she has repented with such repentance that, had a tax collector repented likewise, he would have been forgiven. Have you ever found any repentance better than her offering her own life for Allah’s sake?”

The hadith concerning the prayer of repentance is preserved in the Sunan collections, narrated by ‘Alī from Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said: “No Muslim commits a sin, then performs ablution thoroughly, prays two units of prayer and asks Allah for forgiveness, without being forgiven.” He then recited this verse: “And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves, remember Allah” (Surah Āl ‘Imrān 135).

This is a vast subject, for servants who are tried by sins are relieved of