not necessarily so. A person may repent from a sin with genuine repentance, yet his soul may entice him and he returns to the sin. This is something well known from experience: a Muslim may sincerely and genuinely repent of acts of disobedience, but then tempting circumstances arise and he returns to the sin. This is something commonly observed.

Thus, the correct view—here too—is that if a person’s apostasy is repeated, his repentance is accepted.

There is a fourth case: the hypocrite, namely the heretic who outwardly professes Islam while concealing disbelief. The jurists—may Allah have mercy on them—say that his repentance is not accepted.

Al-Saffārīnī said in his creed:

For nothing of his faith has appeared
Except what his tongue has openly declared.

In that case, we cannot know whether he is truthful when he says that he has repented; it may be hypocrisy, just as it was before. Yet the correct view—here too—is that if we know the hypocrite’s repentance to be sincere, we accept it. The Quran indicates this. Allah, Most High, says:

“Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire, and you will never find for them a helper—except those who repent, mend their ways, hold fast to Allah, and devote their religion sincerely to Allah. They will be with the believers, and Allah will grant the believers a tremendous reward.” [al-Nisāʾ: 146]

Therefore, regarding the repentance of a hypocrite, we must be alert, investigate carefully, and consider the genuine deeds that indicate that he has repented.

These, then, are four cases in which the apostate’s repentance is said not to be accepted. The correct view is that there is no sin—however grave—from which a person sincerely repents except that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, forgives it.