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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is it a condition for repentance that it encompass all sins, or is repentance from some of them valid?

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Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: Is it a condition that the servant repent from all sins, or is his repentance valid if he repents from some of them? Because I read that the scholar al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) reported the consensus that this is not a condition, and he only reported the requirement from the Mu'tazilah. I also read that Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned the disagreement in *Miftah Dar al-Sa'adah*, stating that there are two narrations from Imam Ahmad. So, what is the correct position in this matter?

Answer:
No, absolutely not. Repentance must be comprehensive, covering all sins and disobediences. However, if you repent from a specific sin, that sin is forgiven, but the name of the second sin remains upon you. For example, if someone abandons prayer, drinks intoxicants, commits unlawful sexual intercourse, and consumes riba (usury or interest), and he repents to Allah and maintains his prayer, or repents to Allah and abandons riba, or abandons unlawful sexual intercourse, Allah forgives him that specific sin, but the second sin remains upon him, and he needs to repent from it.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [2228- 4717] هل يشترط في التوبة أن تكون شاملة لجميع الذنوب أم تصح التوبة من بعض الذنوب؟ — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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