Exegesis of the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic: ((Except for the one who repents)), and a discussion on repentance and its conditions.

The Shaykh : Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: Repented from what? Repented from which thing? From these three: shirk (associating partners with Allah). If he repents from shirk, Allah forgives him. Killing the soul: if he repents, Allah forgives him. Zina (unlawful sexual intercourse): if he repents, Allah forgives him. And the evidence for this is the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic: meaning: from their kufr (disbelief) . All sins that have passed. So if someone used to prostrate to an idol and call upon the idol for aid, then Allah guided him, and he became sincere and disavowed shirk, would the previous shirk harm him? Answer, everyone? It does not harm him, because he repented. If a person killed a soul without right, then he regretted and repented to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that does not harm him, because he repented. But he must surrender himself to the awliya (close friends of Allah) of the murdered person, otherwise his repentance is not valid. He must surrender himself to the awliya of the murdered person so that they may kill him, or take the diyah (blood money), or pardon him. If he committed zina, may Allah protect us, then he regretted and repented, is he held accountable for the zina? No. He is not held accountable for his zina. But as for the woman with whom he committed zina, does she have a right over him such that we say to him: seek her pardon, or not? There is a detail here: if she was willing, she has no right. And if she was coerced, she has the right. So he must seek her pardon. Meaning: he asks her to pardon him, because he transgressed against her, and perhaps she was a virgin and he ruined her. So the matter is great. We return to the saying of Allah, Exalted is He: . So what is repentance? And what are its conditions?
Repentance is returning to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, from His disobedience to His obedience. This is repentance. And its conditions are five: The first: sincerity for Allah. The second: regret for what was done. The third: abandoning it. The fourth: the resolve not to return to it. The fifth: that the repentance be in a time in which repentance is accepted. Five conditions. The first: sincerity for Allah. The second: regret for the sins that occurred from him. The third: abandoning the sin immediately. The fourth: that he resolves not to return to it. The fifth: that it be in a time in which repentance is accepted. So whoever repents out of consideration for the creation, his repentance is not accepted, because he did not repent to Allah, but rather he repented to whom? To the creation. So it is not accepted. And it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that he said: . - Be careful, my brother! - Sincere the intention for Allah. If you gave charity of one hundred riyals so that people would say: you are generous, would it be accepted? It is not accepted, because you associated with Allah. Give charity so that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: this is My servant who gave charity to draw near to Me. Good.
The second: regret. It must be that there is sorrow in your heart for the sin that occurred. It must not be that your doing the disobedience and not doing it are the same. It must be that there is sorrow in your heart, you grieve. You say: I wish I had not done it! Satan led me astray, and the like of that.
The third: abandoning the sin. And how heavy this condition is for many people! Abandoning. So let us look: a person leaves off the prayer. How is abandoning the leaving off of the prayer? Who knows? That he prays. A person eats riba (usury or interest). How is abandoning? That he leaves off the riba. A person transgressed against a person and hit him. How is abandoning? Abandoning must be that he seeks his pardon, he says: O so-and-so, pardon me. A person backbit someone, he spoke about his honor while he was absent. How is abandoning from it? That he holds back from his backbiting and that he seeks his pardon. He says: O so-and-so, pardon me. And if your Muslim brother comes to you asking for your pardon, do not reject him. Pardon him so that your reward is upon whom? Upon Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Allah, Exalted is He, said: . Some people, may Allah protect us, are taken by arrogance in sin. So when his brother comes to seek his pardon, he says: How can I pardon you when you violated my honor, and you spoke about me in the gatherings, and the like of that? We say: as long as the man came to seek your pardon, then count the reward upon Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And perhaps if you pardon him, your backbiting of him will turn into praise for you. And this is the reality. Good. If the sin was taking money from a person, theft or usurpation or the like of that. How is abandoning from it? That you return the money to him. Return the money to him. If he says: I cannot. If you went and gave him, for example: one hundred riyals. He would say: you took a thousand from me, and then you made a problem. We say: if you fear this, then there are ways: that you give the money to a trustworthy person. And you say: O so-and-so, this money I took by theft from a person, from the specific man. May Allah reward you with good, deliver it to him and say to him: this is money that was taken from you in the past. And you are absolved by this. If you do not find a trustworthy person, put it in an envelope and send it by mail and do not write your own address. And say: this is from a brother of yours who repented to Allah and he took it from you, so pardon him. If you do not know him, such as if it is a shop owner from whom you took something and the man traveled and you do not know who he is and you do not know his place. So what do you do? You give it in charity to get rid of it. You give it in charity to get rid of it, not to draw near to Allah. Because if you gave it in charity to draw near to Allah, Allah would not accept it from you. But give it in charity to its owner to get rid of it. Good. If its owner is a disbeliever, and this happens from some people, he has a non-Muslim worker and he wrongs him and does not pay him, and the worker travels and he does not know about him, not his place, not his name, not anything by which he can reach him. Then he gets rid of these coins by giving them either to the public treasury or to a poor person or the like of that. And this man, if he becomes a Muslim, the charity benefits him, you benefited him with the charity. And if he does not become a Muslim, the charity does not benefit him, because the disbeliever is not benefited by any righteous deed. And what is left with us? The resolve not to return. Meaning it is necessary that you resolve not to return. If you repent sincerely to Allah, regretting what you did, abandoning it, but in your heart it is that if the second disobedience became easy for you, you would do it. Then the repentance is not valid, because your repentance now is temporary until the opportunity presents itself for you and you do the disobedience. This does not benefit. Good. Is it a condition that he does not return, or is it not a condition? The answer: it is not a condition, meaning it is not a condition of repentance that he does not return. Perhaps the person is resolving not to return, then his nafs (self) that commands evil overpowers him and he returns. If he returns, the previous repentance is not invalidated. But he must renew a repentance for the sin he did.
The fifth condition: that the repentance be in a time in which repentance is accepted. So this excludes the case when death approaches a person and he repents, then it is not accepted from him, repentance is not accepted from him, due to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: . This is what benefits him. And therefore, when drowning overtook Pharaoh, what did he say? . And it was said to him: you believe and you become one of the Muslims . Meaning: it is not accepted from him. And this condition, O brothers, necessitates that we hasten to repentance and not delay. Why? Why, everyone? Because we do not know when death will come to us. How many people died on their beds! And how many people died in their cars! How many people were walking and fell and died! If it is like this, then hasten with repentance lest death surprise you.
As for the second: it is the rising of the sun from its west. For if the sun rises from its west . There is no repentance. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . And that is because this great sun that was commanded to move in order, rises from the east and sets in the west. When the time of its coming out from the west comes, it asks Allah, Mighty and Majestic, for permission to come out from the east. He says: come out from the west, and it comes out. When people see it, they all believe. But those who did not believe before, their belief does not benefit them.
I ask Allah, the Exalted, to accept repentance from me and from you, a sincere repentance, and to guide us to what is in our good and rectification in our religion and our worldly affairs, and to record that for all Muslims, for He is Able to do all things. And to the questions in the remaining time.
The student: May Allah reward the honorable Shaykh with the best reward and benefit us all with what we have heard.