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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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If one repents from a sin but persists in another, is his repentance accepted?

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The questioner : This questioner is Egyptian and resides in Riyadh. He says: If one repents from a sin but persists in another, is that accepted from him?

The Shaykh : It should be known that repentance has conditions; if they are met, the repentance is accepted. There are five conditions. The first condition is sincerity to Allah the Exalted, such that one is not driven to repent by showing off to people, seeking fame, or attaining a worldly matter. Rather, one repents out of fear of the punishment of Allah the Exalted and seeking His pleasure. The second is regret for the sin committed, where one feels sad and ashamed before Allah the Exalted for what he did.
The third is abandoning the sin immediately, so that one does not persist in it. And if it is a right belonging to a human being, it is obligatory for him to return it to him.
The fourth is the resolve not to return to it in the future. Repentance is not valid if his heart is set on the fact that whenever the opportunity presents itself, he will commit the sin. The fifth is that the repentance be within the time of obligation. Yes.
The fifth is that the repentance be at a time when it is accepted, and that is before the arrival of death. If it is at the arrival of death, it is not accepted, and Allah the Exalted said:
But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds up until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "Indeed, I have repented now,"وَلَيْسَتِ التَّوْبَةُ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السَّيِّئَاتِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَهُمُ الْمَوْتُ قَالَ إِنِّي تُبْتُ الْآنَ
[An-Nisa 4:18]
Likewise, repentance is not accepted when the sun rises from the west, because when the sun rises from the west, all people will believe, but faith does not benefit in that state, and neither does repentance. If these conditions are met, then Allah the Exalted accepts repentance from the sin, even if one is persisting in another. But this repentant person does not deserve to be described as an absolute repentant, but rather as one who repented from a sin only. Is it not permissible to call him "the repentant" or "the one who repents" or the like?
But some scholars stipulated that the sin one persists in must not be of the same kind as the one from which he repented. So if he repented from the forbidden looking at women, but he committed conversation and flirting and the like, his repentance from the looking is not accepted because the sin is of one kind. However, the correct view is that his repentance is accepted, but he is not considered among the repentant in an absolute sense. Yes. May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh, and may Allah bless you and your knowledge, and benefit the Muslims through you.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 2278- من تاب من ذنب وأصر على آخر هل تقبل التوبة منه/سؤال على الهاتف 📞 /ابن عثيمين — youtube.com

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

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