for forgiveness for what Allah knows to be a sin, though the servant does not know it.

It is authentically reported that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—would supplicate in his prayer: ‘O Allah, forgive my sins and my ignorance, my excesses in my affairs, and what You know better than I. O Allah, forgive what I have done in earnest and in jest, by mistake and deliberately—all of which applies to me. O Allah, forgive my past and future sins, what I have concealed and what I have made public, and what You know better than I. You are my God; there is no god but You.’1

Another hadith states: ‘O Allah, forgive me all my sins: the minor and the major, the inadvertent and the deliberate, the secret and the public, the first and the last.’2

Such generality and comprehensiveness ensure that repentance encompasses the sins of which the servant is aware and those of which he is unaware.”3 End quote.

There is no doubt that this forms part of the sincerity in repentance commanded in the words of Allah Most High: “O you who believe, repent to Allah with sincere repentance. It may be that your Lord will absolve you of your misdeeds and admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow.”4 Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—explained that sincerity in repentance comprises three things:

The first is that it encompass every sin without exception, leaving no sin outside its scope.