When is repentance cut off, and what are its conditions?

The questioner : The questioner asks: When is repentance cut off? What is the ruling on the repentance of one who has been sentenced to death, or one who is besieged in a place that is burning, or one who is in an airplane and a malfunction occurs, causing it to begin falling to the ground?

The Shaykh : Repentance is returning to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) from His disobedience to His obedience. It has five conditions, which we will list now. The first is sincerity to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The second is regret for committing the sin. The third is abandoning it, meaning abandoning the sin. The fourth is the resolve not to return to it. The fifth is that it occurs within the time in which repentance is accepted. The conditions are five: sincerity, regret, abandoning the sin, the resolve not to return, and that it be within the time in which repentance is accepted. The time in which repentance is accepted is before the sun rises from the west and before the onset of death. The evidence for this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: This person has no repentance, upon Allah .
The evidence for the second time, the rising of the sun from the west, is the saying of Allah the Exalted: And some of the verses to which Allah referred in this verse is the rising of the sun from the west. So if a person repents after the sun rises from the west, his repentance is not accepted. Now, regarding the conditions you heard, we mentioned the resolve not to return. Is there a difference between this expression and saying "and not returning"? There is a difference. Please proceed.

Another questioner : Yes, there is a difference between them. The resolve not to return is the will not to return. But "not returning" means he is unable to return; he does not have the ability to return.

The Shaykh : It is a resolve. We say "the resolve not to return." This is the second expression: "not returning."

Another questioner : "Not returning" may not be due to a resolve, but he does not return because he is unable to do that thing.

The Shaykh : No, what is this? Are you better than him? Huh? Yes. Huh?

Another questioner : The great voice. The resolve not to return: Satan tempts him, and he returns, but then he repents. If he does not repent, but in the first repentance... The resolve not to return. The complete first repentance. But if Satan tempts him and he returns to it, he returns to the act of accusation from him. Only "not returning." So if he returns...

The Shaykh : I mean, he says: Rest. If you did not understand what he said, that is what I want. The difference between our saying "the resolve not to return" and our saying "not returning" is that if he returns—if we say "not returning," it implies that if he returns to the sin a second time, huh? The first repentance is not accepted; the first repentance is annulled. And if we say "the resolve not to return," it implies that if he resolves, his repentance is valid. If he returns, the first repentance is not annulled, but he needs a new repentance for the return. Is that clear or not? Good. An example of that is a man who committed a sin and repented with the five conditions we mentioned.
But he returned to it a second time. Does his first repentance become annulled or not? The answer is no, because this man resolved not to return, but he returned, so the first repentance is not annulled. If we said "not returning to the sin a second time" and then he returned, then the first repentance is annulled. Yes. So the expression is "the resolve not to return." Good, let's go. Leave this for the night. Is this repentance? The answer is yes, it is valid.
It is valid. All three are valid, because the one in the plane that has fallen may be saved. Perhaps he may be saved. And I read in some newspapers a few years ago that a Sudanese plane, or its pilot was Sudanese, had its electricity fail while it was in the air. Its electricity failed while it was in the air. And I think if the electricity fails in a plane, it falls. Do you not find pilots who teach us about this? Yes. Yes? Yes, come, come, come. Yes, indeed. Peace be upon you, and upon you be peace. What? Does it not issue? Does the engine not fail?

Another questioner : If the electricity fails.

The Shaykh : Yes, and what do I do?

Another questioner : Let's go. How do you make it? Yes, indeed. There are different alternatives. But if the engines fail, the electricity fails, or let it be true from...

The Shaykh : Yes. Good. May Allah bless you. In any case, what I read was that the electricity failed, but perhaps I forgot, and it was the engines that failed. But the man, the pilot of the plane, ordered them to say Allahu Akbar, to say La ilaha illa Allah, and to ask Allah for relief. He said: So, by the permission of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), the plane landed on the ground.
And its wing was on... and it landed in the river, in the Nile River, in the Nile River. Its wing was on the ground, and the fuselage of the plane was in the middle of the river, meaning that it did not crash because it fell on water, and Allah made its wing a bridge for them to cross to the land. So Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) may save the one whose plane has fallen. As for the one who was in a house that was burning, likewise, he may be saved. And likewise, the one who was sentenced to death, the death may be lifted. The important thing is that the repentance of these three is valid. Yes.