adversity, they rejoice at it.” Thus, good and evil may refer to pleasant and harmful experiences, or to acts of obedience and sins.

(The second answer is that this applies to the believer who is steadfast in patience and grateful. Sins diminish faith, but when the servant repents, Allah loves him, and his rank may rise through repentance.

Some of the early generations said: “David was better after repentance than he had been before his sin.” Whoever is granted repentance is as Saʿīd ibn Jubayr described: “A servant may perform a good deed through which he enters the Fire, and a servant may commit a sin through which he enters Paradise.” This is because he performs a good deed, keeps it before his eyes, and becomes conceited about it; or he commits a sin, keeps it before his eyes, and seeks Allah’s forgiveness and repents to Him for it. It is authentically established that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Deeds are judged by how they end.”

When a believer commits a sin, its punishment may be averted from him through ten means: he repents and Allah accepts his repentance, for one who repents of a sin is like one who has no sin; or he seeks forgiveness and is forgiven; or he performs good deeds that erase it, for good deeds remove sins; or his fellow believers pray for him and seek forgiveness for him, during his life and after his death; or they gift him some of the reward of their deeds, through which Allah benefits him; or his Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, intercedes for him; or Allah Most High tries him with afflictions in this world that expiate his sin; or He tries him with a stunning shock in the intermediate state, thereby expiating his sin; or He subjects him to such terrors on the plains of the Resurrection as will expiate his sin; or the Most Merciful of the merciful has mercy on him.