associating partners with Allah and other sins. As He, glorified be He, says in another verse:

“Say, ‘O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of Allah’s mercy. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins.’”

Here He made forgiveness comprehensive and unconditional, because the passage concerns those who repent; in the earlier verse, He restricted it and made it conditional.

Allah Most High also says:

“Then We caused those whom We chose from among Our servants to inherit the Book. Among them are those who wrong themselves, those who follow a middle course, and those who are foremost in good deeds by Allah’s permission. That is the great bounty.”

“Gardens of perpetual residence which they will enter, adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearls, and their garments therein will be silk.”

“And they will say, ‘Praise be to Allah, who has removed sorrow from us. Indeed, our Lord is All-Forgiving, Most Appreciative.’”

“‘He who, out of His bounty, has settled us in the everlasting abode, where neither toil nor weariness touches us.’”

Thus, He, glorified be He, divided the community whom He chose and caused to inherit the Book into “three categories”: those who wrong themselves, those who follow a middle course, and those who are foremost in good deeds. These three correspond to the three levels mentioned in the hadith of Gabriel: “Islam,” “faith,” and “excellence,” as we shall explain, “if Allah wills.”

It is clear that if “those who wrong themselves” were intended to mean those who avoid major sins and those who repent of all sins, such people would belong either to those who follow a middle course or to those who are foremost. For no descendant of Adam is free from sin, but whoever repents belongs to one of these latter two categories. Likewise, whoever avoids major sins has his lesser sins expiated, as Allah Most High says:

“If you avoid the major sins which you are forbidden, We will expiate your lesser sins.”

There must therefore be someone who wrongs himself yet is promised Paradise, even if only after punishment that purifies him of his sins. For the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) explained that the afflictions which befall a believer in this world serve to discharge his liability and expiate his sins, as related in the two Sahīh collections