Repentance is the purification of the inner self, while wuḍūʾ is the purification of the outer body; mentioning them together is therefore entirely fitting, and this supplication is among those recommended at this point.
Al-Ṭībī said: Pronouncing the two testimonies of faith after wuḍūʾ points to the sincerity of the act—free of association (shirk) and ostentation (riyāʾ)—once the limbs have been cleansed of physical impurity and ritual defilement.
Al-Ṣanʿānī remarked: The beauty of concluding this chapter with this supplication is plain to see.
11 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: Every hadith concerning the phrases of remembrance that common folk recite for each limb during wuḍūʾ is an innovation with no basis; the reports are fabricated lies. The Prophet ﷺ never uttered them, never taught them to his community, and nothing is soundly transmitted from him except the basmalah at the beginning and this invocation at the end. Nothing of the sort was reported from any of the Companions, the Successors, or the four imams.
Al-Nawawī said: The supplications recited in the course of wuḍūʾ have no foundation, and the early scholars did not mention them.
Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ said: No sound hadith exists on the matter.
The hadith master Ibn Ḥajar stated in al-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr: A report has been narrated from ʿAlī through chains that are extremely weak.
12 – Shaykh al-Islām said: Wuḍūʾ is an act of worship just like prayer and fasting; it can be learned only from the Lawgiver, and whatever can be known only from the Lawgiver is worship. He further said: Whoever thinks that innovations are a means of drawing near to Allah, an act of obedience, and a completion of the religion is misguided.
13 – al-Tawwāb (the Ever-Relenting) is one of the Names of Allah, and a human being may also be called tawwāb, yet the overlap is in wording only.
As for the meaning: Allah describes Himself as tawwāb in His words, “Then I will surely accept their repentance, for I am the Accepter of repentance, the Merciful” (Q 2:160), meaning: I am the One who enables My servants to repent and who accepts their repentance. He likewise describes His servants in the verse, “Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves” (Q 2:222), characterizing them as frequently returning to Allah so that they might