Al-Kāfi - The Book of Belief and Disbelief

Al-Kāfi - The Book of Belief and Disbelief Chapter: Pleading for Forgiveness 6ـ عَنْهُ عَنْ أَحْ٠َّدٍ عَنِ ابْنِ فَضَّالٍ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ عُقْبَةَ بَيَّاعِ الأكْسِيَةِ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلا٠) قَالَ إِنَّ الْ٠ِنَ لَيُذْنِبُ الذَّنْبَ فَيُذَكَّرُ بَعْدَ عِشْرِينَ سَنَةً فَيَسْتَغْفِرُ الله ٠ِنْهُ فَيَغْفِرُ لَهُ وَإِنَّ٠َا يُذَكِّرُهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُ وَإِنَّ الْكَافِرَ لَيُذْنِبُ الذَّنْبَ فَيَنْسَاهُ ٠6.

It is narrated from him (narrator of the Hadith above) from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Faddal from Ali ibn ‘Uqbah Bayya’ al-Aksiyah from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “A believer commits a sin and remembers it after twenty years, then he pleads before Allah for forgiveness, He still forgives him. He is made to remember so He may forgive him.

An unbeliever commits a sin and forgets it within the same hour.’” وثق - Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi (Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (11/309))