“O my dear father! O my dear father!” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, wept until tears streamed from his eyes. A man who was sitting with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “You have saddened the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” He said to him:
“Be silent, for he is asking about what troubles him.”
He then said to him, “Repeat your account to me.” So he repeated it, and he wept until tears flowed from his eyes onto his beard. Then he said to him:
“Allah has pardoned what they did in the Age of Ignorance, so begin your deeds anew.”
It is corroborated by the forthcoming hadith of Ibn Masʿūd: *******
- “Whoever does good in Islam will not be held accountable for what he did in the Age of Ignorance; but whoever does evil in Islam will be held accountable for both the former and the latter.”
It was narrated by al-Bukhārī (6921), Muslim (1/77–78), Abū ʿAwānah (1/71), al-Dārimī (1/3), Ibn Mājah (4242), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Mushkil al-Āthār (1/211), al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (9/123) and al-Shuʿab (1/57/23), ʿAbd al-Razzāq in al-Muṣannaf (10/454/19686), and Aḥmad (1/409 and 431), through Manṣūr and al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:
A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, will we be held accountable for what we did in the Age of Ignorance?” He said: … and he mentioned it. *******
- “Yes. You will do good deeds and abandon evil deeds, and Allah will turn all of them into good deeds for you.”
It was narrated by al-Bazzār in his Musnad (4/79–80/3244, Kashf al-Astār), Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Āḥād wa al-Mathānī (5/188–189/2718), and, through him, Ibn al-Athīr in