And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions: The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the Book of Seeking Forgiveness,

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the Book of Seeking Forgiveness:
"From Shaddad ibn Aws (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said:

The best supplication for seeking forgiveness (Syed-ul- Istighfar) is to say: 'Allahumma Anta Rabbi, la ilaha illa Anta, khalaqtani wa ana 'abduka, wa ana 'ala 'ahdika wa wa'dika mastata'tu, a'udhu bika min sharri ma sana'tu, abu'u laka bini'matika 'alayya, wa abu'u bidhanbi faghfir li, fa innahu la yaghfirudh-dhunuba illa Anta. (O Allah! You are my Rubb. There is no true god except You. You have created me, and I am Your slave, and I hold to Your Covenant as far as I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge the favours that You have bestowed upon me, and I confess my sins. Pardon me, for none but You has the power to pardon).' He who supplicates in these terms during the day with firm belief in it and dies on the same day (before the evening), he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah; and if anyone supplicates in these terms during the night with firm belief in it and dies before the morning, he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah.

سيد الاستغفار أن يقول العبد : اللهم أنت ربي لا إله إلا أنت ، خلقتني وأنا عبدك، وأنا على عهدك ووعدك ما استطعت ، أعوذ بك من شر ما صنعت ، أبوء لك بنعمتك عليَّ ، وأبوء بذنبي ، فاغفر لي، فإنه لا يغفر الذنوب إلا أنت، من قالها في النهار موقنا بها، فمات من يومه قبل أن يمسي، فهو من أهل الجنة، ومن قالها من الليل وهو موقن بها فمات قبل أن يصبح، فهو من أهل الجنة

Riyad as-Salihin 1875

Al-Bukhari narrated it.
And from Thawban (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

Whenever Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) finished his prayer, he used to say after asking Allah's forgiveness three times: "O Allah, You are as-Salam (One Free from every defect), and as-Salam (safety from every evil) is (sought) from You. Blessed are You, O Possessor of glory and honour."

كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا انصرف من صلاته، استغفر الله ثلاثاً، وقال : اللهم أنت السلام ومنك السلام، تباركت يا ذا الجلال والإكرام

Bulugh al-Maram 2:216

.
It was said to al-Awza'i—and he is one of its narrators: How is seeking forgiveness? He said: One says: I seek forgiveness from Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah. Muslim narrated it.
And from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to frequently say before his death: Glory be to Allah and His praise, I seek forgiveness from Allah and I repent to Him

كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يكثر أن يقول قبل موته : سبحان الله وبحمده، أستغفر الله وأتوب إليه

It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
And from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say:

Allah, the Exalted, has said: 'O son of Adam! I shall go on forgiving you so long as you pray to Me and aspire for My forgiveness whatever may be your sins. O son of Adam! I do not care even if your sins should pile up to the sky and should you beg pardon of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam! If you come to Me with an earthful of sins and meet Me, not associating anything with Me in worship, I will certainly grant you as much pardon as will fill the earth

قال الله تعالى : يا ابن آدم إنك ما دعوتني ورجوتني غفرتُ لك على ما كان منك ولا أُبالي، يا ابن آدم! لو بلغت ذنوبك عنان السماء، ثم استغفرتني غفرتُ لك ولا أبالي، يا ابن آدم إنك لو أتيتني بقراب الأرض خطايا، ثم لقيتني لا تشرك بي شيئاً، لأتيتك بقرابها مغفرة

Riyad as-Salihin 1878

Al-Tirmidhi narrated it and said: It is a good hadith.
And from Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

O women folk! You should give charity and be diligent in seeking Allah's forgiveness because I have seen (i.e., on the Night of the Ascension to the highest heavens) that dwellers of the Hell are women." A woman amongst them said: "Why is it that the majority of the dwellers of Hell are women?" The Prophet (ﷺ) replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. In spite of your lacking in wisdom and failing in religion, you are depriving the wisest of men of their intelligence." Upon this the woman asked: "What is the deficiency in our wisdom and in our religion?" He (ﷺ) replied, "Your lack of wisdom can be well judged from the fact that the evidence of two women is equal to that one man. You do not offer Salat (prayer) for some days

يا معشر النساء تصدقن، وأكثرن من الاستغفار، فإني رأيتكن أكثر أهل النار قالت امرأة منهن: ما لنا أكثر أهل النار ؟ قال: تكثرن اللعن، وتكفرن العشير، ما رأيت من ناقصات عقل ودين أغلب لذي لب منكن، قالت: ما نقصان العقل والدين ؟ قال: شهادة امرأتين بشهادة رجل، وتمكث الأيام لا تصلي

Riyad as-Salihin 1879

Muslim narrated it".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
These hadiths were cited by al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) in his book *Riyad al-Salihin* in the chapter on seeking forgiveness:
Among them is the hadith of Shaddad ibn Aws, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: : meaning the most noble and best of seeking forgiveness is that you say: .
He says: The master of seeking forgiveness is that you say: And you are His servant by nature and by law. His servant by nature: He does with you what He wills; if He wills, He makes you ill, and if He wills, He makes you healthy, and if He wills, He makes you rich, and if He wills, He makes you poor, and if He wills, He misguides you, and if He wills, He guides you, according to what His wisdom, Mighty and Majestic, requires. And likewise, you are His servant by law: you worship Him with what He has commanded, you carry out His commands and refrain from His prohibitions. You testify to that: : you testify that Allah created you, He is the One who brought you into existence from nothing, and that you are upon His covenant and His promise as long as you are able: upon His covenant, because every person has covenanted with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to act upon what he has been taught, : so whenever Allah gives you knowledge, He has covenanted with you to act upon it.
meaning: the verification of Your promise, what You promised the people of good of good, and what You promised the people of evil of evil. But I am upon Your promise, meaning: in good, because in these words you seek nearness to Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
: so you seek refuge in Allah from the evil of what you have done.
: meaning I acknowledge Your great, numerous blessings which I cannot count.
: I acknowledge it, this is the evidence, : so strive to preserve this supplication and keep it morning and evening, .
Then he mentioned other hadiths, among them the hadith of Thawban (may Allah be pleased with him): : when he finished, meaning: when he said the closing salam, the first thing you do when you say the salam from the obligatory prayer is to say: I seek forgiveness from Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah. How do you say "I seek forgiveness from Allah" when you have prayed and performed an act of obedience?
Because this obedience of yours is not free from deficiency and fault, so you seek forgiveness from Allah, the Exalted, for the fault that occurred in it.
And similar to that, the scholars who strive and those who pray in the night, when they finish their night prayer, they seek forgiveness, as Allah the Exalted said: .
And you say: Were it not for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, we would not be safe, nor would we act, nor stand, nor sit.
: and it does not contain "and You are Most High" in this place; in this place it does not contain "and You are Most High," but in other hadiths in another place it does contain it, as for this one.