Repentance is a powerful tool that Allah has handed over to those believers who get derailed from the righteous path by commuting sins, doing wrong to others or digressing from the teaching of Allah brought to man through prophets and messengers.
Although no one likes the sinners, and of course Allah too, yet Allah stresses upon his subjects to ask for forgiveness and then repent not falling into the hands of evil forces. This latitude stays and offer is valid till the cherishment of Allah finally gets the sinners or until when death approaches and then there will be no let up:
وَاَنِيۡبُوۡۤا اِلٰى رَبِّكُمۡ وَاَسۡلِمُوۡا لَهٗ مِنۡ قَبۡلِ اَنۡ يَّاۡتِيَكُمُ الۡعَذَابُ ثُمَّ لَا تُنۡصَرُوۡنَ
Turn to your Lord and surrender yourselves to Him before the chastisement over-takes you; for then you will receive no help. (Surah 39 Az Zumar:54)
This verse is in continuation with the previous verse, wherein Allah says: Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, verily, Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." The verse simply means to turn back to Allah and submit yourselves to Him, and hasten to repent and do righteous deeds before His wrath comes upon you.
This Ayah is a call to all sinners, be they disbelievers or others, to repent and turn to Allah. This Ayah tells us that Allah, may He be blessed and exalted, will forgive all the sins of those who repent to Him and turn back to Him, no matter what or how many his sins are, even if they are like the foam of the sea. This cannot be interpreted as meaning that sins will be forgiven without repentance, because Shirk can only be forgiven for the one who repents from it. Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said that some of the people of Shirk killed many people and committed Zina (illegal sexual acts) to a great extent; they came to Muhammad ﷺ and said, "What you are saying and calling us to is good; if only you could tell us that there is an expiation for what we have done." Then the following Ayat were revealed:
(And those who invoke not any other god along with Allah, nor kill such person as Allah has forbidden, except for just cause, nor commit illegal sexual intercourse) (25:68). Except those who repent and believe, and do righteous deeds) (25:70)
Imam Ahmad recorded that Asma' bint Yazid, said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying, (Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, verily, Allah forgives all sins He does not reckon him Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful)." This was also recorded by Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidhi. [1]
Yusuf Ali Explanation: The exhortation in brief is: 'Repent and work righteousness, before it becomes too late'. No help will come to you when the Judgment is actually established and you stand before Allah.
Muhammad Asad Explanation: Cf. 4:18 - "repentance shall not be accepted from those who do evil deeds until their dying hour, and then say, 'Behold, I now repent'; nor from those who die as deniers of the truth".
So let us not a life in despair if we have sinned and instantly turn to Allah by asking for His forgiveness and invoking his many attributes of mercy and forgiveness and then repent in sincerity not to repeat. Allah promises that He will continue to forgive us and accept our repentance before His wrath comes and befall upon us or death knocks at our door.
May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.
For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:
- The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi.
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources:
- Towards Understanding the Quran
- Tafsir Ibn Khatir
- Muhammad Asad Translation
- Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
- Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
- Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle
In addition the references of other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.
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