How forbearing is Allaah, and how Generous. His goodness descends upon them even as their evil deeds ascend to Him. He holds out His Hand by night to accept the repentance of the one who sinned during the day, and He holds out His hand during the day to accept the repentance of the one who sinned at night. All the sinner has to do is acknowledge his sin and give it up, and ask his Lord for pardon and forgiveness, and resolve never to go back to that sin, and to set his deeds straight, and strive to do that which will please his Lord, may He be blessed and exalted.
The one who does that will find relief, for the Most Gracious, Most Merciful rejoices over the repentance of His slave and accepts it from him, and He will reward him for it and erase his bad deeds thereby, and raise him in status, because He is the Forbearing, Most Generous, Most Kind, Most Merciful, may He be blessed and exalted.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And verily, I am indeed forgiving to him who repents, believes (in My Oneness, and associates none in worship with Me) and does righteous good deeds, and then remains constant in doing them (till his death)”
[Ta-Ha 20:82]
Moreover, we say to this brother: beware of removing the cover with which Allaah has concealed you and telling anyone of what you have done, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Avoid these filthy things that Allaah has forbidden. Whoever has done any of them, let him conceal himself with the concealment of Allaah, and let him repent to Allaah.” Narrated by al-Bayhaqi; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’ (149).
Muslim (2590) narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah does not conceal a person in this world but Allaah will conceal him on the Day of Resurrection.”
So hasten to repent and regret, and weep for your sin and wrongdoing. Conceal yourself with the concealment of Allaah and do not speak openly of your sin; do a lot of good deeds such as praying, giving charity, dhikr, and tasbeeh, for these are means of attaining forgiveness.
Beware of procrastinating with regard to repentance, or of taking the forbearance and concealment of Allaah for granted, for Allaah may grant you time or He may not, and He may become angry and seek vengeance. Perhaps He will look at His slave who dares to disobey Him and will say: ‘Go, for I will never accept any good deed from you,’ so he will be utterly lost and his punishment will be Hell. We ask Allaah to keep us safe and sound and to grant us salvation.
