ভূমিকা
“If a servant repents sincerely, Allah loves him (and) so conceals his sins.”[^2] Short Expalantion Repentance is the cord of Allah which those repenting must necessarily grasp; they need to clean their interior of their sins and testify against themselves before their Lord. They should be repentant from the depths of their hearts with regards to their past misdeeds, and fearful with regards to the remaining period of their lives.
The auliya (friends) of Allah repent for the (inappropriate) thoughts that may have passed through their minds, while the special ones repent for engaging themselves in anything other than Allah, even as the general masses repent for the sins committed by them.
It is vital that, in order to make amends for past (mis)deeds and refrain from committing sins in the future, the person repenting should not look upon any sin as being trivial and insignificant, but should always experience regret over his past lapses, keep his soul away from various kinds of lust and guide it towards struggle (against lust) and worship.[^3] The Inventor of a Religion and Repentance Imam Sadiq (as) related: “In ancient times there lived a man who sought to earn his livelihood and procure great wealth by lawful means but was unsuccessful.
He then strived to achieve his objectives by unlawful means but once again failed. Satan appeared before him and said to him: “You tried to acquire great wealth by lawful as well as unlawful means but were unsuccessful. Do you want me to show you a way by which you would not only become wealthy but you would also attract numerous followers?” The man expressed his willingness to know how he could get rich. “Concoct a religion and invite people to follow it,” suggested Satan.
The man fabricated a religion and soon, he had a lot of followers through whom he became rich. One day he realized that he had made a mistake by leading numerous people astray so he resolved to inform the people of the falsity of his religion and the error of his ways. But however hard he stressed and emphasized, the people simply refused to accept his word.