"Why don't you return to Allah and ask Him to forgive you? Allah is very Forgiving and Merciful." (Surah Maidah: 74);
"Except those who repent, believe and do good deeds: (for) those Allah will exchange their sins for good deeds. Allah is extremely Forgiving and Merciful." (Surah Furqaan: 70)
"Do not despair of God's mercy; He will forgive you of all your sins". (39:53).
Repentance is the most noble and beloved form of obedience in the eyes of Allah the All Mighty. It has a status that no other form of worship has. This is why Allah is extremely happy when a servant repents just as a mother is happy when she finds her lost child.
Moreover, repentance brings about humbleness and a sense of helplessness to The Only Creator; Allah, which is not easily acquired through other forms of Ibadah.
Allah says in the Qur'an:
"Except those who repent, have faith and good deeds, those Allah will change their sins for good deeds. Certainly Allah is most forgiving and merciful." (Qur'an 25:70)
This is a greatest glad tiding for those who repent and combine their repentance with deep faith and good deeds.
It has been said that committing sins regularly will darken and harden the heart and make purifying it once again a difficult mission. It may even lead a person to reject Allah completely (Allah forbid) or lead him to commit a bigger sin. There is no rescue for a sinner except to ask Allah for forgiveness and to feel great regret for his actions.
Repentance is to repent from the heart, to train the heart into obedience and to make a firm resolution never to commit the sin again. Feeling Allah's satisfaction has a great impact on the heart of the repenter. Hence, the repenting person reaches the status of being amongst the beloved through his repentance.
Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullah) said:
“Sin may be more beneficial for a person, if it leads him to repent, than doing a lot of acts of worship. This is what is meant by the words of one of the salaf:
‘A person may commit a sin and enter Paradise because of it, or he may do an act of worship and enter Hell because of it.’
They said: ‘How is that?’
He said: ‘He may commit a sin and continues to think about it, and when he stands or sits or walks he remembers his sin, so he feels ashamed and repents and seeks forgiveness and regrets it, so that will be the means of his salvation.
And he may do a good deed and continue to think about it, and when he stands or sits or walks he remembers it and it fills him with self-admiration and pride, so it is the cause of his doom.
So the sin may be the factor that leads him to do acts of worship and good deeds and to change his attitude so that he fears Allah and feels shy before Him and feels humiliated before Him, hanging his head in shame and weeping with regret, seeking the forgiveness of his Lord. Each of these effects is better for a person than an act of worship that makes him feel proud and show off and look down on people.
Undoubtedly this sin is better before Allah and is more likely to bring salvation than one who admires himself and looks down on others, and who thinks that he is doing Allah a favour. Even if he says words that indicate something other than that, Allah is the Witness over what is in his heart. Such a person may feel hatred towards people if they do not hold him in high esteem and humiliate themselves before him. If he were to examine himself honestly, he would see that clearly.” (Madarij as-Salikeen, 1/299)
In our race to Jannah, Let's not delay the repentance for our sins, for verily our Beloved Prophet Sal Allahu Alayhi Wa Salam used to ask for forgiveness more than 70 times a day.
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