The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The best supplication for forgiveness is for a servant to say: ‘O Allah, You are my Lord; there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. You created me, and I am Your servant. I abide by Your covenant and promise as best I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge Your blessings upon me, and I acknowledge my sin. So forgive me, for none forgives sins but You.’ Whoever says this in the morning with firm conviction and dies that day will enter Paradise. Whoever says it in the evening with firm conviction and dies that night will enter Paradise.”

The servant is always between a blessing from Allah that calls for gratitude and a sin of his own that calls for seeking forgiveness. Both are constant duties for the servant, for he continually enjoys Allah’s blessings and bounties and continually needs to repent and seek forgiveness. This is why Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the foremost of Adam’s descendants and the leader of the God-fearing—would seek forgiveness in every circumstance.

In the authentic hadith narrated by al-Bukhārī, he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“O people, repent to your Lord, for I seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him more than seventy times a day.”

In Sahīh Muslim, he said:

“A veil comes over my heart, and I seek Allah’s forgiveness a hundred times a day.”

ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said:

“In a single gathering, we would count the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saying a hundred times: ‘My Lord, forgive me and accept my repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepter of repentance, the All-Forgiving.’”