Repentance is a blessing that givesrelief to the heart

One of the most important characteristics that distinguishes
unbelievers from believers is that believers repent oftenas an act of
worship. As unbelievers consider themselves faultless and sinless,
they do not feel the need to repent. Believers, on the other hand, do
not want to commit any sins against Allah. However, by their nature,
people can sintemporarily by following their inner selves. They can be
laxin carrying out Allah's commands. But in the end they regret and
turn to Allah and ask for our Lord's forgiveness.
Allah created people as very weak beings. People indulge in negligence
due to ignorance or unawareness; they can be mistaken forgetting even
the subjects they know best, they can think ina wrong or mistaken way,
take the wrong decisions, or act in an unsound manner knowingly or
unknowingly. This is because people have a vicious enemy like satan
who is trying to drag them into rebellion and divert them from the
true path by giving them suggestions. The inner self also commands
evil all the time. People can earn the good pleasure of Allah to the
extent that they can protect themselves from thesetwo negative Powers.
His Highness Master Bediuzzaman says, "Inthese times of distortion and
misery where this world has many captivating attributes, our basic
action point must be to dismiss evil and abandon sins". However no
matter what happens, Allah always guides people to make up for their
mistakes; this guidance is repentance.
It Is a Great Blessing That Our Lord is All-Merciful,
All-Compassionate andKind and Protective toHis Servants
Allah always gives people the opportunity to ask forforgiveness and
repent for their mistakes and sins. A person who sincerely abandons
his mistakes and repents to Allah can hope that Allah will forgive
him. Allah reveals in many verses of the Qur'an that He is
"Forgiving", "Merciful", the "Protector" and "Compassionate". Allah's
names of "At-Tawwab" meaning "The One Who Accepts Repentance" and
"Al-Gaffar" meaning "All-Forgiving" and "Ar-Rahman"
meaning"All-Merciful" manifeston all those who regret and repent. In
one verse Allah heralds His servants by saying, " Tell My servants
that I am the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful." (Surat al-Hijr,
49).
It is impossible to claim that a person has not made any mistakes and
been faultless and perfect throughout his entire life, because people
are created as beings capable of making mistakes. Our Almighty Lord is
the One Who is All-Forgiving and All-Merciful. Therefore, believers
have to take notice of their mistakes, which they made knowingly or
unknowingly by falling into negligence or listening to their inner
selves. They have to regret their mistakes and direct themselves to
the right path and turn toour Lord as soon as possible and strive not
to make that mistake again. Of course a person has tobe careful not to
make mistakes and commit sins and protect the boundaries of our Lord;
but when he makes a mistake in spite of this, it is a great
characteristic ofa believer to ask forgiveness from Allah. Our Lord's
names "The One Who Accepts Repentance" (At-Tawwab), "All-Forgiving"
(Al-Gaffar), "All-Merciful" (Ar-Rahman) manifest on believers who
regret their mistakes, repent and turn to Allah.
Repenting Very Often Is an Important Believer Characteristic
Repenting frequently is a sign of the believer's humility and
awareness of his weakness in the face of Allah. It is a behavior that
pleasesAllah. In return for this act of worship, Allah gives relief
to, lifts the burdens on and opens the minds of those who repent
often.
With Repentance AllahWants People to LearnLessons and Notice Their Mistakes
One of the wisdoms ofrepentance is that thebeliever experiences real
regret and turns to Allah without wasting any time and strives not to
repeat that mistake. Therefore, he repents in a true and sincere
manner. He repents and keeps his word that he will remain onthe right
path until the end of his life. In the Qur'an, the point of view of
someone who sincerely repentsis described in the verse, " Allah only
accepts the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and then
quickly make repentance after doing it. Allah turns towards such
people. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise..." (Surat an-Nisa', 17) In
another verse, Allah reveals how a believer should behave, " Those
who, when they act indecently or wrong themselves, remember Allah and
ask forgiveness for their bad actions (andwho can forgive bad actions
except Allah?) and do not knowinglypersist in what they were doing."
(Surah Al 'Imran Suresi, 135).
Submitting to Allah right after making mistakes and not delaying
repentance is an important point. This is because as Master
Bediuzzaman describes, "(If mistakes) are not erased with repentance,
they turn into a poisonous snake that bites the heart. Once the heart
is stained it becomes open to further stains.So man falls into a
(corrupt) circle. Every sin brings a new one; not only this but also
it destroys the feelings of repentance and regret (jealousy). In the
end the secret behind the verse "Their hearts have rusted" (Surat
al-Mutaffifin, 14) becomes visible."
Of course, even if a person who experiences true regret carefully
strivesnot to repeat that mistake or sin, he can still fall into the
same mistake. This situationshould not lead to thisperson losing his
self-confidence. For every person there is an opportunity to repent
and sincerely submit to Allah until death.
However a person should not be mistaken for the time he has been
given. He should not behave in a ways to abuse Allah's mercy,
forgivingness, grace. He should use the time Allah grants him and find
guidance by repentance and asking for forgivenesswhile there is still
time. This is because faith and repentance at the moment of death may
not be accepted in the sight of Allah. Therefore he needs to behave
like he will die any moment and strive to edify.
It should not be forgotten that a person can make small or big
mistakes throughout his life, but as long as he repents and submits to
Allah Who forgives and accepts repentance and turns evil into good
with a sincere heart, he can hope that his mistakeswill be forgiven.
Allah always answers for repentance. Allah forgives his mistakes and
turns them into good and rewards his good deeds with the best.
Every Mistake Is Created for a Reason
Allah's merciful name is one of the greatest blessings and
conveniences our Lord bestowed on people. It is an ill conjecture that
people fall into hopelessness and think that they will never recover
from their mistakes. A person who ignores Allah's mercy, compassion,
forgivingness torments himself and acts in a way not in line with the
morality of the Qur'an. Mistakes increase the degrees of believers,
who immediately abandons their mistakes and compensates for theseby
displaying the right attitude in line with the Qur'an, in the
hereafter; make them more mature and help His servants better
understand their weaknesses and helplessness. The important thing is
to regret and repent without insisting on one's sins. In the verses,
our Lord reveals that He will forgive those who do good deeds, pay
alms and live the moral values of the Qur'an and take them under His
grace:
"But I am Ever-Forgiving to anyone who makes tawba and has faith and
acts rightly and then is guided." (Surah Ta Ha, 82)
One of the reasons that distract people from the morality of religion
is to see themselves as people "who are compulsive and will never get
better" as a result of guilt due to their sins. Satan constantly
provokes these people who forget the Ar-rahman and Ar-Rahim names of
Allah and that Allah is the One Who accepts repentance and has
infinite mercy and suggests them the idea "you are already a sinner,
it is impossible for you to recover, accept it as it is." Then satan
pulls them into a greater mire with deceptions like "you have sinned
once, it is okay to do it again". He uses the feeling of embarrassment
a person feels in the face of Allah because of his sin and abuses this
feeling to draw that person away from Allah completely.But this
practice is weak like satan's every trick, because when a person sins
it does not mean that this person will not find the right path from
now on. Allah reveals in the Qur'an that He will forgive allwho
sincerely repentsfor their sins, ask for forgiveness and strivenot to
commit that sinagain as such: "But if anyone makes tawba after his
wrongdoing and puts things right, Allah will turn towards him. Allah
is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Surat al-Ma'ida, 39)