Double Your Towbah – Repent from Delaying Your Repentance!

The great scholar of Islam, Ibn Qayyim al-Jowziyyah [d.752] (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

“…And we shall mention some things related to repentance (towbah) that are very necessary (to grasp), and it is not befitting that someone be ignorant of them. 

From them: Immediate repentance is obligatory after committing a sin.  It is not permissible to delay it.  Whenever someone delays it, he has committed (another) sin by delaying it.  In this case, when he repents from the sin (itself), another act of repentance remains a duty upon him – that he must repent for delaying his repentance!  This is something that rarely comes to mind when someone repents.  Instead, he may assume that since he has repented from the sin, that there is nothing else left to do, while there remains upon him the duty to repent from delaying his repentance…”

Source: Madaarij as-Saalikeen (1/487-488), Daar Taybah’s 2nd printing, 1425, translated by Moosaa Richardson.

ST Archives: 04-03-2011

3 thoughts on “Double Your Towbah – Repent from Delaying Your Repentance!

  1. What about repenting for not repenting in time for not repenting? It is sort of perpetual. Where do we stop? Because as humans we delay naturally sometimes so when do we stop? I unfortunately committed kufr and have repented and never intend to do so but I did it ignorantly as I was young and didn’t have much knowledge.

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