“He is the One who accepts repentance from His servants, pardons misdeeds, and knows whatever you do.” (25)

“He is the One who accepts repentance from His servants” (1): Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: This refers to His devoted servants and those who obey Him. It has been said: Repentance is to abandon acts of disobedience, both in intention and action, and to turn to obedience, both in intention and action. Sahl ibn Abd Allah said: “Repentance is a transition from blameworthy states to praiseworthy states.” “And He pardons misdeeds”—when they repent.

Abd al-Wahid al-Mulayhi informed us; Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Saman informed us; Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Rayani narrated to us; Humayd ibn Zanjawayh informed us; Yahya ibn Hammad narrated to us; Abu Awanah narrated to us from Sulayman, from al-Amash, from Umarah ibn Umayr, from al-Harith ibn Suwayd, who said: I visited Abd Allah while he was ill, and he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: “Allah is more joyful at the repentance of His servant than a man—I think he said: in a desolate wasteland (2)—whose mount, carrying his food and drink, is with him. He dismounts and falls asleep, then awakens to find that his mount has gone missing. (3) He searches for it until thirst overcomes him, and he says: ‘I shall return to the place where my mount was and die there.’ So he returns, dozes off, and then awakens to find it beside him, with his food and drink upon it.” (4)

Ismail ibn Abd al-Qahir informed us; Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan narrated to us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj narrated to us; Muhammad ibn al-Sabah and Zuhayr ibn Harb said: Umar ibn Yunus narrated to us; Ikrimah ibn Ammar narrated to us; Ishaq ibn Abi Talhah narrated to us; Anas ibn Malik—who was his uncle—told me that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Allah is more intensely joyful at the repentance of His servant when he repents to Him than one of you whose mount, carrying his food and drink, escapes from him in a barren land. Having despaired of finding it, he comes to a tree and lies down in its shade, having lost all hope of recovering his mount. While he is in that state, he suddenly finds it standing beside him. He takes hold of its halter and, overwhelmed by joy, says: ‘O Allah, You are my servant and I am Your Lord!’ He misspoke because of the intensity of his joy.” (5)

“And He pardons misdeeds”: He erases them when they repent. “And He knows whatever you do”: Hamzah, al-Kisai, and Hafs recited it as “whatever you do,” with the second-person form, and said that it addresses the idolaters. The others recited it in the third-person form, “whatever they do,” because it occurs between two statements concerning a people: before it is “from His servants,” and after it is “and He increases them from His bounty.”