Encouraging Repeat Offenders to Repent

Some people give up on repentance – in frustration. They commit a sin and repent for it so many times that they feel their repentance is not worth anything. How can they be truly penitent when they return to their sinful ways over and over and over again?

Such people are hard to convince to repent again, and often harder to convince that they should try to kick their sinful habits.

It is true, that for repentance to be valid, there has to be a sincere commitment on the part of the sinner to never return to the sin again. Indeed, the most essential conditions of repentance are as follows:

1. To refrain from the sinful deed. A person cannot seriously ask forgiveness or claim that he or she has repented for committing a sin while at that very moment actually engaging in it.

2. To feel regret for having perpetrated the sin.

3. To have a firm resolve in the heart never to commit the sin again.

This third condition is the one we are focusing on here. How can a penitent sinner maintain this firm resolves after a history of returning to the sin after repentance over and over again? Losing heart can lead repeat sinners to give up and resign themselves to a life of sin.

The first thing to emphasize is that the person’s previous acts of repentance do not become becomes invalid if that person falls weak and succumbs to the sin again. The person does not become "unforgiven", so to speak, by committing the sin again. Once Allah forgives a past sinful deed, that past sin is struck from the record.

Nevertheless, the person needs to remain vigilant to avoid falling into the sin again. Each time the person falls victim to the sin, he or she must feel true regret and have a serious resolve not to return to it again.

This is the critically frustrating and challenging aspect of repentance, and one where people lose resolve. Regret for the sin is essential. Repentance is, after all, to regret what you have done. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "To feel regret is to be repentant." [Musnad Ahmad (3568, 4012), Sunan Ibn Mājah (176), and Sahīh Ibn Hibbān (612)]

Therefore, the most important thing we need to emphasize is that a sinner who feels true regret – no matter how many times that person might fall weak and return to the sin – is not the same as a flagrant sinner. There is a tremendous difference between someone who commits a sin and afterwards feels sorrow, shame, and true regret for having done so, and someone else who commits the sin with an easy conscience as if it was no big deal.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "If your sins make you grieve and your good deeds make you happy, then you are a believer." [Musnad Ahmad (5/251) and Sahīh Ibn Hibbān (176)]

This distinction needs to be emphasized. The value of true regret is what distinguishes a God-fearing believer from a wanton sinner. When a person struggling to overcome a sinful habit fails to appreciate the importance this distinction, it can lead that person to despair.

Another point to emphasize is that sincere repentance not only removes the sin, but it is in itself an act of worship that is worthy of Allah’s blessings. Consequently, a person who is sincerely and genuinely struggling to overcome a sin can take courage in the fact that his or her persistence in repentance actually brings Allah’s reward.

As long as a Muslim truly turns to his Lord in fear and hope, that Muslim is engaged in worship and is affirming his or her faith. Allah not only forgives the sins, but replaces those sins for good deeds to the credit of the penitent person. This is from Allah's infinite grace and munificence.

Allah says: "Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [Sūrah al-Furqān: 70]

Allah forgives our sins, no matter how great those sins might be, as long as we are sincere in our repentance. No sin is too great for His pardon, and no fault too shameful for Him to erase.

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Encouraging Repeat Offenders to Repent encouraging offenders repeat repent

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