—is nothing but mockery of Allah. If you were to say, “O Allah, I seek Your forgiveness for usury,” while continuing to engage in usury, this would be nothing but a form of mockery of Allah.

Likewise, if you were to stand before one of the kings of this world who had forbidden something, and then say, “O King, I repent to you,” while holding in your hand that very thing which he had forbidden and can see, this would be mockery of him on your part, and he would punish you all the more severely.

Therefore, the conditions of repentance are five:

Sincerity to Allah; remorse for what one has done; abandoning it; resolving never to return to it; and that repentance take place during the time in which it is accepted.

As for sincerity to Allah, it is clear: a person must not repent out of fear of a created being or in order to ingratiate himself with one. Rather, he repents out of fear of the Lord of the worlds and seeking nearness to Him.

As for remorse, it is for him to feel in his heart that he has done something for which he is sorry.

As for abandoning it, he must hasten to leave it. If it concerns the right of another person, he must hasten to restore that person’s due, or seek his pardon.

As for resolving never to return to it, this is a matter of the heart: he resolves not to return to that sin. The condition is not that he never return, but that he resolve not to return. Thus, if he resolves never to return and then does return, his first repentance is not invalidated, because it fulfilled its conditions.

As for its taking place during the time in which repentance is accepted, this means before the appointed term arrives and before the sun rises from the west. For repentance after the appointed term has come and punishment has been witnessed, and after the sun rises from the west—