The Legitimacy of Repentance at All Times and Its Conditions

Question:
This is a female listener—Umm Abdullah—who sent a set of questions, saying: “Your Eminence, what are the conditions of repentance? And what are its times? May you be rewarded.”

Answer:
Repentance is prescribed permanently at all times. So, if one has committed a sin, it is obligatory for him to hasten to repent, whether by night or by day.
And its conditions are three: regret for the past, abandoning the disobedience, and the resolve not to return to it. These are the conditions of repentance: regret for the past disobedience, abandoning it, and leaving it out of fear of Allah and exalting Allah. And a third condition: which is the sincere resolve not to return to it. And if the disobedience involves a created being, it has a fourth condition, which is the release of the created being, that he releases you, you ask him to grant you permission. If that is not possible, you make du'a for him, and you mention his good qualities that you know about him in the gatherings where you backbit him. This is the fourth condition. If you spoke about a person’s honor, you ask him to grant you permission. If that is not possible, you mention him with the good qualities you know about him, the good morals and good deeds you know about him, you mention them, you mention him with them, in the gatherings where you wronged him and backbit him. It is done in this way.

The presenter: May Allah reward you.