Time duration between Sin and repentance and how long should repentance go on

Question: What is the duration of making tawbah from a sin? Like if someone commits zina or something, for how long does he have to make tawbah?

 Answer:

Praise be to Allah.

There is no particular amount of time mentioned in Sharia regarding the maximum or minimum duration between sinning and then repenting for it. Instead, one must repent as soon as possible for the sin committed without delaying it even by a minute. We do not know when death would strike us and we shall have no time to even repent for the sins committed.

It was narrated from Abu Moosa ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Qays al-Ash’ari that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Allaah spreads out His hand at night to accept the repentance of the one who sinned during the day, and He spreads out His hand by day to accept the repentance of the one who sinned during the night, (and that will continue) until the sun rises from the west.” [Narrated by Muslim, 2759].

It was narrated from Abu ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Allaah will accept the repentance of His slave so long as the death-rattle has not yet reached his throat.” [Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 3537; classed as hasan by al-Albaani].

What is meant by repentance is returning to Allaah, giving up sin and hating it, and regretting falling short in obedience to Allaah. Al-Nawawi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

Even if the sin is between the person who committed it and Allah and does not include any other person’s rights, even then repentance is important.

There are three conditions of repentance:

1-      You should give up the sin

2-       You should regret having done it

3-      You should resolve never to go back to it.

If the sin committed has to do with the rights of other people, then an additional condition is:

4-      Restoring the rights of that person (example money, property, slandering, backbiting)

Repentance is not complete and sincere unless the above four conditions are satisfied. It is very important to repent for all sins committed, big or small.

Also, we must continue repenting till the last moment of our life to ensure that we are forgiven.

Allah knows best!

[Abu Isaam Imran Ali]