At-Tahrim (The Prohibition)

8. O you who believe! Turn to Allah with sincere repentance! It may be that your Lord will expiate from you your sins and admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow - the Day that Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believe in him. Their Light will run forward before them and in their right hands. They will say: “Our Lord! Keep perfect our Light for us and grant us forgiveness. Verily, You are Able to do all things.”

The preceding Verses treated of Hellfire, though the blessed Verse in questions deals with light. The preceding Verses treated of taking precautions, but the blessed Verse in question deals with cure, saying that now that you failed to refrain from committing sins, you may turn toward God Almighty in repentance lest you may despair.

The blessed Verse actually shows the true path toward deliverance from Hellfire, saying:

“O you who believe! Turn toward God Almighty in repentance sincerely.”

The first step to be taken toward deliverance is to repent from committing sins and such repentance is to be sincere from all aspects. The motive behind such repentance should be obedience to Divine Command and fear of committing sins rather than mere fear of the social and worldly consequence of committing vices. Such repentance separates man from committing sins at all times those who sincerely repent will never turn away from the true path.

It is well-known that repentance is to regret having committed sins and one is required to make up his mind not to commit further sins in future. Such person is supposed to compensate for the losses stemming from committing sins.

Thus the pillars of repentance may be summarized in five things: refraining from committing sins, regret, deciding to refrain from committing further sins in future, compensation for the losses within one’s capacity, and uttering the formula of repentance (istighfar).

The Arabic nominal form nasuh, deriving from the root n-s-h, literally denotes sincere benevolence and since true benevolence should be accompanied by steadfastness, the word nush is at times employed in this sense.

Different interpretations have been suggested concerning the meaning of the word nasuh such that the number of such interpretations is mentioned to be twenty three.¹ However, all these interpretations almost share one single core and the peripheral issues surrounding it.

For instance, it is said that sincere repentance (tawba nasuh) has four qualifications: sincere regret, verbal repentance, refraining from committing sins, and deciding to refrain from committing sins in future.

Some maintain that sincere repentance is obtained when the repentant person bears his sins in his mind at all times and repents from having committed them.

Some others hold that sincere repentance implies the compensation of the losses incurred to others owing to having committed sins and asking forgiveness from the victims of the sins and the repentant person is supposed to be steadfast in his obedience to God Almighty.

It is narrated from the Noble Prophet of the Islamic faith (S) that Mu‘adh ibn Jabal inquired about sincere repentance and the Noble Prophet replied:

“Sincere repentance implies that the repentant person may never turn toward committing sins any longer, such that milk never returns to the breast.”2

Such delicate expression reflects that sincere repentance engenders such drastic change in man that the way of returning to the past is totally blocked for him in such manner that milk may never return to the breast. Such theme, attested in other traditions, reflects the exalted state of sincere repentance, since return is possible in lower degrees of repentance. Steadfastness in repentance finally leads to permanent refraining from committing sins.

The blessed Verse proceeds to make reference to the tokens of such sincere repentance, saying:

“It may be that your Lord will expiate from you your sins and admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow - the Day that Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believe in him.”

The point is that the light of their faith and righteous good deeds runs forward as well as on their right thus shedding light on the Plain of Judgment and opens their way onto Paradise.

Then, they will turn toward God Almighty, saying:

“Make our light perfect and forgive us as you are the Omnipotent Lord.”

Such sincere repentance entails five great consequences: forgiving of the sins, being admitted to the Bountiful Paradise, disgracing of the evil doing liars since on that Day the Noble Prophet (S) and the believers shall be honorable as what they used to say shall be realized, the light of their faith and righteous good deeds will run forward as well as on their right side thus leading them onto brilliant Paradise, and they will be further attentive toward God Almighty as a consequence of which they turn toward Divine Threshold invoking Him to make their light perfect and forgive all their sins.

Finally, repentance is the door leading to Divine Graciousness. It happens many a time that many, particularly when beginning his spiritual growth and treading the Path leading to God Almighty, commits mistakes.

However, if the return toward the Truth is blocked, he will despair and fails to further tread the path. Thus, the path toward Divine Graciousness and repentance is always open to him.

It is worthy of note, however, that repentance does not solely imply verbal repentance and uttering its formula, but there are certain requirements of which mention was made in the exegesis of the sincere repentance in the preceding blessed Verses. Acting upon such requirements leads to the purification of the soul from sins.

In this vein, it is narrated from Imam Baqir (as) that whoever repents from committing sins is like one who has not committed any sin and one who continues to commit sins while he is uttering the formula of repentance is like one who derides repentance.²

It is narrated from the Noble Prophet (S) on the authority of Imam Ridha (as) that

“A believer is like an archangel and before God Almighty, the believer is truly higher than angels in rank. Nothing is more lovable before God Almighty than the repentance of the believing men and women.”4

In this vein, it is narrated from the Commander of the Faithful, Imam ‘Ali (as), as saying:

“No support is better than repentance.”5

It is narrated from the Noble Prophet (S) as saying:

“Nothing is more lovable before God Almighty than the believing men and women who regret from having committed sins and repent of them.”6

It is narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) on the authority of Abu Basir that when a man commits a sin, a black spot appears in his heart. If he repents, the spot will be removed, but if he commits further sins, the black spot grows such that it clouds all his heart and he may never attain salvation.³ Numerous traditions have been reported on repentance for which tradition sources may be consulted.