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Tawbah, which is translated as repentance in English, actually means return. When we do tawbah, we return to Allah, seek refuge in Him, and ask Him to regard us. Maybe we have sinned and beg Him to forgive us, or perhaps we are lost and need His help. In any case, tawbah is an act that no Muslim should ever abandon. If abandoned, whether the person is sinful or thinks they are not, they won’t find salvation. In this article on Islam4u, we will look into the concept of tawbah and its relationship with Ramadan 2025.
The Importance of Tawbah in Ramadan 2025
We usually think that we are the ones who should do tawbah, return to Allah, and repent. However, as we read in the verses of the Quran, Allah does tawbah and returns to His servants as well.
وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَيُرِيدُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَوَاتِ أَن تَمِيلُوا مَيْلًا عَظِيمًا ﴿٢٧﴾
And Allah wishes to turn to you in mercy, but those who follow their desires want you to deviate into a great deviation.
In fact, Allah’s tawbah is the sign of His compassion and forgivingness. Allah does tawbah to those servants of His who are righteous, always remember Him, and are wary of Him.
ثُمَّ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ مِن بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَىٰ مَن يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ﴿٢٧﴾
Then Allah shall turn clemently after that to whomever He wishes. Indeed, Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
For our sins to be forgiven and our needs to be fulfilled, we must repent and return to Allah by reforming ourselves and never committing the wrongs we had committed ever again. That is when Allah will return to us and accept our repentance. We should not delay our repentance. The more quickly we realize our faults and repent of them, the more quickly they will be forgiven:
إِنَّمَا التَّوْبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ يَتُوبُونَ مِن قَرِيبٍ فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا ﴿١٧﴾
[Acceptance of] repentance by Allah is only for those who commit evil out of ignorance and then repent promptly. It is such whose repentance Allah will accept, and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
We should incorporate tawbah into our daily schedule during Ramadan 2025 so that our spirituality increases and we can communicate with Allah more effectively during Ramadan.
Those Whose Tawbah Is Not Accepted Even in Ramadan
The door to Allah’s compassion and mercy is always open. However, Allah does not accept the repentance of a person who spends their entire life in sin, delaying repentance until their final moments:
وَلَيْسَتِ التَّوْبَةُ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السَّيِّئَاتِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَهُمُ الْمَوْتُ قَالَ إِنِّي تُبْتُ الْآنَ وَلَا الَّذِينَ يَمُوتُونَ وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا ﴿١٨﴾
But [acceptance of] repentance is not for those who go on committing misdeeds: when death approaches any of them, he says, ‘I repent now.’ Nor is it for those who die while they are faithless. For such, We have prepared a painful punishment.
Of course, a person must be a Muslim for their repentance to be accepted. The same applies to having faith in Allah. If a person remains a disbeliever throughout their life, grudgingly unwilling to accept Islam but expresses their belief in Allah when they are about to die, their faith won’t be accepted. This is what Pharaoh did, and his faith did not avail him:
وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ وَجُنُودُهُ بَغْيًا وَعَدْوًا ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ قَالَ آمَنتُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ ﴿٩٠﴾ آلْآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ ﴿٩١﴾
We carried the Children of Israel across the sea whereat Pharaoh and his troops pursued them out of defiance and aggression. When overtaken by drowning, he called out, ‘I believe that there is no god except Him in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am one of those who submit [to Him]!’ (90) [He was told,] ‘What! Now? When you have been disobedient heretofore and were among the agents of corruption?! (91)
Of course, if a person realizes the truth of Islam in their final moments and has not grudgingly refused to profess their faith in Islam throughout their life, their faith and repentance will be accepted.
Allah also does not accept the tawbah of those who merely do lip service and never take action to mend their ways. Tawbah is both verbal and practical. If you tell Allah to forgive you and even shed tears but repeat the same sin over and again, it is as though you are mocking Allah. If tawbah is done properly in Ramadan, it will surely be accepted.
The Stages of Repentance
Tawbah has four stages:
- Regret: One must genuinely feel regretful before even expressing regret to Allah.
- Repentance: You must verbally confess to Allah that you have wronged yourself by committing a sin; you regret it and are now asking for His forgiveness. You must be sincere in your repentance, vowing never to repeat that sin.
- Giving up the sin(s): One of the most crucial stages of repentance is the practical stage: never committing the same sin again. If a person repeats a sin, they must go through the process of repentance from the very first stage. Nevertheless, they shouldn’t feel discouraged or disappointed because Allah gives them infinite chances to repent.
- Reformation: If you have wronged someone, you must compensate them for the wrong(s) you have done to them. For instance, if you have stolen money from someone, you must give it back to them. Likewise, if you have missed your prayers or fasts, you must make up for them. Those who have not wronged others don’t need to go through this stage.
These are the typical stages of repentance. Imam Ali (a) has stated that there is one more stage. If a person has consumed haram (prohibited) money to eat from and has put on weight from that money, to be forgiven, that person must shed the weight they had put on from that haram earning. Of course, this is a very advanced version of repentance to ensure no sign of sin remains. Otherwise, going through the four stages mentioned should be enough. Tawbah should be practiced during Ramadan because it is a time when we are more focused on our deeds and the sins we have committed previously.
During Ramadan, Should We Do Tawbah for Every Sin or One for All?
Those who sincerely wish to give up their sinful behavior and reform themselves can do so with just a single repentance that entails all of their past sins. This way, Allah will forgive all of their sins. Allah says in the Quran:
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ ﴿٥٣﴾
Say [that Allah declares,] ‘O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah will forgive all sins. Indeed, He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.
This verse makes two points. First, one should not despair of Allah’s mercy. Losing hope in Allah is not just wrong but a grave, unforgivable sin. This is one of the tactics of Satan to make you lose hope in Allah’s mercy and continue committing sins. He tells you, “You have sinned so much. Do you really think Allah is going to forgive you? You have nothing to lose. Keep on sinning as much as you want because Allah won’t forgive you anyway.”
There are two grave sins. One is shirk or ascribing partners to Allah’s divinity, and the second is losing hope in Allah’s mercy to forgive your sins no matter how many and how grave your sins may be.
Therefore, if you sincerely repent to Allah and return to Him, He will also return to you and forgive all your sins. However, if you have what we call haqq al-nas (the rights over people) on your shoulders, you must give those people their rights to the best of your ability. If you have any haqq al-Allah (the rights over Allah) on your shoulders, such as prayers or fasts, you must make up for them. The wrongs you have done to yourself, such as looking at haram scenes, lying, or listening to haram music, do not require compensation because these are known as haqq al-nafs (the rights over your soul), which do not require compensation other than seeking repentance and not committing those sins again. Ramadan should be when tawbah is prioritized and never overlooked. Fasting is significant as far as tawbah is concerned because it increases our willpower and taqwa, thus making repentance easy.
Ramadan 2025 and Repentance
Ramadan 2025 is the perfect opportunity and pretext to do tawbah. We Muslims are not allowed to confess our sins to anyone but Allah. Confessing them to anyone else is haram. Even when we invoke the Infallibles, we shouldn’t describe in detail how we have sinned. We are just told to ask them to intercede with Allah on our behalf and ask Him to forgive us. Confessing sins to Allah, however, is permissible. We must take advantage of Ramadan 2025 because it is a month in which Allah is closer to us, and we have a better chance of being forgiven. The reason seeking repentance is so important is that sins hinder our prayers. If we want our prayers answered, we must first remove the obstacles. If a person has many sins in his record of deeds and says a prayer, there is little chance that their prayer will be answered in the way they want. Therefore, one must first cleanse his soul of the sins they have committed and then supplicate and ask for their wishes.
Ramadan 2025 is an excellent occasion for both tawbah to Allah and asking for one’s needs. Of course, those who are pious and generally considered righteous shouldn’t think they don’t need to repent. Repentance and returning to Allah are what all the prophets, Imams, and friends of Allah have done throughout centuries. Just thinking that one is too good to seek repentance is a sin because it is an act of arrogance. Many things that are not considered sins for others may be regarded as sins for us due to our higher status before Allah. In other words, Allah expects more from us than from those lower than us in piety. Therefore, we must all seek repentance and pray to Allah to grant our wishes, whether we consider ourselves good or bad.
Conclusion
Tawbah is what every good or bad Muslim must do. Tawbah is something that Allah likes His servants to do. When the prophets, Imams, and friends of Allah who are infallible and haven’t committed a single sin or mistake in their lives do tawbah, why shouldn’t we who wallow in sin and are much lower in spiritual rank do so? Ramadan 2025 is an excellent opportunity to practice tawbah and make it a part of our daily lives. Some of the practices and duas of this month, such as Dua al-Jawshan al-Kabir, are a great way to make tawbah a daily ritual.
