Tawbah is an Arabic word meaning to return. In Islamic terms it means leaving what Allah has forbidden and returning to the path He has shown. An article by Prothom Alo's religion desk sets out five basic conditions for repentance to be accepted.
Many people who break their repentance and fall back into sin give up repenting out of shame. The article quotes the Tabi'i Hasan al-Basri: that is exactly what Satan wants, so never stop repenting. The Quran commands sincere repentance (Surah At-Tahrim, verse 8), and saying words of forgiveness is not enough without remorse in the heart.
The first condition is sincerity: repentance must be for Allah's pleasure alone, not out of social shame or for praise. The second is genuine remorse for past sins. The third is to abandon the sin at once; if obligatory acts such as prayer or zakat were missed they must be made up, and if the sin wronged other people, such as taking their property or backbiting, the property must be returned or their forgiveness sought.
The fourth is a firm resolve never to return to the sin. The article notes that if human weakness leads to the same mistake again despite that resolve, the earlier repentance is not cancelled, but the new mistake needs a new repentance.
The fifth is to repent while there is time. Repentance is not accepted once death arrives (Surah An-Nisa, verse 18), as Pharaoh's declaration of faith while drowning was rejected (Surah Yunus, verses 90-91), nor after the sun rises in the west as a sign of the Last Day (Sahih al-Bukhari, 4636).
The Prophet (peace be upon him) repented and sought forgiveness every day; a hadith in Sahih Muslim (2702) says he repented to Allah a hundred times a day. Repentance, the article concludes, is not a one-off ritual but a believer's lifelong habit.
Source: Prothom Alo
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