seeking the injured party’s pardon:
• Property: You must return it if you can; if not, ask the owner to forgive you. Should you be unable to locate him, give the sum away in charity on his behalf.
• Life: Submit yourself to retaliation (qisās) at his hand or that of his heirs; if this proves impossible, resort to earnest supplication, begging Allah to pacify him concerning you on the Day of Resurrection.
• Honour: If you have backbitten, slandered, or insulted him, publicly repudiate your words before those in whose presence you spoke and seek his pardon—provided this will not further inflame his anger. Otherwise, leave the affair with Allah and beseech Him to reconcile him to you.
• Marital sanctity: If you have betrayed him regarding his womenfolk, plead with Allah that He make him pleased with you.
• Religion: If you branded him a flagrant sinner (fāsiq), an innovator (mubtadiʿ), or astray, you must retract your words before those to whom you uttered them and seek his pardon if you are able.
-
When you have done what we have described and have purified your heart of any resolve to repeat the sin, you have been released from every wrongdoing. If the inner purification is complete but you have not made up missed obligations or satisfied those you wronged, their personal claims remain, though the rest of your sins are forgiven.
-
Shaykh al-Islam said: “When a person repents a general repentance, that repentance necessitates forgiveness for all sins. It is still valid even if it applies only to some of them, according to the sounder view—contrary to the Muʿtazilites.”
-
Al-Ṭībī said: “Whoever abandons sins, regrets having committed them, and turns to righteous deeds is a repentant servant of Allah: rewarded, pleasing to his Lord, his wrongs expiated, his merits secured. Allah loves those who repent, recognizes their right, and ‘the repentant one is like one who never sinned.’”
-
Ibn Rajab said: “The mere intention to commit a sin, when no act follows it….”