The Conditions of Valid Repentance and the Ruling on Debt
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Question:
May Allah reward you with good. The questioner says: I am a young man who has repented, and I have a debt, but I have found nothing with which to pay it off. I am confused about this matter. What are the conditions of valid repentance?
Answer:
The door of repentance is open, and praise be to Allah. You must repent to Allah with a valid repentance, and its conditions are known: three. First, that you abandon the sins.
Do not repent with your tongue while you are still persisting in the sins; rather, abandon the sins. This is the first condition. The second condition is that you resolve that you will not return to them in the future. The third condition is that you feel remorse for what occurred from you and seek forgiveness. And always, when you remember the sins, seek forgiveness and feel remorse. And if there is an injustice between you and people.
This sin is an injustice to people, so the fourth condition is that you seek their pardon, asking them for forgiveness, or that you enable them to take retribution from yourself. These are four conditions for the repentance of one who has committed injustices against the servants of Allah. As for what is between the servant and Allah, repentance has three conditions: abandoning the sin, resolving not to return to it, and feeling remorse for what has passed. As for the debt, if you are well-off and able to pay it, it is obligatory for you to pay it, and it is not permissible for you to delay. Rather, the debt is a very serious matter because it is a right from the rights of the servants, and it does not drop except by their pardon and forgiveness, or by giving them their rights. Otherwise, they will take retribution from you on the Day of Resurrection, so their right does not drop except by paying it or by their forgiveness if they forgive.
As for if you are unable to pay it, Allah the Exalted says:[Al-Baqarah 2:280] So you are patient until Allah makes it easy for you to pay it off, but with the resolve to pay it off when you are able.
May Allah reward you with good. The questioner says: I am a young man who has repented, and I have a debt, but I have found nothing with which to pay it off. I am confused about this matter. What are the conditions of valid repentance?
Answer:
The door of repentance is open, and praise be to Allah. You must repent to Allah with a valid repentance, and its conditions are known: three. First, that you abandon the sins.
Do not repent with your tongue while you are still persisting in the sins; rather, abandon the sins. This is the first condition. The second condition is that you resolve that you will not return to them in the future. The third condition is that you feel remorse for what occurred from you and seek forgiveness. And always, when you remember the sins, seek forgiveness and feel remorse. And if there is an injustice between you and people.
This sin is an injustice to people, so the fourth condition is that you seek their pardon, asking them for forgiveness, or that you enable them to take retribution from yourself. These are four conditions for the repentance of one who has committed injustices against the servants of Allah. As for what is between the servant and Allah, repentance has three conditions: abandoning the sin, resolving not to return to it, and feeling remorse for what has passed. As for the debt, if you are well-off and able to pay it, it is obligatory for you to pay it, and it is not permissible for you to delay. Rather, the debt is a very serious matter because it is a right from the rights of the servants, and it does not drop except by their pardon and forgiveness, or by giving them their rights. Otherwise, they will take retribution from you on the Day of Resurrection, so their right does not drop except by paying it or by their forgiveness if they forgive.
As for if you are unable to pay it, Allah the Exalted says:
And if someone is in hardship, then [let there be] postponement until [a time of] ease.
وَإِن كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما نصيحتكم لمن تاب وعليه دين وليس معه مال؟ وما هي شروط التوبة الصحيحة؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.