Likewise, if completing repentance requires a person to perform good deeds, then whatever repentance requires is part of its completion. A person may think that he has repented when he has not; he may merely have stopped committing the sin. Merely stopping is not the same as repenting. He may turn away from a sin because it does not occur to him, because something prevents him from committing it, or because his desire for it has ceased for a nonreligious reason. None of this is repentance. Rather, he must believe that it is a sin, hate committing it because Allah has forbidden it, and abandon it for Allah Most High—not out of hope for any created being’s favor or fear of any created being. Repentance is among the greatest good deeds.

All good deeds require sincerity to Allah and conformity to His command. Thus, commenting on His words,

“That He may test you as to which of you is best in deed,”

al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād said, “The most sincere and the most correct.” They asked, “Abū ‘Alī, what does ‘the most sincere and the most correct’ mean?”

He replied, “If a deed is sincere but not correct, it is not accepted; and if it is correct but not sincere, it is not accepted. It must be both sincere and correct. To be sincere means that it is done for Allah, and to be correct means that it accords with the Sunnah.”

‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say in his supplication:

“O Allah, make all my deeds righteous, make them sincerely for Your Face alone, and give no one else any share in them.”

A detailed discussion of repentance belongs elsewhere. As for acknowledging one’s sin in humble submission to Allah without abandoning it, this amounts to merely seeking forgiveness without repentance. Such a person is like someone who asks