said,
“Seek His forgiveness, and then repent to Him. My Lord is Near, Responsive.” (Qur’an- 11:61)
Likewise, in Islamic traditions, the importance and necessity of repentance has been emphasized. Repentance is mentioned as a main principle in traditions and the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his pure households (peace be upon them) called all believers to enter through the gate of this divine mercy to redeem themselves and compensate for their mistakes and shortages.
Repentance is not only believing in Allah, but rather as we believe and make a decision to trust and follow Almighty Allah, we will repent and turn from our old ways. Many scholars of ethics have mentioned repentance as the first step of moral refinement and the journey toward Almighty Allah. They mean a kind of repentance, which cleans the heart from pollutions, changes its dark spots into bright spots, and disburdens the heavy load of sins from the back of the human being in order to make him able to follow the way of Allah SWT. When that beautiful flowers of true repentance spring up in a man’s heart, the salvation comes to that man.
The literal meaning of repentance (Tawba) is “to return” or “to retreat.” When it is attributed to a sinner, it means returning from sin. In the Qur’an and Islamic traditions, it has been attributed to Allah repeatedly. In these cases, it means returning to the special mercy, which was taken back from the sinner because of committing sin. When a sinful person returns toward the way of worshipping and servitude of Allah SWT, the special blessing of Almighty Allah return to him as well, and it is for the very fact that one of the Divine Attributes is Tawwab (which means He is the most returning to His mercy and the most accepting of repentance).
Therefore, it is better to say that, the reality of repentance (tawbah) is returning to Almighty Allah or returning to the straight path. In each tawbah, there are three reversions. At first, Allah returns to his servant, blesses him, and succeeds him for repentance. Then the servant repents and returns to Allah. Then Almighty Allah returns to him by accepting the repentance. Therefore, the repentance of servant is between two repentance of Allah.
“Allah returned to them and paid attention towards them that they might repent. Indeed, God is the Merciful Repentance-Accepter.” (Qur’an- 9:118)
“Whoever repents after his wrongdoing, and reforms, then Allah shall repent to him (and accept his repentance). Indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.” (Qur’an- 5:39)
As indicated previously, the reality of repentance from sins and mistakes is to regret from what one has done before and deciding to change his way of life. As for the present, he leaves that sinful action, and as for the future he decides to leave the sin, which deprive him of his beloved, and concerning the past he tries to compensate his negligence. The Qur’an says,
“Those who, if they commit any evil, or wrong themselves, they remember God and seek forgiveness for their sins. Moreover, who can forgive the sins except God? They do not persist in what they have done while they know.” (Qur’an- 3:135)
Realising the ugliness of sin is the first step in repentance. It is important to understand the harms and losses, which are caused by sins. When man understand properly that sin creates a veil between the Almighty Allah SWT and his servants, he worries about missing his beloved and since he knows that it was his own actions, which led him to this deprivation, he regrets, and feels with remorse. This regret causes him to decide for reforming the past, the present and future.
In fact, the light of knowledge and certainty is the origin of the regret that in turn leads to those triple positions about the past, the present, and future. On the other hand, we can say as Seyidinah Ali (RA) said, “Repentance is the regret in the heart and a strong decision to change in the behavior.” After this decision, it is the time of reformation. This is what which some thinkers introduce as the spiritual revolution. They believe that repentance is a kind of revolution in the human’s soul and spirit compelling him to review his programs.
Sometimes repentance itself is not enough and the repentant should compensate the results of his previous actions. In the Qur’an, repentance is frequently associated with amending and compensation.
“Whoever of you commits an evil [deed] out of ignorance and then repents after that and reforms (and amends), then He is indeed all-forgiving, all-merciful.” (Qur’an- 6:54)
“Except those who repent and amend and manifest the truth [which they have concealed], for those I will accept their repentance, for I am the all-clement, the all-merciful.” (Qur’an- 2:160)
“Except those who repent after that and amend, then surely Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.” (Qur’an 3:89 and Qur’an 24:5)
“Except those who repent and amend, and hold fast to Allah and dedicate their religion exclusively to Allah.” (Qur’an- 4:146)
“Then indeed your Lord, to those who commit evil out of ignorance and then repent after that, and reform indeed, after that, your Lord will surely be all-forgiving, all-merciful.” (Qur’an- 16:119)
“Indeed, I am all-forgiver toward him who repents, becomes faithful and acts righteously, and then follows guidance.” (Qur’an- 20:82)
From the aforementioned verses, we can recognize that repentance is not only to ask verbally forgiveness from Allah and even it is not to regret from the past deeds and decide to leave sins in the future. Rather in addition to them a real penitent should compensate as much as possible, the faults happened in the past and amend bad results that sin has left in the society.
Another important point here is that the word “amend” (Islah) in previously mentioned verses, like other Qur’anic expressions, has a comprehensive meaning which includes all kind of making up for the past. The most inclusive interpretation of “amend” is what Seyidinah Ali (RA) has mentioned. Once a person said before his highness, “Astaghfirullah (I seek the forgiveness of Allah).” Seyidinah Ali (RA) said, “Do you know what the meaning of “Istighfar” (asking forgiveness) is.” “Istighfar is the rank of people of high position. It is a word that stands on six steps: the first is to repent over the past. The second is to make a firm determination never to repeat it. The third is to discharge all the rights of people so that you may meet Allah quite clean with nothing to account for. Fourth is to fulfill every obligatory act, which you ignored (in the past) so that you may now do justice with it. Fifth is to aim at the flesh grown because of unlawful earnings, so that it may melt by grief (of repentance) till the skin touches the bone and a new flesh grows between them. Six is to make the body taste the pain of obedience as you previously made it taste the sweetness of disobedience. On such occasions, you may say Astaghfirullah (I seek the forgiveness of Allah).”
It should be noted that some of the aforementioned conditions are conditions of a complete repentance, like those of five and six, but the first four are necessary conditions.
In another traditions the Prophet (SAW) is quoted as saying, “the signs of repentant are four: sympathetic attitude toward religion and Allah’s servants, forsaking wrong, following right, and trying hard to perform good deeds.” “If one repents without satisfying his litigants, he is not repentant. Whoever repents without increasing his worship is not repentant. Whoever repents without changing his cloths (conducts) is not repentant. Whoever repents without changing his companions is not repentant. Whoever repents without changing his meetings is not repentant. Whoever repents without changing his morals and intent is not repentant. Whoever repent without opening his heart and giving with his hand generously is not repentant. Whoever repents without repressing his wishes and controlling his tongue is not repentant. Whoever repents without gifting the further power of his body is not repentant. If he does these things, he will be (a real) repentant.”
Another requirement of the reformation for a real repentance is to try his best to not revert to the sin.
There are some instructions that should be observed by the penitent:
He should review his friends and companions and cut off with the bad friends who encourage him to sin. Qur’an says that in the Hereafter some people say,
“Woe to me! I wish I had not taken so and so as a friend! Certainly he led me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me.” (Qur’an: 25: 28-29)
He must be secluded from the occasions of sin and not participate in sinful company. Because the penitent is vulnerable at the beginning like a patient, which has just been rescued from illness, and if he steps in the polluted areas he may be affected again; like an addict who has given up narcotic substances, but whenever he comes back to the polluted areas, he will be polluted immediately. The Qur’an says “When you see those who gossip impiously about Our signs, avoid them until they engage in some other discourse; but if Satan makes you forget, then, after remembering, do not sit with the wrongdoing lot.” (Qur’an- 6:68)
Whenever he feels temptations and motives of sin, he should remember God, His kindnesses and favors to penitents, and consider that He knows whatever [deeds] he does. This is the way to attain inner peace and tranquility as the Qur’an says,
“In Allah’s remembrance the hearts find tranquility (and become assured).” (Qur’an- 13:28)
He should constantly think about the damaging results of sin and set them before his eyes, lest due to negligence and forgetting these fatal results, the sinful motives grow again and temptations attack his heart. Moreover, he should think about punishments and penalties assigned for each sin, and take this probability seriously that in case of repetition of sin after repentance, the punishment may be more intense. The Qur’an says,
“Have they not traveled over the land so that they may observe how the fate of those who were before them was? They were greater than them in might, and with respect to the effects [they left] in the land. But then Allah seized them for their sins, and they had no defender against Allah [’s punishment].” (Qur’an- 40:21)
The final point here is that those who are content only with asking forgiveness toward the large number of sins without observing the principles and conditions of repentance, it seems that they are ridiculing themselves or deriding repentance and forgiveness.
and then