and his heart grows cool. (1)

The Exalted also says, “Take charity from their wealth so that you may cleanse them and purify them by means of it” (Q 9:130). This is proof that performing good deeds cleanses the soul and refines it from past sins, for He uttered this after saying, “Others have confessed their sins; they mixed a righteous deed with another that was evil” (Q 9:102) and the verses that follow.

Repentance together with righteous action, then, brings about purification and growth. For that reason He says in the same passage, “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their private parts; that is purer for them. Allah is fully aware of what they do,” up to His words, “Turn to Allah in repentance, all of you believers, so that you may prosper.” He thus commanded them all to repent in the very context in which He had just enjoined lowering the gaze and safeguarding the private parts (2), because no one is completely free of sin in this domain.

As recorded in the sound collection, Ibn ʿAbbās said, “I have not seen anything that more closely resembles al-lamam—the minor lapses—than what Abū Hurayrah related from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him (3): ‘Allah has decreed for the son of Adam his share of fornication; he will inevitably attain it (4). The eyes commit fornication, and their fornication is looking; the ears commit fornication, and their fornication is listening; the tongue commits fornication, and its fornication is speech; the hands commit fornication, and their fornication is…’”} (Footnotes preserved as numbered markers in the text)