the night. If he sins and repents during the day, Allah—Exalted be He—accepts his repentance; indeed, He stretches out His hand so as to receive the repentance that issues from His believing servant.

This ḥadīth, then, proves that Allah—glorified and exalted—is pleased with repentance. In the previous narration, the story of the man who lost his mount and then found it, we saw that Allah rejoices at His believing servant’s repentance even more intensely than that man rejoiced over his camel.

Among the benefits derived from the ḥadīth of Abū Mūsā is the affirmation that Allah possesses a hand—and, in fact, two hands, majestic and sublime—as He says: “The Jews said, ‘Allah’s hand is chained.’ May their hands be chained, and may they be cursed for what they say. Rather, both His hands are outstretched” (al-Māʾidah 5:64). These hands—indeed, the two hands—that Allah has affirmed for Himself we must likewise affirm for Him; they are truly His.

Yet it is impermissible for us to imagine that His hands resemble ours, for Allah says: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (al-Shūrā 42:11). The same principle applies to every divine attribute you encounter: affirm it for Allah—magnified and exalted—without likening it to the attributes of created beings, for nothing is comparable to Him, neither in His Essence nor in His attributes.

The ḥadīth also shows that Allah accepts a servant’s repentance even if it is delayed. Nevertheless, hastening to repent is obligatory, for death may strike without warning and a person might die before repenting. One must therefore hurry to repent; still, should he delay, Allah will accept his repentance.

Finally, the ḥadīth indicates that when the sun rises from the west, the time for repentance will have ended. Someone might ask, “Will the sun really rise from the west? Everyone knows it rises from the east!”