the punishment for those sins through repentance that wipes away what preceded it; through seeking forgiveness; through good deeds that erase evil deeds; through the Muslims’ supplications and intercession, or the acts of righteousness they perform on a person’s behalf; through the intercession of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and others for that person on the Day of Resurrection; or through Allah’s expiation of his sins by the afflictions that befall him. Indeed, mass-transmitted reports from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—establish that no harm befalls a Muslim, whether the prick of a thorn or anything greater, without Allah thereby shedding his sins as a dry tree sheds its leaves.

The kinds of good deeds through which evil deeds are expiated are many—more numerous than evil deeds—and encompass every form of righteousness, as stated in the prophetic hadiths that accord with the Book of Allah Most High.

Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamā‘ah unanimously agree that a Muslim does not become an unbeliever merely on account of