CONDITIONS FOR TAWBAH

 

There are certain conditions for the acceptance of ‘Tawbah’ according to the principles of the Quran. But it is important to understand that there is a huge difference between asking Allah for ‘forgiveness’ and doing ‘tawbah’; however, both actions are closely related with a minor change. Asking Allah for forgiveness can be done for any regular/minor sin that we do on a daily basis, such as the sin of lying, gossiping, ill or abusive speech, etc. We know these actions will be repeated, and as these and many other sins are minor, we often don't care about these, and Allah said he forgives minor sins with the simple act of praying daily prayers.

It is mentioned in Sahih Muslim 233c https://sunnah.com/muslim:233c Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) reported, "Verily the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, 'The five (daily) prayers and from one Friday prayer to the (next) Friday prayer, and from Ramadhan to Ramadhan are expiations for the (sins) committed in between (their intervals), provided one shuns the major sins.'"

So, asking Allah for forgiveness should be our routine thing, and with the mercy of Allah, minor sins are forgiven without us even doing any special thing for forgiveness, as mentioned in the hadith above. But in case a person commits a major sin that includes doing a severe sin against another person, such as killing, committing zina, hurting him/her badly by breaking his/her heart, consuming restricted things, such as alcohol, running blood, or swine (or any other forbidden animal), or doing shirk with Allah (all shapes of it). Such major sins have to be repented with a pure intention of not repeating them again in life, because these major sins are strictly and directly prohibited in Islam and, if committed, must be forsaken. As this act of tawbah is done against such serious crimes, it is followed by a set of conditions that must be met in order to get forgiveness from Allah, and these conditions are mentioned and instructed directly by Allah in the Quran. He mentioned the point of تَابُوا۟ وَأَصْلَحُوا۟ (repent and correct) in many places in the Quran, such as 02:160 https://quran.com/2/160 and 24:05 https://quran.com/24?startingVerse=5 but a pattern and details of these conditions are mentioned in the 119th verse of Surah an-Nahl https://quran.com/an-nahl/119 Allah said:

“Then, indeed, your Lord, to those who have done wrong out of ignorance and then repent after that and correct themselves—indeed, your Lord, thereafter, is Forgiving and Merciful.”

According to this holy verse of the Quran, Allah clearly mentioned the steps involved and required for the forgiveness of a believer. Mentioned below are the steps along with their details as required by Allah for true repentance and forgiveness as a result of it:

STEPS OF FORGIVENESS

• SIN COMMITED MISTAKENLY
  The first condition is that the sin committed has to be done mistakenly, and even if it is not done mistakenly, the person doing it shall be ashamed of it and must not have the intention of repeating it. In our routine lives, we commit many sins, and every time we plan to do any bad deed, our inner self points out if it is a right or a wrong thing to do. So, we have a built-in software that we cannot escape to cover our bad deeds; it will be automatically pointed out by our soul. If we are receiving bad signals for an act we are planning to do, we must not do it and do some research about it. If it is wrong or right, this action will conclude our act to be done mistakenly or intentionally. So, a sin for which you are repenting must not be done intentionally. This is the first condition of repentance.
• INSTANT REGRET AND REPENTANCE
  The second condition is that after we have done something wrong, as mentioned in the first condition, we must have received signs of that act being wrong from our inner self. As soon as it is done, we must be ashamed of doing it and must accept our wrongdoing. This is the sunnah of our prophets and true believers and is taught by our father Adam (عليه السلام) and is mentioned in Quran 07:23 https://quran.com/7/23 “They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers." Even Iblis was equally responsible for this act, and they could have said to Allah that He made them slip and go against His instructions, but they accepted their wrongdoing instead of blaming someone else for this act. This must be the practice of a true believer.
  Remembrance of Allah is also part of the second step, which can result in the mercy of Allah, so if a believer has wronged him/herself, he/she must remember Allah by doing Akhdar, reciting the Quran, or praying the SALAT AL’TAWBAH (this point answers your question—this prayer can be prayed any time except for the 3 makruh times, along with or separate from the obligatory prayers, in the form of congregation or can be prayed alone, and can also be in any quantity convenient to you, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.; the secret is your true intention and the sense of accepting, acknowledging, and feeling shameful for that act).
• CORRECTING ONESELF
  After doing a sin ‘mistakenly’ and instantly accepting the responsibility, a true believer must correct himself. If a sin includes another person (i.e., if the sin is done against another soul, hurting a person, or doing something wrong against another soul), a true believer must correct this action (for instance, if someone steals something from a person, it must be given back to the owner, replaced with the same thing, or replaced with a better thing as compensation). And if this sin is done against your own self, such as committing a sin that can affect your body or soul, and Allah has prohibited it (such as consuming forbidden edible things, i.e., alcohol or swine), a believer must aim to not repeat it and quit this action for a lifetime; this is also included in correcting oneself.
• THEN ALLAH IS FORGIVING MERCIFUL
  After the required 3 conditions are met, Allah specifically uses the word “then/thereafter بَعْدِهَا“ in the same verse, which categorically explains to us that the first three conditions are essential in getting the mercy of Allah and His forgiveness. If any of these conditions are not met, our tawbah will be incomplete, which will result in the nonacceptance of our forgiveness. So, we must carefully act according to these steps and understand why these conditions are so important, especially for getting Allah’s forgiveness against our tawbah.

This really is a difficult task to do, but it results in an amazing reward from Allah, which is much more than only the forgiveness of Allah. But this reward can be attained only if the tawbah is done in the instructed way of Allah and if the repentance is accepted through Allah’s mercy.

Allah mentioned this reward in the Quran 25:70 https://quran.com/25/70 “Except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous work. For them, Allāh will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allāh Forgiving and Merciful.”

Such an amazing reward: our sins will not only be forgiven but will be replaced with good deeds that we have not even done. This truly is a great mercy of Allah and shows us how merciful Allah is. May Allah help us not to do bad deeds in life, and if done, may He help us in asking Him for His true forgiveness and His rewards as a result of His forgiveness. Amen!