And Shaykh al-Islām Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

Seeking forgiveness leads the servant from deeds that are displeasing to Allah to those that are pleasing to Him, from deficient deeds to complete ones, and raises him from a lower station to one higher and more perfect. For whoever worships Allah and knows Him grows in knowledge of Allah and in insight into his religion and servitude to Him every day—indeed, every hour, even every moment. He experiences this in his eating and drinking, sleeping and waking, speech and actions. He recognizes his shortcomings in maintaining an attentive heart at the higher stations and giving those stations their due. Thus, he needs to seek forgiveness throughout the night and at the ends of the day. Indeed, he is always in dire need of it, in his words and states, in things unseen and witnessed, because of the benefits it brings: securing good, averting harm, and seeking greater strength in deeds of the heart and body grounded in certainty and faith.

It has been established that seeking forgiveness encompasses those who affirm Allah’s oneness and is coupled with the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, from the first of them to the last, and from the last of them to