What is the cure for sins and their repetition?
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Question:
I commit a sin and then I say: I repent to Allah. And so it is every time I commit a sin, I repent. Now, praise be to Allah, I have not returned to the sin again. So, O honorable Shaykh, is there anything I must do after repenting from this sin? And will Allah accept my repentance?
Answer:
The cure for sins is repentance, even if they are repeated, as long as he is truthful in his repentance. He says it as a repentant person, sincerely, with regret, ceasing from it, and resolving not to return to it. Then if he is tested with it after a month, two months, a year, or two years, he must repent again. The first repentance was in its proper place, and Allah protected him from the evil of the first sin. Every sincere repentance erases what came before it of sin.
As for if he says it with his tongue, "I repent to Allah," with his tongue, while he is a liar and persists in the sin, doing it whenever he finds it, this is not repentance. Repentance is not like this. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: [Al-Imran: 135]. It is necessary that there be no persistence. So the repentant person’s repentance must include three things: regret for the past sin, ceasing from it and leaving it, and the third is the resolve not to return to it. This is the repentance of the truthful one, which includes these matters: First: that he ceases from it, leaves it, and guards against it.
Second: he regrets what has passed of it.
Third: he resolves with a sincere resolve not to return to it.
So if the repentance is completed with these pillars, Allah erases the sin with it.
And if the sin involves a created being, it is necessary to return the right of the created being. If the sin involves the right of a created being, such as theft, for example: usurping wealth, then a fourth condition is necessary: that he return the wealth to its owner, or seek his forgiveness. Whenever he steals wealth, usurps wealth, or strikes a person, he must seek forgiveness. His repentance is not complete except with this regret for the past, the resolve not to return, ceasing from it, then seeking the permission of the owner of the right, or returning the right to him: he stole from a person one hundred riyals, one thousand riyals, or more. His repentance is not complete except by returning it to its owner, having usurped it from him, having plundered it from him. He returns it or seeks his forgiveness.
Similarly, if the sin is murder, it is necessary to carry out retaliation (qisas) or pay the blood money (diyah), or the people of the right must forgive. Either they permit retaliation and they carry out the retaliation, or they permit the blood money and they pay the blood money, or they forgive all of it; then he is safe from it.
So the point is that in repentance, it is necessary to return the right of the created being, or seek his forgiveness and his pardon.
I commit a sin and then I say: I repent to Allah. And so it is every time I commit a sin, I repent. Now, praise be to Allah, I have not returned to the sin again. So, O honorable Shaykh, is there anything I must do after repenting from this sin? And will Allah accept my repentance?
Answer:
The cure for sins is repentance, even if they are repeated, as long as he is truthful in his repentance. He says it as a repentant person, sincerely, with regret, ceasing from it, and resolving not to return to it. Then if he is tested with it after a month, two months, a year, or two years, he must repent again. The first repentance was in its proper place, and Allah protected him from the evil of the first sin. Every sincere repentance erases what came before it of sin.
As for if he says it with his tongue, "I repent to Allah," with his tongue, while he is a liar and persists in the sin, doing it whenever he finds it, this is not repentance. Repentance is not like this. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:
and [who] do not persist in what they have done while they know.
وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَSecond: he regrets what has passed of it.
Third: he resolves with a sincere resolve not to return to it.
So if the repentance is completed with these pillars, Allah erases the sin with it.
And if the sin involves a created being, it is necessary to return the right of the created being. If the sin involves the right of a created being, such as theft, for example: usurping wealth, then a fourth condition is necessary: that he return the wealth to its owner, or seek his forgiveness. Whenever he steals wealth, usurps wealth, or strikes a person, he must seek forgiveness. His repentance is not complete except with this regret for the past, the resolve not to return, ceasing from it, then seeking the permission of the owner of the right, or returning the right to him: he stole from a person one hundred riyals, one thousand riyals, or more. His repentance is not complete except by returning it to its owner, having usurped it from him, having plundered it from him. He returns it or seeks his forgiveness.
Similarly, if the sin is murder, it is necessary to carry out retaliation (qisas) or pay the blood money (diyah), or the people of the right must forgive. Either they permit retaliation and they carry out the retaliation, or they permit the blood money and they pay the blood money, or they forgive all of it; then he is safe from it.
So the point is that in repentance, it is necessary to return the right of the created being, or seek his forgiveness and his pardon.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.