Repentance: The Outward and the Inward
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Your Excellency the Shaykh, is repentance merely attending to the outward appearance while neglecting the inward reality, as is the case with many people?
Answer:
You have heard the answer that repentance is not by the outward appearance alone, nor by the tongue alone. Repentance is by speech, action, and belief. The Muslim repents to Allah with a sincere, pure repentance, dedicated to Allah the Exalted and Majestic, and truthful. It is a truthful repentance, not the repentance of liars, hypocrites, and those who show off. Rather, it is a truthful repentance with the tongue, the heart, and the action as well. Those who repented and reformed—along with the repentance, their actions are reformed. As for one who repents with his tongue but does not reform his actions, this is not a valid repentance. Yes.
The questioner says: Your Excellency the Shaykh, is repentance merely attending to the outward appearance while neglecting the inward reality, as is the case with many people?
Answer:
You have heard the answer that repentance is not by the outward appearance alone, nor by the tongue alone. Repentance is by speech, action, and belief. The Muslim repents to Allah with a sincere, pure repentance, dedicated to Allah the Exalted and Majestic, and truthful. It is a truthful repentance, not the repentance of liars, hypocrites, and those who show off. Rather, it is a truthful repentance with the tongue, the heart, and the action as well. Those who repented and reformed—along with the repentance, their actions are reformed. As for one who repents with his tongue but does not reform his actions, this is not a valid repentance. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-03-التوبة آداب وأحكام|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (30:49)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.