he should be told:

The sin that harms a person is one for which he has not repented. As for a sin from which he has repented, he may be better after repenting than he was before committing it. As one of the early generations said, “David was in a better state after repentance than before his sin.” This holds even when the repentance is from disbelief and major sins. The foremost pioneers among the Emigrants and the Helpers are the best of creation after the prophets, and they attained this standing only through repenting of their former disbelief and sins. What preceded their repentance was neither a deficiency nor a blemish upon them. Rather, when they repented of it and did righteous deeds, they became greater in faith and stronger in worship and obedience than those who came after them and did not know the pre-Islamic age of ignorance as they had known it.

For this reason, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb said:

“The bonds of Islam will be undone one by one when people who have never known the pre-Islamic age of ignorance grow up within Islam.”

Allah Most High has said:

“And those who do not invoke another god besides Allah, nor take a life Allah has made sacred except with just cause, nor commit unlawful sexual intercourse. Whoever does these things will incur a penalty.

The punishment will be doubled for him on the Day of Resurrection, and he will remain in it in humiliation,

except those who repent, believe, and do righteous deeds. For them Allah will replace their evil deeds with good deeds. And Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.”

It is authentically reported in the Sahih from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Allah will call His servant to account on the Day of Resurrection. He will show him his minor sins and conceal his major sins from him, saying, ‘On such-and-such a day, did you do such-and-such?’ He will reply, ‘Yes, my Lord,’ while he is apprehensive