This applies only to those of deep conviction.

This applies only to those of deep conviction." Muhammad asked the Imam (as), "What if he goes back to committing those sins after having repented and sought forgiveness for them, then he repents again?" The Imam (as) said, "O Muhammad ibn Muslim!

Do you think that a servant of Allah regrets having committed a sin, then seeks forgiveness for it and repents, that Allah does not accept his repentance?" Muhammad said, "But he has done so repeatedly: he commits a sin then repents and seeks [Allah's] forgiveness [and so on]..." He (as) said, "Whenever a believer returns to Allah and seeks His forgiveness and the acceptance of his own repentance, Allah will return to him forgiving, and Allah is most Forgiving, most Merciful; He accepts repentance and overlooks the sins; therefore, beware of letting any believer lose hope of achieving Allah's mercy." This dialogue is recorded on p.

409, Vol. 1, of al-Kulayni's Al-Kafi . But nobody should ever take the Almighty for granted. A man in the company of the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (as) once said: " Astaghfirullah ." The Imam (as) said to him, "May your mother lose you! Do you really know what forgiveness is?

Forgiveness is the degree of ‘Illiyyeen (see verses 18 and 19 of Surat al-Mutaffifun), and it is a proper noun incorporating six meanings: regret about the past; the determination never to go back to doing it again; that you should pay people what they owe you till you meet Allah without having any burden to bear; that you should make up for any religious obligation and meet its requirements; that you should approach your flesh that grew out of consuming what is unlawful and make it dissolve through your grief till your skin touches your bones and new flesh grows between them; and that you make your body taste of the pain of obedience [to Allah's commandments] just as you made it taste the sweetness of disobedience.

It is only after that can you say: Astaghfirullah ." This is recorded in Nahjul Balagha (wise saying number 253 of the original Arabic text; all present English translations of this great book fall short of doing justice to its original text). Previous…