سورة آل عمران

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): إِذا فَعَلُوا فاحِشَةً [When they commit an indecency]; meaning zina (fornication).

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ [Or wrong themselves]; meaning a sin greater than zina, which is digging up graves and taking away the shrouds.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): ذَکَرُوا اللهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ [They remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins] means they feared Allah and hastened to repent.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Whenever Allah ... opens the door of repentance for a servant, He also opens the door of forgiveness.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The believing servant who commits a sin is granted respite from morning until night; if he asks Allah for forgiveness, it is not recorded against him. Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "When the believing servant commits a sin, Allah grants him seven hours' respite, and if he asks Allah for forgiveness, nothing is written against him; and if these hours pass and he does not seek forgiveness, one sin is written against him." Indeed the believer is reminded of his sin even after twenty years so that he may seek forgiveness from his Lord for it and He forgives him; and the disbeliever forgets it that very hour.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): When this verse was revealed: وَالَّذِینَ إِذا فَعَلُوا فاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَکَرُوا اللهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ [And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins], Iblis went up a mountain in Mecca called Thawr and with a loud cry called his troops, and they gathered around him and said: "O our master! Why have you summoned us?" He said: "This verse has been revealed — who will take it on?" One said: "I will, by such-and-such means." He said: "You are not up to it." Another said this and that, and he said: "You are not up to it either." Al-Waswas al-Khannas said: "I am up to it." He said: "By what means?" He said: "I will make them promises and fill them with wishful hopes until they fall into sin, and when they have fallen into sin I will make them forget to seek forgiveness." He said: "You are the one for it," and he assigned him to this task until the Day of Resurrection.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Whoever prays ten rak'ats on the last night of the month of Ramadan ... he does not raise his head from prostration until Allah forgives him. By Him who raised me with the truth, whoever prays this prayer and seeks forgiveness in this way, Allah accepts from him his prayer, his fasting and his night vigil, and forgives him and answers his supplication; for Allah, Blessed and Exalted, says in His Book: وَ الَّذِینَ إِذا فَعَلُوا فاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَکَرُوا اللهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَ مَنْ یَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللهُ [And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins — and who forgives sins except Allah].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): May Allah have mercy on a servant who is not pleased that Iblis should be his peer and equal in his religion, while in the Book of Allah — that is, in seeking forgiveness together with repentance, which the Book of Allah has commanded you to do — there is deliverance from ruin, insight from blindness, guidance toward the right path, and a cure for whatever is in the breasts. Allah said: وَ الَّذِینَ إِذا فَعَلُوا فاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَکَرُوا اللهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَ مَنْ یَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَ لَمْ یُصِرُّوا عَلی ما فَعَلُوا وَ هُمْ یَعْلَمُون [And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins — and who forgives sins but Allah? — and do not knowingly persist in what they have done]. And He said: 'Whoever does evil or wrongs himself, then seeks forgiveness from Allah, will find Allah Forgiving and Merciful.' (al-Nisa/110) This is the seeking of forgiveness (istighfar) which Allah has commanded, and He has made a condition alongside it the return to Allah and the abandoning of what He has forbidden; for Allah says: 'Pure words ascend to Him, and righteous deeds He elevates.' (Fatir/10) And this verse indicates that nothing raises seeking of forgiveness up to Allah except righteous deeds and repentance.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): "And who forgives sins but Allah!" Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! My servant came to you [as a penitent] and you turned him away — where is he to go, whom is he to seek, and from whom other than Me is he to ask forgiveness for his sin?"

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): O Muhammad ibn Muslim! Every time the believer returns with repentance and seeking forgiveness, Allah also accepts his repentance every time. Indeed Allah is Forgiving and Merciful; He accepts repentance and pardons wrongdoings. So beware of making the believers despair of Allah's mercy.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him) said to a person who, in his presence, said "Astaghfirullah" [I seek Allah's forgiveness]: "May your mother weep over you! Do you know that istighfar (seeking forgiveness) is the rank of those of the highest station, and six things are its prerequisites? First, regret over the past sin. Second, the resolve never to return to that sin. Third, paying the rights of Allah's creatures back to them, so that you meet Allah unburdened and with no obligation upon you. Fourth, that you perform every obligatory duty that was upon you which you neglected. Fifth, that you strive to melt away, through sorrow, the flesh that has grown upon you from the unlawful, until the skin of your body clings to your bone. Sixth, that you make your body taste the hardship of obedience just as you made it taste the sweetness of sin — and at that point one may utter 'Astaghfirullah' on the tongue."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Ali (peace be upon him) turned to the people and said: 'In your view, which verse in the Book of Allah is the most hope-giving?' Some said: وَ الَّذِینَ إِذا فَعَلُوا فاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَکَرُوا اللهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِم [And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins]. He said: 'It is a good verse, but it is not the most hope-giving verse.'

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): One who persists in committing a sin while at the same time seeking forgiveness is like one who is engaged in mockery.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Persistence in sin is that a person commits a sin and does not seek forgiveness from Allah and does not think of repentance — this is persistence in sin.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Beware of persisting in any of the outward and inward things Allah has forbidden in the Quran, for Allah the Exalted says: وَ لَمْ یُصِرُّوا عَلی ما فَعَلُوا وَ هُمْ یَعْلَمُونَ [And they do not knowingly persist in what they have done] — up to here is the narration of Qasim ibn Rabi'. That is, the believers before you, when they forgot something from what Allah stipulated in His Book, would realise that they had disobeyed Allah in leaving that thing, so they would seek forgiveness and would not return to leaving it, and this is the meaning of Allah's saying: وَ لَمْ یُصِرُّوا عَلی ما فَعَلُوا وَ هُمْ یَعْلَمُونَ [And they do not knowingly persist in what they have done].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): No sin remains small with persistence, and no sin remains great with seeking forgiveness (that is, a small sin, with persistence upon it, will become a major sin, and a major sin, with seeking forgiveness, will be forgiven).