Precious Fruits
The Reality of Repentance
The reality of (repentance) is returning to God by adhering to doing what He loves and abandoning what He dislikes. It is a return from the disliked to the beloved. Returning to the beloved is part of its meaning, and turning away from the disliked is the other part. This is why He, glory be to Him, linked absolute success to doing what is commanded and abandoning what is forbidden by it, saying: {And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.} So every repentant is successful, and no one is successful except one who does what he is commanded to do and abandons what he is forbidden from doing. And He said, may He be exalted: {And whoever does not repent - then it is those who are the wrongdoers.} And the one who abandons what is commanded is a wrongdoer, just as the one who does what is forbidden is a wrongdoer, and the removal of the name (wrongdoing) from him only occurs with a repentance that encompasses both matters. So people are of two types: repentant and wrongdoer, nothing else. So the repentant are {the worshippers, the praisers, the travelers, those who bow, those who prostrate, those who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and those who observe the limits of Allah}. So preserving the limits of God: is part of repentance, and repentance is the sum of these things. He is only called a repentant: for his return to the command of God from His prohibition, and to His obedience from his disobedience.
Madarij al-Salikin, Part Three
O Allah, send blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon all his family and companions.
Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.
