At the doorstep..
Repentance is escaping from disobedience to obedience, from sins to good deeds, and from the loneliness of being distant from Allah to the intimacy and tranquility of being close to Him.
In repentance, one turns away from the punishment of the Almighty Lord to His vast mercy, from His wrath to His pleasure, and from Him to Him. Indeed, we cannot praise Him enough, we cannot find refuge from Him except in Him, and we cannot flee from Him but to Him.
{Flee, therefore, to Allah. Surely I am a clear warner to you from Him.}
[Surat adh-Dhāriyāt: 50]
O Lord, no matter how great my sins are, I supplicate You as You have commanded me.
If only the one who does good can seek refuge in You, then to whom can the wrongdoer resort?
Ali ibn Abi Tālib (may Allah be pleased with him) said:“I wonder how one can be ruined despite having the means of salvation!” He was asked: “What is it?” He said: “Repentance and asking for Allah’s forgiveness.”Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy upon him) said:“The thing that mostly prompts a Muslim to commit a sin is his reliance upon repentance. If he only knew that he may be prevented from it, he would be quite fearful.”
Sincere repentance requires one to necessarily give up the sin,regret what he did, and be determined not to return to it, and he should replace his sin with a good deed. Moreover, if the sin has something to do with the rights of others, he should ask them to absolve and forgive him
Shaqīq al-Balkhi (may Allah have mercy upon him) said:“The sign of repentance is: crying over the past sin, fearing from committing it again, abandoning evil companions, and sticking to good people.”
Allah Almighty accepts sincere repentance except in two cases: when the sun rises in the west, and when the person is in the throes of death.
